Using Filtered Sea Water for Water Changes?

cmcimino · Aug 25, 2016

I live in Wilmington, NC and the local university (UNCW) has an aquaculture center that has public access to filtered sea water. Would this water be okay to use in water changes? I'm sure the parameters change from time to time depending on rainfall, etc. so should I just test the water each time I fill up? I pulled the following information off of their website.

"The seawater supply system consists of:

(2) 30 hp pumps
(2) 23,000 gallon unfiltered water storage tanks
40-micron sand filter
1,000 gallon filtered water storage tank
195 watt ultraviolet sterilizer
1500 gallon liquid oxygen station"

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 25, 2016

I do it every day. Scripps pier in San diego. I dont test anything in it. Its sea water from the ocean. It will have higher nutrients than salt but IMO those are not a bad thing. Prob slightly lower Mag. Ours doesnt have a UV and pers Im happy about that.
Ask them what their rainfall protocol is.

cmcimino · Aug 25, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
I do it every day. Scripps pier in San diego. I dont test anything in it. Its sea water from the ocean. It will have higher nutrients than salt but IMO those are not a bad thing. Prob slightly lower Mag. Ours doesnt have a UV and pers Im happy about that.
Ask them what their rainfall protocol is.

Why would you rather not have a UV?

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 25, 2016

cmcimino said:
Why would you rather not have a UV?

I like bacteria.

SantaMonicaHelp · Aug 25, 2016

This seems like such an obvious idea, but until I stumbled across this thread, I have never heard of it. Good thread!

- C. Smith

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 25, 2016

SantaMonicaHelp said:
This seems like such an obvious idea, but until I stumbled across this thread, I have never heard of it. Good thread!

- C. Smith

Its not free like mine but here's the one I know of close to you.
http://www.catalinawater.com/

SantaMonicaHelp · Aug 26, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
Its not free like mine but here's the one I know of close to you.
http://www.catalinawater.com/

Thanks for sharing the link

I appreciate it. That's a very interesting read. I have a relative who lives in La Jolla, so I might have to drive there and get some San Diego water haha. The beaches in La Jolla are amazing! I live in Los Angeles and the beaches are not nearly as nice.

- C. Smith

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 26, 2016

SantaMonicaHelp said:
Thanks for sharing the link I appreciate it. That's a very interesting read. I have a relative who lives in La Jolla, so I might have to drive there and get some San Diego water haha. The beaches in La Jolla are amazing! I live in Los Angeles and the beaches are not nearly as nice.

- C. Smith

I work mainly in LA. I didnt want to say nuthin bout your beaches, but yea.
Just north of the pier on foot are the tide pools. just south is the Lajolla cove you can dive.

Squid · Aug 26, 2016

Free water is the best. I love going to Scripps to get my fill, headed there tonight or tomorrow

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 26, 2016

Squid said:
Free water is the best. I love going to Scripps to get my fill, headed there tonight or tomorrow

Sup Squid, Crabbysd.

I gotta put of my run till next week.

Squid · Aug 26, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
Sup Squid, Crabbysd.
I gotta put of my run till next week.

Sup bruh, I've been putting off my run for the last 2 weeks. I think it's time now lol

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 26, 2016

Squid said:
Sup bruh, I've been putting off my run for the last 2 weeks. I think it's time now lol

lol. right. "ugh its 12 min from me the weather is great I have to go to the beach and get free natures miracle" Poor San Diego Reefers.

Ebone · Aug 26, 2016

Hey, Im from wilmington too... I have been using that water just fine for quite awhile and many others do as well.... few days after significant rainfall.is only time to really worry... just check salinity and add salt as needed to get it where needa to be...

Synodontis · Aug 30, 2016

Can't beat NSW I reckon. We've only ever used NSW because of the tank sizes we have had. Only thing we do to "treat" the water is filter it down to 20micron through large whole house filters. I change both the filters when the second gets to a nice tan colour lol.
I did read somewhere the the smallest size during the 3 stages of whitespot is 50micron, so that's how we settled on the 20micron sized filters. Water is pumped straight from water tanks, through the filters & into the DT. No matter when you collect your water, you'll always have some silt & stuff, the filters also take care of that