real sea water

[Ncastro1981]

I am talking about the stuff that comes in box's, but aside i feel that there is little difference in this and NSW as per there advertising and detailed description. but as i have said before i could be wrong.

[jgln]

I went to the ocean and collected about 100 gallons when I upgraded from a 40 to a 125 in late March off a roadway jetty at high tide (Avalon, NJ) with no apparent issues, but that is a lot of work and time for me. Lost abot 25 on the way home :-) Had to come up with a lot of water, aged, quick. Tank did not recycle from my tests and fish showed no stress once in their new home. I did have to add salt though as the SG was quite lower. Don't use the other stuff though, now its just mixing my own.

[jgln]

Originally posted by jgln
Don't use the other stuff though, now its just mixing my own.

I mean "I" don't use the other stuff.

[Paul B]

I am talking about the stuff that comes in box's, but aside i feel that there is little difference in this and NSW as per there advertising and detailed description. but as i have said before i could be wrong.

As I said, I never used it but if it's NSW, it's got to be better than fake. I know it's expensive.
I use the free stuff but it is heavy which is the reason I don't use all NSW.

[Ncastro1981]

it is expensive, so is the cost the only thing keeping people from using it? about 15 bucks for 4.4 gal.

[MileHighFish]

I use to use a company called "Catalina Water" they pulled water from 5 miles off the coast of So-Cal, I did find it was high in phosphates but other then that it was fine, this was about 10 years ago and GFO was really not in use then. I dont live in Cal anymore but if I did I would still use there water and run GFO.

[MileHighFish]

I should add they would deliver to your front door!! I cant remember the cost but it was worth it!!

[MileHighFish]

I just looked on the web and there still in biz.. This might be the water you guys are using in the box.. check it out.


http://catalinawater.com/Product.html

[str8salt]

If you like it, can afford it, and it makes you happy, then use it. I think that unless it comes from a nonpolluted area(way off shore) you are still going to eventually have problems. I have seen lots of reports and analysis lately showing all sorts of non-natural compounds and pollution in ocean water. As people we have created a polluted situation in our oceans. In our tanks there isn't really any way to take care of a buildup in these compounds and heavy metals. i am not sure if running carbon might help this situation. I will have to sit down and see if I can work the reactions out. Its been awhile since I've been in school. Happy reefing.

[E.intheC]

Originally posted by TheORKINMan
I pay the extra just for convenience honestly.

...really? last I checked that stuff was 19.00 for 4 gallons or so.. that's way too overpriced for me.. making saltwater isn't hard at all.. and even if you buy RO/DI and your own salt it will only be 1.20 or so per gallon, at the most.. that's about $5 for the same amount. i'd much rather use my money on fish/corals/etc

[Ncastro1981]

ok just so you know the water advertised above is not the variety that i was refuring to, but at any rate i am also not talking about complete water changes with this water. Really what do people think about using this as any suppliment and adding small amounts on a regular basis to replenish or add all together specific compounds and life forms not found in salt water mix. I know people that spend crazy money buying bionic ...ect when they could make there own at a fraction of the cost... but thats a different topic altogether. and i for one have to say that i have seen results that i feal are dirrectly related to rsw. Some times even i have a hard time remembering that there are many stepping stones to life and we dont test for them all

[tbar]

During summer when the water is warm enough I wade out to chest deep and get four 5 gal buckets here in Virginia. I have done this for about every other WC for the last 2 years. Seeing what the price is for buying NSW will hopefully lighten the load some. I too have to add a little salt as Jim in NJ. I don't have a RO/DI and get filtered water from the LFS for .25 per gal usually getting about 35 gal at a time for WC's and evap. So it helps reduce that cost some plus I enjoy being at the beach.

[TheORKINMan]

Oh my LFS sells the stuff for 12.00 not 19.00

[Ncastro1981]

right. some times i get it for 10 bucks a jug

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I'm another beliver in using NSW. That's all I've been using since I found a nice acces to filtered NSW that FREE.

For the naw sayers who think NSW is not good for our tanks, that includes a few of the "Experts" as well, I ask the following question:

If the animals we are keeping came from the ocean and lived in NSW, then why is it, in your opnion, that they are better off living in ASW which is not their normal enviroment?

I can atest to the fact that I have seen some dramiatc changes in both my corals and fish when I switched to NSW some years ago. I've had a bubble coral spawn in my tank, I have fish that have recoverd from ich with no medication and other fish were not affected by it, I've seen colors in my fish that I have never seen before in other captive fish, other than large public aquariums. I acredit most of this to NSW.

[fletcherkane]

This has been an interesting discussion.

I have a really great LFS in my town that sells premixed RO/DI for .59 a gallon.
For guys like me without my own RO system, this is cheaper than I can buy RO and mix it myself.
I know this is off topic from the OP but i thought it was pertinent with the talk of cost etc...

[E.intheC]

Originally posted by Crusty Old Shellback
I'm another beliver in using NSW. That's all I've been using since I found a nice acces to filtered NSW that FREE.

