Natural Reef?

[RocketBunny]

I used NSW for 7+ years with no major problems.

We live on a canal in south Florida, and my husband loves to boat. Almost every weekend we would motor out 2 miles, drop a submersible pump down 5 feet, pump up 30 gallons into a Brute bin, once home we would siphon out from the display tank into canal 30 gal, then pump in the 30 gal of fresh salt water. Of course, if there was a red tide or bad weather, we didn’t go out.
(Nowadays, you can find a red tide report on the internet.)

Pros for me:
Fish really perked up, LPS corals very happy (full and great color), serpent stars would travel to highest part of tank and spawn, BTAs would do mass spawning night after water change, beautiful white feather dusters appeared throughout the sandbed and multiplied, saved money and hassle of mixing salt water, excuse to go boating every weekend...

Cons for me:
Over the years found 2 small stone crabs (which were returned to the gulf), I was not dosing at this time - so alk and cal would drop quickly..., I had a hard time keeping SPS corals happy (I did not understand the importance of parameter stability at this time.).

Pic of red tide report:

A few years ago I stopped using nsw and now use Red Sea coral pro (and use dosers and strive for stability), but I miss the affect nsw had on the livestock. I’ve begun “supplementing” with NSW once a month about 20 gallons.

Hope this adds insight to your thread.

That is a beautiful tank! My corals are also very happy. I do a NSW change about twice a week and the recent red tide made a big delay... during the delay, the happiness started falling down in my tank... luckily I brought it back up a couple days ago... and will bring reef water from key west next week...

Thankyou for your share on this thread

Also. do you use a sump? what filtration? skimmer... internal sump... bio balls?

I would really love to know what filtration features your tank has to keep it running so beautifully thankyou!

 

[Wen]

Awww, thank you Rocketbunny for the compliment.

I have a sump, skimmer, refugium and use dosing pumps now. IMO, a properly set up refugium makes a huge difference...nitrate and phosphate reduction, place for pods to reproduce and extra space for injured fish/baby fish to grow out/etc.

How do you collect NSW?

 

[RocketBunny]

Awww, thank you Rocketbunny for the compliment.

I have a sump, skimmer, refugium and use dosing pumps now. IMO, a properly set up refugium makes a huge difference...nitrate and phosphate reduction, place for pods to reproduce and extra space for injured fish/baby fish to grow out/etc.

How do you collect NSW?

Thankyou for your info... I use ceramic cylinders (fluval) as a bio media in my sump as well as some chaeto... i have a small skimmer ans powerfilter to help out with filtration... and some filter sponges... thats pretty much it. its funny but i was never able to produce copepods... while my sisters tank is over-run with those... lol

Luckily i live about 15 - 20 minutes from a very clean beach here in florida... i just go there and throw in a 5 gallon bucket... usualy i do that in the morning when there are less people around and the water is clean and calm.

Bonus - the beach has lots of macro algae that come in with the tides... my tank is planted with those and refugium is full... it is also common to see copepods attached to such algae and seaweed... but i was never successful in keeping and increasing them, population and size wise *shrug* maybe my fish constantly gulp them down? i know my angel loves them

 

[Shooter6]

That's funny. In Sydney you can take all the water you want but sand is a no-no.

Dont think its looked on very well here either. I could go to the gulf of mexico and take as much sand as possible but i wouldnt have a healthy reef lol

 

[Paul B]

How do you collect NSW?

I throw a pump in the ocean and pump it into containers. Then warm it up and dump it in my tank.