Saltwater from ocean...is it OK?

[thinktank]

I live about 2 hours from the Pacific Ocean and I've read in a few places that, back before manufacturers started producing salt for the hobbyist, you had to go to the ocean to get your water.

Is this recommended still, if you have access to the ocean? I could haul a 250 gallon storage tank to the ocean and fill it up in a heartbeat and save myself the several hundred bucks in salt per year.

Does anyone have experience doing this?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

In san diego we get water from the Scripps pier. Its run through sand filters.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Yeah, it is fine if it's filtered. Unfiltered, you run the potential of some nasty parasites for fish and inverts. We used to be able to get filtered water at my schools marine science center. It will likely run low on calcium, but that can be dosed up. Biggest thing is to make sure the water you're getting tests out at the appropriate parameters. Water inshore can vary wildly based on weather and season.

 

[thinktank]

In san diego we get water from the Scripps pier. Its run through sand filters.

I live near San Bernardino, so San Diego is quite the drive for some water, but I'm wondering if there's something similar in the LA area? I'll have to check around!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/natural-seawater.263265/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/mixed-salt-or-natural-seawater.195387/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/natural-sea-water.236466/

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I live near San Bernardino, so San Diego is quite the drive for some water, but I'm wondering if there's something similar in the LA area? I'll have to check around!

LA is never free.

 

[thinktank]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/natural-seawater.263265/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/mixed-salt-or-natural-seawater.195387/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/natural-sea-water.236466/

Awesome, thanks!

And, you're right....LA is never free.

 

[805reef]

UCSB (santa Barbara) also has a free NSW spigot

 

[becks]

I use it, apart from temperature in the south east of the UK my last batch parameters were;

35ppt salainity
400 Ca
7.7 dKH
1300 Mg I think
Undectable phosphates and nitrate

I never noticed any difference in my corals

 

[tangerine3486]

I only used salt water from the ocean when I lived in Hawaii from a rather low-populated area. I would check out that spigot that 805reef mentioned.

 

[Maritimer]

Not in my neck of the ocean . . .

Long Island Sound is far too brackish, and far too populated (with both humans and plankton!) to attempt using it for a reef. I used to use it for aquaria, back when I was a teen - but then, the aquaria were filled with locally collected critters, too! That was in the days before strict shoreline access control, and strict collecting laws. Many of the fish I kept then would be illegal now.

~Bruce

 

[taintstick]

How about the gulf? Haha of course will have to be filtered.... but....

 

[cdmckinzie]

I live near Tarpon Springs in Pasco County Florida, just north of St. Pete, I wonder if that would be good

 

[Pat Clark]

I live near Tarpon Springs in Pasco County Florida, just north of St. Pete, I wonder if that would be good

 

[Pat Clark]

I live in port richey and get my water with my kayak at green key. I get it on a incoming ride when it is almost at its peak... I do have to add salt to the water though.. I know some reefers go to the skyway and get their water there.

 

[taintstick]

I guess I'll take a drive to the beach and grab some water to test. I'm on the Texas side of the gulf.

 

[cmcoker]

I guess I'll take a drive to the beach and grab some water to test. I'm on the Texas side of the gulf.

It's been a while since I've been to the Texas coast, still getting oil gobs wash up? [emoji33]

 

[taintstick]

Not that I've seen, I'm down by south padre island [emoji267]

 

[cmcoker]

Not that I've seen, I'm down by south padre island [emoji267]

Ah, I'm in dfw but we go down to corpus or galveston every so often. Been a couple years, but I seem to remember seeing some oil gobs after the Deepwater incident.. May have been as far back as 2012 though, time flies

 

[taintstick]

I travel for work, and as I do live in the RGV, I am in corpus about twice a week. I have heard nothing about them globs in corpus or south padre in some years.
The worst thing that happened lately, is a power plant that developed asphalt or something had a malfunction and contaminated all of Corpus' water supply. That includes surrounding areas. Symptoms were crazy, from growths to cancer [emoji33][emoji33].. my hotel at the time ran to all the rooms and gave out water bottles and we were told not to shower or use faucet water, even to wash hands.