For the naw sayers who think NSW is not good for our tanks, that includes a few of the "Experts" as well, I ask the following question:

If the animals we are keeping came from the ocean and lived in NSW, then why is it, in your opnion, that they are better off living in ASW which is not their normal enviroment?

I can atest to the fact that I have seen some dramiatc changes in both my corals and fish when I switched to NSW some years ago. I've had a bubble coral spawn in my tank, I have fish that have recoverd from ich with no medication and other fish were not affected by it, I've seen colors in my fish that I have never seen before in other captive fish, other than large public aquariums. I acredit most of this to NSW.

I think this largely depends on where you collect the water from. For me ( I live about 5 minutes from the Long Island Sound) .. there's no way I'm going to go and collect from that area.. I wont' even swim in the sound, no less collect saltwater from... Maybe if I was on the South Easternmost point of Long Island, where it comes in direct contact with the ocean and is furthest away from NYC, I would try it out..

but it's still a calculated risk. You have no idea what's out there. Maybe last night a huge garbage barge dumped all its contents near your collection site, and the refuse has washed back into the area you're collecting from. Unlikely, yes, but possible.

[Ncastro1981]

once again i was talking about filtered real sea water. but since we are now heading towards talking about dirty sea water (which i had hoped we would venture) what ideas do people have about filtering sea water removed from the ocean by hand. What methods could an adverage hobbiest be able to use in order to remove toxins, heavy metals, common polutents. Anyone have any idea how the companys that supply filtered water do it? Any DIY out there make some contraption that would help with this. Just as a side note I dont use RO/DI water at all. I get my water from a mountain spring, and gravity feed it to my house (where i pressurize it) and have tested for everything you can buy a test kit for and have found it to be beyond compairison, I even got results on heavy metals and a huge list of contaminents that where not present thanks to the state of vermonts water study. Any one have any thoughts on this?

I would be happy to supply anyone with free water if they wanted to take drive...lol

[jgln]

No point being made here; but I use well water for my tank. However, if I lived at the ocean and in an area where the salinity and temp were what I needed I would try running fresh sea water through my tank daily just to see if it would work. I think there is some huge public tank somewhere that does just that and it is very healthy. When I used fresh sea water to fill my 125 my biggest concern was some parisite but that never happened. The reason I did that was I was moving a 40 and 30 (connected together in loop) from an apartment to a new home. After settlement I had 1 week to get out of my apartment. So for me the sea water was the quickest way to get everything from my torn down 40 and 30 into the 125. I must say, the whole ordeal took some thought. Good thing I was in good with the apartment complex as they let me stay rent free in the apartment for that one week just so I could do the move. Nice people.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

E.intheC,
Check out some of Paul B's threads. He's been using LIS NSW for longer than most of the people on here have been around.

Hi Paul, figured I'd see you in here.

[ludnix]

My corals are doing fantastic with "fake" water so it just comes down to convenience for me. Either try and transport 20gallons of water every week or just open the valve on my water change bucket and add salt. I live on the coast too, so it's not like I'm transporting all that far, I still think it's easier to mix my own though.

[jgln]

Originally posted by ludnix
My corals are doing fantastic with "fake" water so it just comes down to convenience for me. Either try and transport 20gallons of water every week or just open the valve on my water change bucket and add salt. I live on the coast too, so it's not like I'm transporting all that far, I still think it's easier to mix my own though.

Yeah, when it comes down to it that is easier. Just to clarify, if I lived close enough to an ocean where I could actually pump fresh sea water into my tank directly (and back out) I think that would be cool to try. You know, once a day run a pump for an hour or so insead of actual water changes as we do them now. Have to be pretty close and able to collect it far enough from shore so sand wouldn't be getting pumped in.

[Gdevine]

I don't know; I usually have to take a run to my LFS once a week anyway so I tie that run into getting my weekly NSW so I don't see it as a hardship in any way. My LFS is literally 1/2 mile from the beach and maybe 150 yards from the Intracoastal. They pull NSW almost daily at high tied at the inlet when no boats are around. The water rushes in from the ocean at the point they draw the water so fast you'd think it was a river.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I collect 250G at a time for my water changes. I usually do about 125G at a time when I change water on my 550G + system. It cost me about 25 bucks in gas round trip to get it. So do the math, it's cheapier if you get a lot of water.

As for filtering, the water I get comes from UCSB and they filter it thru a large rock/sand filters they have been using for over 35 years. As a side note, this is the exact same water they use in all of their research facilities. yep just good old NSW that's gone thru a sand filter. Nothing fancy. And they do some major marine research at UCSB. Also their system is a constant flow thru system.

Our local club got a tour of their facility. They pump water 24/7 365. Never stop for rain, red tide, etc. I've never had a problem with it. Just raise the temp and pour it in.

If you want to filter the NSW you get, just run it thru a canister filter with carbon in it and thet should be all it needs.

[Ncastro1981]

interesting