real sea water?

shimin · Sep 7, 2011

Does anybody use real sea water? I'm aware of the dangers of this ( even more so without a uv ) or are the "dangers" not as big of a problem as people make them out to be? It would save me a lot of cash mabe $120 amonth . Has anybody used it and had problems ? Or should I be the guinea pig?

GR808 · Sep 7, 2011

I use sea water and am not aware of dangers but maybe someone should post some up. I do test regularly to maintain good parameters.

Lateral72 · Sep 7, 2011

Lots of shops in South Florida sell natural seawater (NSW). They collect, filter and resell it. When we were using NSW the tank looked great, and we had excellent growth. Since moving away and switching to packaged salts, color and growth has gone down a bit.

shimin · Sep 8, 2011

That's great news ill start using nsw and see what happens like I said I was told it was bad but I was at a lfs today and there tanks toiled great it could depend on who you get it from mabe my buddy just got it from the wrong place . Well thanks ill give it a try

shimin · Sep 8, 2011

Thanks I hope it works out for the better ( -$4salt=+corals)

GR808 · Sep 8, 2011

If your worried about bad NSW, you also could run it through GAC before using in your tank.

shimin · Sep 8, 2011

Yes that's true . Well I'm excited to do a wc thanks everybody

bige · Sep 8, 2011

Depends on where you collect the water.

shimin · Sep 8, 2011

Well I'd collect it from the lfs lol but yes that was soom of the dangers I was told about

tonyftlaud · Aug 21, 2015

Almost all the NSW sold in Broward and Dade LFS comes from Haulover inlet. Collected at and distributed to LFS by a company called High Tide. Don't collect from Hillsborough inlet if your collecting yourself. Different LFS have different treatment methods for the water as well. Check their pricing as well. Should be no more than 50 cents per gallon. I know some places are as high as ,79c to $1 per gallon. I use NSW and buy from Elite Marine in Pompano and have never had any issues.

Aussie paul · Aug 21, 2015

As far as I'm concerned fish and coral live and thrive in NSW so why not use it. As long as its collected from a clean source and not after rain you shouldn't have a problem. I use it and don't have any problems

jared graves · Aug 21, 2015

I use it and have never had any problems. Now of course the lfs tells me I need to buy water from them because it going to crash my tank hahahaha

reef4beer · Aug 21, 2015

Used to work in a LFS in Dade, most stores use the same vendor for the saltwater. The salt water is basically free, what most shops pay for is the actual transportation.

If you want to use NSW just make sure you know where to get it from.

Aussie paul · Aug 21, 2015

jmanyoma said:
Used to work in a LFS in Dade, most stores use the same vendor for the saltwater. The salt water is basically free, what most shops pay for is the actual transportation.

If you want to use NSW just make sure you know where to get it from.

I agree. I have a supplier who has several locations for collection and tests the water before he collect's and deliver's it to my house

JoaoTomas · Aug 21, 2015

Im from Portugal and i use our NSW without any problem, th only issue is the lack of Magnesium, around 1260ppm.

Reef_Life_Gal · Aug 21, 2015

I've been considering this same issue myself since I live on the Emerald Coast (Gulf of Mexico). I was thinking of grabbing samples from different locations and testing the parameters.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 21, 2015

JoaoTomas said:
Im from Portugal and i use our NSW without any problem, th only issue is the lack of Magnesium, around 1260ppm.

That seems normal for 35 ppt seawater. The ocean average is 1280 ppm at 35 ppt.

w.gurney77 · Aug 21, 2015

I use NSW and the LFS I buy from runs UV sterilization. I just bump the alk up to 10 dkh. Great colors and growth. The halides help too...

leptang · Aug 21, 2015

I used NSW from Scripps institution of oceanography, and its free! It is a continues loop system that is forced threw 3 vary large sand filters. I have never had a problem with using the water. I just never used the water after rain that runs into the ocean from the city.

DaveMorris · Aug 21, 2015

I have collected several samples from Scripps here in San Diego and Triton is testing them. They will be releasing their findings during their workshop at MACNA in DC. Several of us are very curious about what the Triton tests will show.