North Atlantic Sea Water

[SeanRB]

I am starting a new 125G reef tank after 25 years out of the hobby. My question is can I use sea water water off the coast of Maine? I do have an RO/DI unit, and was planning to mix my own salt, but was wondering what you all thought about using natural sea water from the North Atlantic.
I plan to stock with standard reef friendly fish, invertebrates, softies, LPS & SPS. I have 150lbs of Live Rock. ( 75 lbs dry, 35lbs Pacific live rock, and 40 lbs of LFS rock) 40G sump with refug and 160lbs of Carib Sea Arag-Alive Figi Pink sand.

[HighlandReefer]

June 28, 2013

Maine beach water ranked among worst


A report released ahead of the July 4 tourist rush puts Maine low on the list of 30 coastal states.

By North Cairn ncairn@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

Maine has sunk to 27th on the list of 30 coastal states that are rated by the Natural Resources Defense Council for the water quality of their beaches.

click image to enlarge

People enjoy East End Beach in Portland on Thursday, June 27, 2013 as a Casco Bay Ferry passes in the background. Maine has sunk to 27th on the list of 30 coastal states that are rated by the Natural Resources Defense Council for the water quality of their beaches.

Gordon Chibroski / Staff Photographer

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TO READ the report and see a list of Maine beaches whose water quality failed to meet state health standards, click here. Scroll down the page to see the complete list.

FOR UPDATED DATA

Call your town office or the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and check on the particular beach you wish to use.

This year's beach-water safety report by the environmental advocacy group was released Thursday, within days of the July 4 summer tourism rush.

It puts Maine near the bottom of the 30 coastal states -- including those bordering the Great Lakes -- said Emily Figdor, director of Environment Maine, a nonprofit group that publicized the test results Thursday at Portland's East End Beach.

Maine was 20th in the 2012 report, based on monitoring over the previous summer for factors such as bacterial levels, water clarity and pH levels.

The beaches with the most water samples exceeding the state's daily maximum bacterial standard were Goodies and Laite beaches in Knox County, Short Sands Beach in York, Ferry Beach in Scarborough and Crescent Beach in Kittery.

Among the counties, Knox had the highest rate of water samples exceeding the health standard, at 30 percent, followed by Waldo at 17 percent, Lincoln at 13 percent, Hancock at 12 percent, York at 10 percent, Cumberland at 9 percent and Sagadahoc at 3 percent.

The 23rd annual Testing the Waters report says 11 percent of water samples from 71 Maine beaches last summer failed health standards by exceeding the state's maximum bacterial standard of 104 colonies per 100 milliliters. "Maine ranked among the worst," Figdor said.

"Our beaches are clean," countered Jessamine Logan, director of communications for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The state checks and monitors any beach considered to be of concern on a weekly basis, she said. "Maine is proud that more than 95 percent of our beaches are clean."

The DEP issued a news release Tuesday saying that, during the 2012 beach season, "95.1 percent of total beach days were free of beach advisories or closures."

"Mainers and visitors heading to the state's coastal beaches to beat the summer heat will find them clean, open, and safe for swimming," the release said.

The state and the Natural Resources Defense Council worked from the same set of statistics, Logan said, and a low ranking does not indicate the beach water was a problem.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the DEP agreed that the water quality in 2012 was attributable in part to heavy rainfall, including an early-summer deluge that caused millions of dollars in damage in central Maine. Rainstorms send runoff of sewage, pesticides, fertilizers, oil from streets and other pollutants into coastal waters.

Even taking that into account, Figdor said, this year's report shows no improvement in beach water quality over 2011.

But Logan said the state took measures last year to prevent pollution at its beaches, particularly when heavy rain was forecast, and she said it is safe to go to the beach and let children swim.

If people have questions about the cleanliness of the beach water in which they want to swim, she said, they can call their town office or the DEP. "We will help them find the answers they need," she said.

Figdor, who said she brings her family to Willard Beach in South Portland or Crescent Beach in Cape Elizabeth, said people who want truly clean water can be more assured of finding it by taking a boat a few miles offshore and swimming there.

Beach water pollution causes a range of waterborne illnesses, including stomach flu, skin rashes, ear and eye infections, hepatitis and neurological disorders.

