steinhart aquarium water

[corals b 4 bills]

When my baby boy was born a year and a half ago I've been buying salt water from my LFS, they got the water from somewhere in the monterey bay, not sure if it was "the ocean" or from the montery bay aquarium, so my LFS moved 40 miles away from me and I started to buy water from another LFS that makes their own water. Since I started using baged salt again my tank has not been looking and acting like it did before, I want to use the same water as before but I'm not driving 40 miles every month. the Steinhart aquarium is just a few miles from me now is it safe to use their waste or discarded water?

 

[funman1]

Sounds too scarry to me, never know what might be in their waste water.

 

[Kinetic]

yeah... i wouldn't do that either. as I recall, they use Instant Ocean anyway, so you should instead try to figure out what is wrong with your tank before pinning it on your water. Or your batch of salt is bad. Definitely don't go for waste water? That just sounds counter intuitive.

Too bad we dont' live in Santa Barbara. Back when I was a student there, they had free Natural Saltwater, (they still do), and it was the best water ever. Everyone's tanks in SB were so nice. THey didn't do any RODI but they used an amazing sand bed filtration system, so you still get all the goodies in NSW without any pollution. Perfect!

Checkout the socal forums for the UCSB NSW thread.

 

[corals b 4 bills]

Do you know where I can get sea water around here? I know of a couple of LFS that sell steinharts water but I would like to have the real deal again, from the day I switched from sea water to LFS bag water my three toadstools closed up, it's been over three weeks, my or maynot have anything to do with it but they all have shed before and came back better then before. plus I can't keep all my perams stable for some reason, coincidence? maybe.

 

[Kinetic]

going to any different brand salt or nsw etc. will be a big shocker! especially if they have a lot of params that are not the same. I would ease into a new batch of salt instead of diving right into it.

Who sell steinhart water? That's so weird, Steinhart uses INSTANT OCEAN. As said before, all they'd be selling to you would be instant ocean mixed with fresh water... which would be the same as if you were using INSTANT OCEAN as your bag salt.

I don't think the blame is on "bad salt" or something like that, or NSW is better than bag salt, it's because you switched too quickly.

WHen you say "plus I can't keep all my perams stable for some reason", what is that reason? Can you point your finger endlessly to a source of the problem that *may* not be the actual problem?

I am concerned that perhaps the sudden change in water may cause your tank to be a little shocked, plus a few animals dying here and there, adding to the shock.

Just keep with your current water and stop changing it around. Double check how you're handling your tank.

goodluck.

 

[corals b 4 bills]

Thank you for your responce, but I'm not changing it around aquarium concepts moved to dublin so I'm stuck between spending some time making a quick change water change system (1 yr. old baby & remodeling my home plus no spare time), or buying water until life slows down abit. so for a month or more my Ph won't get over 8.0 my alk is 3.2 calcium is 325-350, pos 0 and nitrates near 0 and mag is 900. The only thing that has changed is the water, before this everything rocked.

 

[650-IS350]

From when I was visiting FishFish&MoreFish in SF, the owner mentioned that the use NSW... you can call em and check if I was wrong.. but I remember a couple of months ago when I first visited that place... they were cool to me and my wife...parking sucks *** though

 

[Kinetic]

hmm, what salt brand do you use? I think there's a big salt brand comparison, you might find some details about each type of salt there and find that the one you're using may be on the low side for your tank.

I know that New Alameda Aquatics, All About Fish, and Concord Aquarium at least have NSW. AAF uses harbor bay water, the others use catalina from what I've heard last.

Goodluck!

 

[Mr. Ugly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9931804#post9931804 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by corals b 4 bills
so for a month or more my Ph won't get over 8.0 my alk is 3.2 calcium is 325-350, pos 0 and nitrates near 0 and mag is 900. The only thing that has changed is the water, before this everything rocked.

If you have a lot of stonies, you'll need to run a reactor or dose 2-part.

Water changes may not be able to keep up with alk, Ca, and Mg demands.

I just checked out a 400 gallon system that had a similar problem. The reactor was offline, and the Alk was down to 1.9, Mg was 1150, and pH was 8.1. The lps were showing the worst effects.

Steinhart uses IO, and they supplement magnesium and calcium, in addition to running huge reactors.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Here a pic of Apon sitting on a Steinhart sized bag of IO

And the calcium reactors

Don't have a pic of their Mg supplements.

