Natural seawater /water change

[Acro maniac]

FWIW, I've collected some very clean seawater near where I live (Rockport, MA) and also tried to catch a bunch of amphipods at the time since they were swarming in the surf. My fish went wild chasing them all.

My intent was to potentially introduce some new bacteria to the system, when I swapped in some of the NSW, but I have no idea what impact I had on the tank microorganisms.

That was kind of my though the fish would make fast work of anything suspended in the water column.
Now I wonder would it be better to cycle new systems with nsw due to the bacteria? I have a new system I'm building and have some dry rock that has been in salt water for a while. Would I be beneficial to also swap it out with nsw? I have also though if it necessary or not to filter the water to not introduce undesired organisms. I read a book many years ago where a biologist stored the water in a closet so the live plankton/ organisms would die off first. Thinking it was Martin Moe in the keys.

 

[Shon]

i have family in palm coast, and am planning on moving out of MA down to their as well. I also already thought about using seawater. I know exactly where marineland is. Do they let you take water? Or do you need a contact there?

I know some one there and I work the marina there. From what I was told, it is open for public use. Shrimp trucks load up some water and then hit the 24hr ice before they get there load. One of the mobile aquaria fills there too.

 

[skiergd011013]

I know some one there and I work the marina there. From what I was told, it is open for public use. Shrimp trucks load up some water and then hit the 24hr ice before they get there load. One of the mobile aquaria fills there too.

nice. I work at an aquarium here, so i emailed marineland and asked for a tour of the facility before my last trip down. I never got around to visiting, but the lady i contacted was super nice. Is there a good reefing community in the area? Id love to get to know some people once im down there. Ill be needing friends, lol.

 

[Shon]

nice. I work at an aquarium here, so i emailed marineland and asked for a tour of the facility before my last trip down. I never got around to visiting, but the lady i contacted was super nice. Is there a good reefing community in the area? Id love to get to know some people once im down there. Ill be needing friends, lol.

I have no clue about a community. I am new to the hobby myself. Building my first tank, slowly.. but getting there. Working on the house at the same time. To be honest, never been into a "LFS", just the local corp stores (nothing interesting in there besides petco's $/gal sale).

 

[srad750c]

Beware of parasites, other than that should be fine. I wouldn’t do large H2O changes unless you do it on a regular basis. May shock your tank. You could micron filter and UV sterilize so you don’t introduce bad bugs but of course you will kill some beneficial organisms also. Offshore water would be a lot better, not sure what pollutants you may get close to shore.

 

[Acro maniac]

I am pretty concerned about potentialy adding something bad. I also have the opportunity to get water from the intake or discharge at the power plant I work at. Intake draws water in from a out a half mile offshore and is about 10miles to the closest inlet. The discharge has been to about boiling and has cooled to about 80 -90degrees at the point it is accessible. Would there be any concerns with boiled nsw? This would cut out the contaminants

 

[reeferdon]

This thread is good information about using NSW but let's see some tank that's supported with NSW.

 

[germs101]

This thread is good information about using NSW but let's see some tank that's supported with NSW.

I've meet a few local reefers that use NSW and their tanks were beautiful! I live off of Tampa Bay and they ride out in their boats to the gulf and get it. I know that Mote Aquarium in Sarasota uses NSW from the gulf for their beautiful aquarium. However, I don't plan on going this route. I've worked too hard to qt and keep everything super sterile from parasites to use NSW. If holding it for 76 days would make it ok I'd consider it though. If I had a smaller tank and wasn't so precautions like I am now after going larger with more at stake I'd probably do it.

 

[Ebone]

I do agree with a number of the above, I don't mind using NSW but it is filter, uved, and who know what... I would be more hesitant if it was straight out of the ocean... though I do use a small amount from time to time

 

[Shon]

@skiergd011013

I was told it is public "for now". Some idiot backed into it and damaged the pipe, flooding the dirt parking lot. Not the first time. There is discussion on it, including recreational and biz uses. I'll pm you if/when it changes.

 

[skiergd011013]

@skiergd011013

I was told it is public "for now". Some idiot backed into it and damaged the pipe, flooding the dirt parking lot. Not the first time. There is discussion on it, including recreational and biz uses. I'll pm you if/when it changes.

Thanks. I have no idea when I will make it down there. We have a sick relative who we are helping care for. Once that is over, we are planning on leaving here. That is certainly the ONLY thing keeping us here. (western mass). We are done with winters, done with the horrendous crime, and done seeing businesses closing up daily.

 

[RyonFly]

I use the water from Marineland, both my 90g and 37g were started using NSW, used to get it from Ponce Inlet on an incoming tide, now I have 2 55g drums I fill from marineland. When I get home I pump one barrel to an empty one on wheels in the garage, then the other to the new empty one, and do small water changes from those over a month or two before I have to refill. I live near Ponce so we just make a day of the Marineland trip, wife and dog love the beach up there and its fun checking out the tide pools that form in all the coquina rock on the beach.

