Natural sea water

palmcity

palmcity

New member
Good morning to all,
I am new on this forum so excuse me for any BOO BOO's...I was suggested by another forum to try Reef Central, he said a guy name Paul B would know how to answer my question because he has been doing it for a long time. I just moved back to Fort Lauderdale from Port St Lucie and noticed here they sell NSW. I usually buy it mixed or I mix it myself but always been curious to use NSW. I was told or heard that you do not want to use NSW because of the bacteria. My question is, can I use ocean water and does anyone in this area know of a location which I can pull it from? Do I have to do anything special to the water? I would think using NSW would be beneficial for my saltwater buddies? Right now I have 2-20 gallon & 1-5 gallon tank, I do 2 gallon water change on the 20's and a 1 gallon on the 5 every week, would I be able to store the water instead of lugging jugs to the beach once a week or will that kill off anything that is good in the water? Thank you for your help and if you can think of anything else I need to know please jot it down. I want to use NSW but have that fear within me because I do not want anything to happen to my tanks.
 
The NSW you see around here basically comes from the inlets. Hillsboro Inlet mainly, from what I can tell. I guess the Port Everglades inlet could be used too, but that gets into some questions of pollution, since it is a major cruise and shipping port. Basically any inlet with a marina or road nearby works. The Hillsboro inlet has a road that goes under the bridge and a marina right next to the bridge. Collect at peak tide and you effectively get the cleanest water you can from the inlet (which is not the same thing as saying the cleanest water possible, but that is a ongoing debate with NSW).


If you want more on Paul B... http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2172887. Is a rather fun and amusing thread. Lots of good stories. You'll find his views on things don't always fit with what many around here believe so you'll have to make up your own mind on that one. There tends to be two opposing schools of thoughts with reefs. There are those who like to play it safe and be as cautious as possible (judging by your last sentence, you may lean in this direction) and try to do everything by the book with minimal risks. Then there are those that figure "what's the worst that can happen?" [which should never be spoken out loud, for risk of the universe taking it as a challenge rather then a query] and experiment a bit and find their own way to do things. Paul B definitely falls into the second group.
 
Thank you for your feed back. I did a little reading around on the forum about NSW and I'm thinking of more heading to my LFS, he sells NSW 60 cents a gallon which I think would be cheaper, easier route.
 
I would SERIOUSLY consider investing in a small RODI unit. They are very affordable for the small amout of water you are going to be making for those tanks.

If you are going to be doing corals, I just can't say enough how important it is to control the disolved organics you put into your tank, ESPECIALLY in such a small volume that you plan.

Yes, there are some that have had success with tap water and Natual Sea Water, but there are no assurances that one day something doesn't go very wrong from bad tap water or NSW. It does make a big difference where it is collected but the only time you will have control of TDS is with RODI. I spent years not having success with corals until I switched to RODI water. Practically over night, I experienced a big change and instead of stuff just hanging on, life thrived in my care.
 
I do have a RO/DI unit and no I have not used it yet...BOO! on me, but I have not had the opportunity to use it yet. Right now the only reason I have 20 gallon tanks because of my living arrangements won't allow me to set up my 55 gallon(too small of a room) so hoping some where in the near future I will be using my RO/DI unit let alone my 55 gallon. I buy RO water from my LFS. I have used tap water but that is when I first started my saltwater hobby 3 years back and heard it was a no no. I do have corals in my tanks (shrooms, kenya, anemone, and polyps). Pretty much I was asking because I figured it would be a bit cheaper to run to the beach, grab water, and visit for a bit but the locations I have to go to get ocean water will cost me in gas so I might as well go to LFS since he is right down the street plus I will be supporting a local business.
 
NO!

You don't want to use NSW collected from the beach. The NSW most people are referring to is collected in open water.

Why buy RO water from the LFS if you have a system?
 
