Sea water

[khushtram]

My parents are in love with my reef tank and want one of their own. The only problem is they live in the Dominican Republic . It won’t be easy for them to acquire salt for water changes. Is it possible to use water from the beach for their water changes ?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Most definitely. It's common practice in FLA.

 

[DelRayTank]

This is what I did when I had a reef tank as a broke teenager in FLA. however, you need to watch out about where to source the water to make sure it is not contaminated by a pollution source (near a marina, for example or a canal would be bad). You are also supposed to get the water either during high tide or low tide (I forget which one). And, of course, water is super heavy and cumbersome to carry so they also need to take that into consideration. I used 5 gallon jugs with tops.

 

[fishybizzness]

I do it all the time! Works great!

 

[sfin52]

high. High brings in fresh water. Low takes it out

 

[Halal Hotdog]

On this forum someone was talking about his flame scallop of a few years, I know they have a terrible survival in our tanks, even with phyto dosing. Asked how he kept it alive, answer was water changes from the ocean. If I ever live by the sea definitely giving up all dosing and going for large water changes.

 

[Red1CA]

I use to do it when I was in San Diego, I has is pros and cons. Definitely give it a test run first

 

[khushtram]

What are the cons ?

 

[Red1CA]

Algae bloom and never know what’s in the water

 

[Tastee]

I suggest running Poly Filter in the sump to help protect against contaminants. The amount of compounds it is good at adsorbing is really quite impressive.