 

[skiergd011013]

I use the water from Marineland, both my 90g and 37g were started using NSW, used to get it from Ponce Inlet on an incoming tide, now I have 2 55g drums I fill from marineland. When I get home I pump one barrel to an empty one on wheels in the garage, then the other to the new empty one, and do small water changes from those over a month or two before I have to refill. I live near Ponce so we just make a day of the Marineland trip, wife and dog love the beach up there and its fun checking out the tide pools that form in all the coquina rock on the beach.

ugh. That sounds fun. I can't wait to get down there. Thats the area where we're relocating.

This is what i am faced with right now. Dark, grey, cold.

 

[Gregory Stephens]

Fort Pierce Inlet and I would only pump it at the end of the incoming. I also would pump it through a sediment type filter. But I would think the wrasses would make quick work of any critters as they develop.
My wife just brought me a sample of water back from bimini tonight and it test the same as the previous tests.
I'm currently looking into a 200 gal horizontal tank to put in my truck. Only other item I need is a 12v converter to either plug in my cigarette lighter or hook to battery to run the pump. Now that im typing this out I'm thinking hookup to battery cause it will probably blow a fuse through the lighter. Then I'll be all set.
Tractor supply here I come...

Sweet,. Let me know how that goes. I have a 500 gallon tank I am trying to get around setting up. I am going to need some. I have a service company in PSL and have trucks to transport. Maybe we could work out a plan.

 

[PJNANO]

Here's a question I didn't see addressed:
I use NSW purchased from a LFS, always have and my 29BC is 6 years old. NSW generally has alkalinity around 7.0-7.4. I recently started dosing 2 part ca/alk to bring my alkalinity up to 8.4 per the recommendation of many SPS keepers. If I do a 20-25% water change every 2-3 weeks, should I be dosing my new NSW to bring the parameters up to match what is already in the tank. I have mainly softies, but recently added a few montiporas and acroporas.

 

[PJNANO]

I just came across the article by Boomcorals on SPS care. The author suggested that alk be kept around 7dkh (oddly enough, that of NSW), which makes me wonder why I'm dosing at all and why so many reefers keep their alkalinity so high?

 

[PJNANO]

I took a tour once in West Palm Beach at a fish and coral supplier/aquarium consultant guy's warehouse (think Mr. Saltwater Tank but an actual business) and that's all that he uses and he says sometimes he gets all sorts of microfauna in the water. He keeps a little tank filled with unfiltered seawater and there's all sorts of critters in it such as crabs, oysters, barnacles, and shrimp. He claims very little of it was actually put in there from anything besides the water.

I would like to meet this guy. I live in the palm beaches. Can you share his info?

 

[redfishbluefish]

I just came across the article by Boomcorals on SPS care. The author suggested that alk be kept around 7dkh (oddly enough, that of NSW), which makes me wonder why I'm dosing at all and why so many reefers keep their alkalinity so high?

You dose because the corals will consume the alk before your next water change. It's not uncommon for an established tank to consume at lease 1 dKh per day.

I too am a 7.5 target dKh. Note, MY OPINION....the folks that run their alk up high suffer from Tim-The-Toolman Taylor syndrome. That is, if a little alk is good, than a whole bunch more most be better.

 

[ScottandAlisa]

I don’t have much experience as I just started my tank 2.5 months ago, but while talking to a few local reefers (Wilmington, NC) I found a lot of people here go to a Marine research center off Wrightsville Beach for NSW. I just back up to a faucet and fill up some barrels. Like other people have mentioned I sometimes see a drop in salinity but mostly just when we’ve gotten a lot of rain, so I just plan water changes around the weather. So far though my corals/inverts (havent gotten any fish yet) seem to be doing just fine and are actually growing faster than my friend that buys mixed salt water from the LFS... but that could be due to many other influences.

 

[Tautog]

If I lived in FL I would use the ocean water. FL water has less pests or bacteria than water here on Long Island, NY. Hence why you have nice clear water in FL. As far as using the water quickly before it gets smelly or bad, that’s a bunch of baloney. I have collected water for over 2 yrs for my local tank. I don’t filter it. I use it when I have time to do a WC. I have collected water and it sat for a month before using. I never had any issues, but hair algae is easy to control with a few conchs.
**** Only collect water during the top of the tide, it’s the cleanest, and has more life and O2.
“ Slack Tide “ only lasts about an hour, NOT hours, and it happens at both high and low tides. Slack water, when there’s no movement either way, is a bad time to collect because the water isn’t moving. Moving water is full of O2. Today, our waters are cleaner than ever, OK, cleaner than over a hundred years ago! And I collect at my boat marina with over 200 boats. Never had a gas or oil issue. Never had a total die off!