Ocean water???

bandos507

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 19, 2016
Messages
139
Reaction score
21
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi,

quick question… I live in miami near the ocean. Are there any cons for using ocean water to do water changes ?? I would go off shore a few miles to make sure the water is clean. Is this ok to do??
Thank you!!
 
Hi,

quick question… I live in miami near the ocean. Are there any cons for using ocean water to do water changes ?? I would go off shore a few miles to make sure the water is clean. Is this ok to do??
Thank you!!
If you go out a couple miles, the only concern is unwanted pests
 
Hi,

quick question… I live in miami near the ocean. Are there any cons for using ocean water to do water changes ?? I would go off shore a few miles to make sure the water is clean. Is this ok to do??
Thank you!!
Yep. It's fine. I exclusively use ocean water from here in Massachusetts in my tank. Lots of people do it or have done it with great success (our public aquarium pumps in water directly from Boston Harbor). If you google using natural sea water, you'll see a lot of people have done it successfully and you'll see a lot of people warning you about potential pitfalls; but you'll have a hard time finding any examples of tanks using natural sea water that have failed because of the natural sea water.

All that said, I take a few precautions:
  • I collect from a jetty so I'm not right in the surf zone. If you're going offshore, that's even better, but not necessary.
  • I avoid collecting immediately after a rain storm or bad weather due to potential runoff.
  • I avoid high traffic boat areas or areas with lots of swimmers/bathers.
  • I collect about an hour or two before high tide to ensure the water is coming in from offshore.
  • I monitor municipal testing reports and don't collect if there are any issues at local beaches.
 
Its probably going to be far easier and cheaper to use a salt mix.
 
Ok great!! I’ll try it out. Is there anything I can do to make sure I don’t bring in any pest?
 
Ok great!! I’ll try it out. Is there anything I can do to make sure I don’t bring in any pest?
I don't know how you plan on collecting or how much, but the only thing I do (apart from circulating and heating to temp before adding) is run my water through a sock to filter out bigger things like large chunks of seaweed, and potential small fish/shrimp, etc. The biggest benefit of using ocean water is all of the micro flora and fauna and bacteria in it which coral and fish love, so over treating sort of negates most of the benefit.

Beyond running it through a sock, I wouldn't worry too much about pests. Diseases like ich are much more concentrated in our tanks than they are in the open ocean. You're not likely to bring in anything like that by using natural ocean water (it's far more likely to come in on a new frag, invert, or fish).

If you're really concerned, consider running an ICP test on the water before you actually introduce it the first time. You'll get an idea of the parameters, elements, and potential contaminants that way. It's worth noting that many parameters in natural seawater are lower than or at the low end of what reefers typically run there tanks at. For example, salinity here is about 1.024 (and occasionally 1.023 in the dead of winters). Alkalinity is around 7, calcium is about 420, and magnesium is around 1300. You may want to either bring your tank down to those levels, or dose your sea water up to your tanks levels before the water changes to ensure stability. I maintain mine pretty close to NSW levels so the changes are seamless. I still get plenty of coral growth even with salinity and alk lower than "recommended" reef levels. Water in Miami may be a bit better suited though.
 
Awesome thank you for all the input!

might be a stupid question but can anyone send me a link on Amazon of a sock to use to filter ? Thanks I’m advance !
 
I don't know how you plan on collecting or how much, but the only thing I do (apart from circulating and heating to temp before adding) is run my water through a sock to filter out bigger things like large chunks of seaweed, and potential small fish/shrimp, etc. The biggest benefit of using ocean water is all of the micro flora and fauna and bacteria in it which coral and fish love, so over treating sort of negates most of the benefit.

Beyond running it through a sock, I wouldn't worry too much about pests. Diseases like ich are much more concentrated in our tanks than they are in the open ocean. You're not likely to bring in anything like that by using natural ocean water (it's far more likely to come in on a new frag, invert, or fish).

If you're really concerned, consider running an ICP test on the water before you actually introduce it the first time. You'll get an idea of the parameters, elements, and potential contaminants that way. It's worth noting that many parameters in natural seawater are lower than or at the low end of what reefers typically run there tanks at. For example, salinity here is about 1.024 (and occasionally 1.023 in the dead of winters). Alkalinity is around 7, calcium is about 420, and magnesium is around 1300. You may want to either bring your tank down to those levels, or dose your sea water up to your tanks levels before the water changes to ensure stability. I maintain mine pretty close to NSW levels so the changes are seamless. I still get plenty of coral growth even with salinity and alk lower than "recommended" reef levels. Water in Miami may be a bit better suited though.


I think the pest concern would be more for possible larvae of unwanted organisms. I'm not sure how big of a risk that actually is but I have seen it mentioned on here before (honestly I'd find it fun haha)
 
I think the pest concern would be more for possible larvae of unwanted organisms. I'm not sure how big of a risk that actually is but I have seen it mentioned on here before (honestly I'd find it fun haha)
I've heard it mentioned as a potential risk on forums, but I've never seen or heard of it actually happening from people who use/have used NSW. I'm with you, I think it would be fun/interesting to see something unusual turn up in the tank (same reason I love real ocean rock which is just as risky if not riskier for introducing pests), but I just don't see it really being an issue. For starters, what type of pests are we talking? If it's stuff we regularly see in the hobby anyway (aiptasia, fire worms, hydroids, vermatids, etc.) it's much more likely to come into your system another way. The ocean is pretty vast, so it'd be tricky to collect enough of a concentration of larvae to really have an impact. And even if you managed to actually do that, the larvae would still have to survive your fish, coral, inverts, other filter feeders, and filtration in order to grow and these tanks are hostile to larvae (one of the reasons it's so hard to captive breed so many different things). The odds of that are pretty slim too. So while I don't think anyone could ever confidently say that you're chances are ZERO, I definitely don't think it's something I'd worry about. Introducing dangerous contaminants or pollutants are concern number 1 for me.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top