A total of 194 beach closings or advisory days alerting swimmers to unhealthy conditions were declared in Maine last year, an increase of 73 percent from 112 days in 2011. More than 90 percent of the closing and advisory days were caused by elevated bacterial levels, the report says.

Beach closings are relatively rare, and occur only when high bacterial levels have been shown to be chronic or are known threats to public safety or health.

Environment Maine and the Natural Resources Defense Council renewed their calls for state and federal officials to take further action to strengthen water-quality monitoring standards and ensure financial support for state programs. President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget recommends eliminating funding for a federal grant program that Maine and many other states depend on for their monitoring programs.

Figdor also said that monitoring in Maine should be more widespread, consistent and frequent because the current program makes it too difficult for residents and visitors to get the information they need to make informed decisions about which beaches to visit.

The groups also said the addition of green infrastructure -- including rain barrels, rain gardens and porous driveways and parking surfaces -- could make a substantial difference, because they reduce street runoff.

More than 30 miles of public-access beaches stretch along Maine's coast, including bays, sounds, and estuaries.

The state's coastal beach-water quality monitoring program, Maine Healthy Beaches, is staffed by volunteer testers. It is managed by the DEP and coordinated by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

[HighlandReefer]

Along with pollution, normally you'll find noxious algae, cyano & other pests. High heavy metal levels are a possible concern as well.

[SeanRB]

Thanks, that is good information. I will definitely not use water very close to shore or a beach. Any idea about off shore at all, I have a boat and can go away from the shoreline. It's probably more trouble than it's worth, unless there is some benefit that I am not getting or seeing.

[dkeller_nc]

If you have a way to collect water off-shore (at least 1/4 mile out and not adjacent to the egress of a river or bay/estuary), natural sea water is fine to use with some caveats. Specifically, natural sea water will be full of living creatures, from zooplankton/phytoplankton down to bacteria.

So it needs to be handled appropriately if you want to collect it and store it for a few days before use. The ideal would be to filter it through a sterilizing filter (0.2 um or smaller). You can do this with a standard RO/DI stand-alone cartridge housing, a 0.1 micron sediment filter, and a pump, though you may wish to first pass the water through a coffee filter or a piece of Nitex 20 micron cloth to take out the "lumps and chunks" so that your 0.1 micron filter doesn't clog quickly.

If you're going to use the water less than a few hours after collection, then you don't necessarily need to filter it. But aerating it with an airstone and small battery-operated pump immediately upon collection (i.e., in the boat) up until the time of use in the tank is advisable.

[SeanRB]

Would it be beneficial to use the sea water over Reef Crystals or another reef mix? I'd love to save some dough on salt mix, but not necessary if there is not a specific benefit. Beneficial life would be awesome, harmful or pest life would not!

[dkeller_nc]

I think that's probably an unanswerable question. Using ASW gives you the absolute assurance that you won't be introducing a disease or pollutant in the water. But it also means that you're relying on the manufacturer's compromises when they make up the salt mix (all ASW mixes contain compromises).

From the standpoint of unfiltered NSW, there are some rather obvious benefits - plankton. For both filtered and unfiltered NSW, you're assured of getting all of the major/minor and trace elements in the correct proportions. But there are also some rather obvious drawbacks - it's expensive (you'll spend way more in gasoline than ASW mix to go out in a boat and get it), inconvenient, and might have pests in it.

[SeanRB]

What about the beneficial life surviving the temp fluctuation from 42F to 78F? Would that also kill the bad stuff too? Thanks DK_NC. HighlandReefer, what do you think?

[HighlandReefer]

Offshore Water Quality may not be as safe as you think from contaminates & noxious pests.

For example read this study:


Offshore Environment Water Quality
http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/..._offshore.html

From it:

"Water samples collected by the CCLEAN program show that sites approximately five miles offshore in northern and southern Monterey Bay exceed the Ocean Plan water quality standards for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (Figure 28) and dieldrin (a persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic insecticide that was used from 1950 to 1974). Contaminants in sediment samples (which may indicate potential problems in the water column) do not exceed NOAA persistent organic pollutant (POP) alert levels. However, concentrations of the legacy pesticides DDT and dieldrin frequently exceed the NOAA Effect Range Low (ERL) guideline at which amphipod toxicity is typically measured in 10% of laboratory bioassays (CCLEAN 2007, 2009). Moreover, DDT concentrations are relatively higher in these offshore locations than the average concentrations measured in San Francisco Bay and have not declined at most locations since the 1970s (CCLEAN 2007). Concentrations of dieldrin exceeded the ERL in 22 out of 40 samples collected from 2005 to 2006 (CCLEAN 2007)."