 

[smellyfish]

Hey Corals B 4 Bills, what city do you live in? I know Ultimate Aquarium in San Mateo and Down Under Tropicals in San Carlos sell natural Sea Water. These places should be closer to you than Dublin, I hope.

 

[seminolecpa]

Speaking as a water buyer (for now) here is where I get my or have gotten water:

Ocean Treasures sells NSW and premix Oceanic I think on Dubose buy the 101 off ramp Think $1.25 per gallon NSW and $1 pre mix

Ultimate Aquarium in San Mateo on El Camino near 92 sells NSW $1 per gallon

New Alameda sells NSW on Webster in Alameda was about $1 or so per gallon

There are lots of places down south that sell water too all are about $1 or so per gallon.

It would help if you would be more specific where you are instead of just San Francisco Bay Area

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well he did say "Steinhart Aquarium is a few miles from me..." Being as that is smack dab in the middle of SF I'd say he's probably in SF

That being said I don't know if you can get Steinhart's "used" water, even if you could I wouldn't want that since that's stuff with a maximum amount of "bad stuff" (nitrates, etc) and a minimal amount of "good stuff" (Calcium, Alkalinity, magnesium).. besides as mentioned it's instant ocean mix.

Now when Steinhart's new place when they get the academy of sciences open in GG park in 2008(ish) has plans to have a pipeline all the way to the ocean, now whether that'll be up when the open or sometime later who knows. Also being as it'll come straight from Ocean beach, there's a waste water treatment plant right there (and guess where the "cleaned" water gets dumped) they will do some filtration, now whether that'll be right at the beach or on site in the facilities (i'd guess the later, if anything for maintenance easy) who knows if they'd sell/give to the public... it is san francisco, and they don't give you jack in the city...

 

[corals b 4 bills]

Thank's for your help guy's I figured that there would be some phos/nitrate problems but I thought that they used ocean water, yea I'm not going to use that crap I just like the results I got from real ocean water. I live in belmont top of the hill 92/280 if anyone knows where to get the good stuff please let me know, BTW how do I join BAR? I tried to email the club one time to ask where they meet and nobody got back to me.

 

[corals b 4 bills]

Dude! I guess I didn't read the last post! I live top of 92 that would be real close to me, sweet! Thank's all!

 

[Mr. Ugly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9933876#post9933876 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by corals b 4 bills
I tried to email the club one time to ask where they meet and nobody got back to me.

Here's the url for new member signup:

http://www.bareefers.org/public/memberupdate.aspx?newmember=True

You can register for the forum on the BAR website too, but you won't be able to post there until your membership is processed.

You can pm dswong01 here for assistance. He's our membership coordinator.

Thanks for the interest!

 

[corals b 4 bills]

Thank's I need a support group in the area.

 

[Kinetic]

hope the new water works out for ya =)

 

[corals b 4 bills]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9934291#post9934291 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kinetic
hope the new water works out for ya =)

which city do you live in?

 

[juaninsac]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9933582#post9933582 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sfsuphysics
Well he did say "Steinhart Aquarium is a few miles from me..." Being as that is smack dab in the middle of SF I'd say he's probably in SF

That being said I don't know if you can get Steinhart's "used" water, even if you could I wouldn't want that since that's stuff with a maximum amount of "bad stuff" (nitrates, etc) and a minimal amount of "good stuff" (Calcium, Alkalinity, magnesium).. besides as mentioned it's instant ocean mix.

Now when Steinhart's new place when they get the academy of sciences open in GG park in 2008(ish) has plans to have a pipeline all the way to the ocean, now whether that'll be up when the open or sometime later who knows. Also being as it'll come straight from Ocean beach, there's a waste water treatment plant right there (and guess where the "cleaned" water gets dumped) they will do some filtration, now whether that'll be right at the beach or on site in the facilities (i'd guess the later, if anything for maintenance easy) who knows if they'd sell/give to the public... it is san francisco, and they don't give you jack in the city...

Hey Mike.

You're right that the waste water at Howard Street is not available, and you sure wouldn't want to use it even if it was! It goes straight to the sewer as far as I understand.

I've heard that the Steinhart used to sell NSW to folks in the Bay Area for dirt cheap, but discontinued this after they realized people were turning around and selling it for a profit.

As far as I understand the new system will be providing NSW on an "as needed" basis to save energy, so there won't be any extra to give away.