Natural or synthetic

AJreefs · Jun 9, 2012

Which do you use, natural or synthetic salt water, and why!? What are the benefits of your choice?

Do you have experience with both; if you do please share as Iam wondering if switching to natural sea water might be less problematic.

Young Frankenstein · Jun 9, 2012

I would love to use NSW but is a drag, easier to use IORC, the salt by the way is natural not synthetic. J

Steelerfan747 · Jun 9, 2012

I tried artificial many years ago but did not like the hassle of having to mix or keep large containers at home where I really do not have the space besides I figure natural is natural and living in Florida its cheap and readily accessible

AJreefs · Jun 9, 2012

Young Frankenstein said:
I would love to use NSW but is a drag, easier to use IORC, the salt by the way is natural not synthetic. J

If you have to mix the salt with water; it is synthetic, which refers to the process of adding two or more ingredients and not necessarily refering to being man made

Young Frankenstein · Jun 10, 2012

AJreefs said:
If you have to mix the salt with water; it is synthetic, which refers to the process of adding two or more ingredients and not necessarily refering to being man made

Yes you are correct

Synthetic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SDguy · Jun 10, 2012

I have no way to transport or store the amounts of water I need to be able to use NSW. Plus, I get super pure water from work, so I can mix with confidence

Lateral72 · Jun 10, 2012

If I had somewhere that sold filtered NSW, I would use NSW.. But since I don't, it's good old 30 gallon rubbermaids and mixing it the hard way, for me.

mainereefer · Jun 10, 2012

I live in maine, cant warm our water to 80 it would just turn my tank green

Reef Breeders · Jun 10, 2012

I live near the long island sound, so not a great idea. If the water came from florida, and I could store it, then I wouls use it.

wysiwyg · Jun 10, 2012

i live in wisconsin so its not fesable for me to drive 24hrs one way to get nsw

mfinn · Jun 10, 2012

I think this poll would only be valid if you lived close enough to a clean source of sea water so that you would have a choise, but I voted anyway. Synthetic for the reason, it would be nearly impossible and impractable to collect CLEAN and transport enough sea water to do water changes.
With salt in a bucket and ro/di water I know exactly what I have and is very easy to make and use.

KSzegi · Jun 11, 2012

I have used both. We have a place on the Gulf and go offshore fishing on a fairly regular basis .... so have taken some containers with me and collected out in the "blue water" and used it on several occasions. If I could figure out an easier way to collect and use it I would probably do it more often ..... or if I had smaller tanks that didn't require so much for water changes!! But it is an awful lot of work to first get it into the containers on the boat and then pump it into the containers onto the truck and then get it off at home again!! I did not see enough of a difference to make the effort worth it.

I used about 75% nsw when I initially set up my 180 ..... and used all nsw when I first set up my 90 ..... and added about 60 gallons of it to my 300 when I first cycled it when upgrading from the 180. I will still bring home a couple 5 gallon buckets for the 90 on occasion but rarely fuss with transporting the brute can's full for the 300 ..... just easier to mix it at home in the quantity that I use every month!

Reef Breeders · Jun 12, 2012

There was this one guy on youtube with a huge 850 gallon tank, and he did no dosing, no skimming, just haeted the water. Every other week, he had a friend come in with NSW and replace 90% of the water. The tank was a thriving sps dominant system, with a heavier bioload. NSW is definitely good if you have access to it.

AJreefs · Jun 12, 2012

Glad we could hear from folks who have tried both; especially those who did the hauling for us,as to which is better (KSzegi)

cdness · Jun 13, 2012

Well Synthetic for me... I am in a state where the water is frozen for 6 months out of the year so getting NSW is nearly impossible other than from Petco.

If I could source CLEAN NSW I would gladly use it. Unfortunately there is none close to me