NO? Open water? You mean they don't get it from an inlet? I don't get it? Pretty much I go from making my own saltwater or buy it. When I moved back to Fort Lauderdale I notice more LFS use NSW water than them making it themselves. The reason I do not use my RO/DI unit is because I rent a room and I just don't feel comfortable hooking it up since it also waste water too. I know I'm bizarre.
 
In theory the best place to collect sea water is off shore. But when you measure the cost of such a thing it isn't really worth it. Even at larger scales, because as the scale goes up the cost goes up also.

In practice, the NSW collection is basically done by pickup trucks with a large water tank in the back. They drop a hose in the water at high tide and pump the water into the tank. The single individual version of that is dropping a bucket or two in, slapping on a lid and putting them into the back of a vehicle.


Beach water is a bit more of a debate. Beaches are sort of nature's protein skimmer, so people assume the water there is dirty. In reality it is probably fine, but you'd probably be best off wading out a little bit into the water rather then collecting right at the edge. You may need to pour the water through a strainer coming from the beach, since there may be more debris. But otherwise you are effectively using the dilution of the ocean.



Truth be told, even the canals are okay. They aren't nearly as clean, but I'd say 25% of the water in my little frag/experimental tank is from the intracoastal and it hasn't spawned mass-death yet. But the risk of pollution is much higher there, so if you are in the least bit paranoid about your water that is the one area I'd definitely avoid.
 
I have an sps tank and I have never used nore has anyone I personally know use anything BUT NSW from hillsboro inlet and my tank does great all kinds of acros and monti and other sps growing beautiful with great color that's my personal experience with NSW
 
Best time to go is like 1 hour or 1 and 1/2 hours before high tide so the water is still rushing in the inlet not at slack tide when the water is at a stand still
 
i have full access to pristine NSW, still choose to mix my own ASW. NSW can be very unpredictable and inconsistent.

do you pay a waterbill where you live? if not, why not waste the water to make RO? 20 gallon tank isnt too much of a burden. you could installa faucet for everyone to use in the household, make a separate line for you to make DI water.

GL

C
 
I use ro/di for top off but NSW is free and I have never had more heard off anyone that has had problems that they prooved was from using NSW but this again is just my personal experience
 
Where does the wild life in our tanks come from? NSW is the best choice as long as it collected from a clean and unpollutrd area. I use NSW all the time and never had a problem from using it. I do collect the water offshore of the outer reefs along the upper Florida Keys and if I lived in the S. Pacific with pristine water I would definitely use it instead of a salt mix and RO/DI water.
 
Not too many "critters" in the water free floating. I have never seen any critters what so ever in water I have gotten from the ocean. Now obviously I'm not saying there aren't any critters in the ocean but most unwanted critters live in other places besides free floating in the water.
 
coralsnaked said:
There are all kinds of critters I dont want in my tanks that live in the oceans.
Click to expand...

The main concern is isopods. And even that one is extremely small and questionable (since odds are you'd only introduce one, IF you ever hit those odds). But if a person is worried about them there are plenty of methods to screen them out before putting the water in the tank.

Otherwise, there are plenty of critters that are perfectly healthy for the tank that live in the oceans.


The risk of adding LR or even coral frags and introducing unwanted critters is DRASTICALLY higher.
 
That is true because critters that would eat certain corals need them to survive and are usually found on the corals them selves and same with fish, the pest needs a host. And live rock right out of the ocean of course could potentially host a variety of critters like was said most would probably be benefitial but some may not be. But most all these pests are not free floating in the water colum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

FishMann
Coral Skeletons
Replies
4
Views
110
wvned
wvned
oceangopher
Tankpocalypse Now
Replies
2
Views
173
Reefing102
Reefing102
L
Phophates over .40
Replies
7
Views
221
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
S
High Phosphate leaching from rock - persist or replace?
Replies
3
Views
1K
Tony Romano
T
C
Hydros awc experts
Replies
15
Views
153
wvned
wvned
Back
Top