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Aside from local pollution issues, North Atlantic water is fine.

I've collected water in Rockport Mass. and added to my tank with no apparent result good or bad.

[CHSUB]

me too....i filled my tank in the 80's and 90's with water collected on Salisbury Beach.

[HighlandReefer]

Keep in mind if you decide to use ocean water, after heavy rains you do get urban run-off plumes extending into the ocean. "The biological effects of these plumes were generally found to be spatially limited to the first 2 km offshore and the upper 5 m of the water column; they dissipated after about two days following storms."

At river mouths these plumes can "extend 10 km offshore for small storms and 20 km for medium storms. These were often measurable for at least 3-5 days."

http://www.sccwrp.org/researchareas/...erQuality.aspx

[SeanRB]

Maybe just put some in, once and a while with water changes to get some fauna in my sump. Like I said, I was planning to mix my own salt mix myself with RO/DI and a good reef salt. As always, great advice from all you peeps on here.

[dkeller_nc]

Originally Posted by SeanRB

What about the beneficial life surviving the temp fluctuation from 42F to 78F? Would that also kill the bad stuff too? Thanks DK_NC. HighlandReefer, what do you think?

That's really hard to say, and would probably vary greatly depending on the season and thus the predominant species of zooplankton in the water. Many types of coldwater zooplankton can survive just fine in warmer temps, but many other kinds can't.

By the way, if you are concerned about organic pollutants (like pesticide residues, petroleum residues, etc...), you could filter the water through a 1 micron carbon block instead of the 0.1 micron particulate filter. I would think whether you should be concerned with these pollutants depends on your local geography/development, as Cliff notes.

[Reefvet]

I was using Seachem saltwater my LFS mixed with RODI and it worked just fine.

Now I run all NSW that's collected a quarter mile offshore and filtered down to 20 microns.

The difference in color and growth with fish and corals is very noticeable. I changed 30% of my tanks one day, and then 20% each day for 3 days to transition.

It was like a color injection into my anemones and fish. Acros look much better, deeper color and greater polyp extension. LPS and softies all looking great.

And I've had no problems in the last 10 years of using it.

I measure it each time I collect it. Not surprisingly it's very consistent.

No nitrites or nitrates.
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1320
pH 3.21
Phosphates .02 - .03

[bertoni]

pH 8.21?

[Reefvet]

Yeah, that was a typo.

[SeanRB]

When you run it through filters, doesn't it remove all the organisms?

[bertoni]

If the filters are small enough, yes, it'll remove basically all the of the organisms in the water. That might be good or bad, but I've read a lot of reports of good results with live plankton.

[dkeller_nc]

What you might consider is going in two different directions - specifically collecting plankton for your tank with a plankton net, and filtering your saltwater for water changes. The filtration, btw, is really only necessary if you're going to store the water.

There is, btw, a member of Reef Central that does exactly this (natural seawater and plankton - harvested off of Long Island). His username is PaulB, and if you're interested in keeping a "natural" tank with harvested seawater and plankton, you might consider looking up some of his threads. He might be able to give you some additional advice on collecting/using NSW.

[Paul B]

Been using NSW right from the beach in New York for 43 years. No problems yet.
They post pollution because of bacteria which will not affect your tank and "may" even be beneficial. That is also what usually causes turbidity. If not bacteria it is mud due to storms. Again, no problem. The sea doesn't usually have heavy metal problems as it is a big sea. I like to collect it on an incoming tide away from rivers. You do not need to get offshore as long as it is an incoming tide. A sandy ocean beach would be perfect such as this Atlantic beach on the South side of Long Island.

[tallball158]

I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I am moving to a beach and I was thinking of using NSW. Paul, can you explain the process that you use to collect the water, and do you do anything to it, like filtering?

[Paul B]

I don't usually do anything to it except sometimes strain it through a coffee filter to remove tiny jellyfish and particles that float. Of course you will have to warm it up and test the salinity as here in New York it is very weak and I have to add a little ASW.