Who uses natural sea water for water changes... Few questions...

[afboundguy]

I was wondering how many people on the boards use natural sea water for water changes. I've talked to a few people and they've had great success with it and say they've never seen their corals respond so well. And seeing how I live on the coast it might make sense.

If you do use NSW for water changes how far out do you go to collect it?

What do you do to prepare/treat it before doing the water change?

Does heating it up to 78-80 kill enough of the possible bad stuff?

TIA...

 

[ricomike]

This is a good question. I also live near the water and I hope somebody responds to this.

 

[afsportsguy000]

I have seen some threads and searches with good information on what to do. I know it didn't seem like that easy of a process but ya never know

 

[acrofragger]

i dont think the nsw around here should be used ,it houses different species of fish than what we look to collect in our homes .
if we were in hawai i could see that bieng possible ,since there is the same temperature and species of fish and coral but out here nah ...i wouldnt doit the water i cold and has ugly fish lol..



as far as prepairing it ,they dont prpare it.... they just add it i believe there is a guy on r .c that does collect water and throws it in his tank he says fish come from nsw not asw

 

[P-Nut]

If you live in a non polluted area, maybe in the caribean I would go for it.

In MA, its a little harder. I alo live near the ocean, and south of Boston, near Duxbury. I really dont know if chemicals dumped around Boston would make it to the shores of Duxbury beach. Also, if the water is clean, yous till ahve to deal with all the micro organisms that would die in your tank.

I would try it in a small tank first. Maybe in a nano tank, and before that, I would use buckets of water, see how much stuff dies each day.

 

[FinsUp!]

I wouldn't use it unless you can get at least a mile or two offshore to collect it... Out there, boating and recreational activity starts to decrease and the water visibly becomes so much cleaner, so I can imagine any pollutants from boats and dumping would be much more diluted. I've thought about trying it and collecting some water when I've been out on Stellwagen Bank, but never got around to it and we don't go out there often enough for me to sustain using NSW.

 

[P-Nut]

i dont think the nsw around here should be used ,it houses different species of fish than what we look to collect in our homes .
if we were in hawai i could see that bieng possible ,since there is the same temperature and species of fish and coral but out here nah ...i wouldnt doit the water i cold and has ugly fish lol..



as far as prepairing it ,they dont prpare it.... they just add it i believe there is a guy on r .c that does collect water and throws it in his tank he says fish come from nsw not asw

Who cares about the fih that live in the area?

 

[reeferpj]

i would put it through a UV filter. bring it up tp temp and check all the per to see if its worth at all. if you have to add salt,mag.cal or anything real.

 

[acrofragger]

Who cares about the fih that live in the area?

i do .....................as i was speaking for myself .
and as far as im concern if our waters had beautiful tangs swimming in it ..then id be at the beach every day collecting water instead of mixing it with pumps.

 

[acrofragger]

i would put it through a UV filter. bring it up tp temp and check all the per to see if its worth at all. if you have to add salt,mag.cal or anything real.

i went with my nitrate kit up to salisbury and tested the water with an api test kit .............................yellower than i have ever got in my home

 

[Kungfukid]

I sometimes do a small water changes with the actual sea water collected from Nahant beach. My nano tank did not have any problem at all. (my back did not like it though)

Just like astronauts always bring back some dirt sample when they go to the moon. Every time I go to Nahant beach, I always collect a few gallons or just enough to do a small water change (just a couple of times in a year and definitely not in the winter).

 

[cilyjr]

The people I have talked to both in threads and in person. Suggest that it should be collected off shore to minimize pollutants if that is not possible on an incoming tide where offshore currant is strongest. Than one needs to filter it through a micron filter and a good uv filter to eliminate possible parasites and other pests.

 

[Ruge13]

I used to do it. Never again. When new england algae hits 80 degree water it grows like crazy. That and I never wanted the stuff in it to die. Causes mini spikes in small tanks. The temp swing kills a lot of the planktonic stuff in NE water. If you want clean you need to run 90 miles south of MV and hit the nutrient poor bluewater, not the green nutrient rich cold inshore water we have here unless of course you are trying to replicate NE water. Otherwise you need to filter quite a bit. I used filter floss but that was about it, and certainly not enough. Its more work than its worth.

 

[SteveDola]

just not worth it. the amoutn of time and effort to collect and process and the potential for contaiminates outweights the benefits in my opinion. I take too much time to regulate what goes into my tank than to accidently add an aggressive algea species or toxin to my tank from the water.

I suppose if you really wanted to use it, like the others said...collect far offshore and run it through carbon+UV

 

[THE WOOKIE]

personally i would never use water from around RI (point judith or narragansett bay). i would say give it a shot if you are using water collected 40 or 50 miles out. once you get out there the water clears up and you start to see more life. (tuna, mahi mahi etc)