I used ocean water! Whatcha think?

[MPA]

I bought a 120. (50x24x24) and this is how I set it up.

I live on the coast of Fl. I went to the beach 5 blocks from my house and got 100g of ocean water.

I got a 5 g bucket of sand and shells.

I put all of it in the tank.

I then added all the water I had in my old tank.

Turned on the pumps (150 w/d pro w. mag 2700) and added all of my fish.

Temp, ph, salinity, everything in the ocean water nearly matched my old tank water.

24hrs into it, everything is crystal clear. The fish look like they are doing good. They are alert, they ate this morning etc.

Stock put in the tank included:
1 maroon clown, 1 copperband butterfly, 1 lion fish, 1 lawn blenny, 1 kole tang. Giant brittle star, sand stars, snails and a shrimp.

All of them were in my last tank for at least 1 1/2 years.

It has been raining for the past week and I figured the water conditions off the coast would be as good as they are going to get. any pollutants should be well dispersed.

I know that there is the chance of introducing some parasites & little creatures that normally would not be there, However, I figure we are always trying to make our water match the conditions in the ocean, so why not use ocean water!

Let me know what you guys think of this.

I will be taking pics tonight, and hope to have them up w/in a day or so.

[tuberider]

Around here we wait until it hasn't rained in a few days (3-4) for good water quality. Check out Paul's thread, you are more likely to have issues with dumping a small quantity of water from your LFS than from the ocean (pathogen concentrations tend to be much higher in closed systems.)

[Monkey_Bone]

Pathogens are the least of your worries using sea water.
How about chemicals from near by companies? Boats, people.....ect ect ect.......

Your best and safest bet would be to go a 1/2 mile or so off shore and get it from there.

LOTS of yucky crap in shoreline waters.

[Paul B]

Been using it in my still running 35 year old tank for 35 years. And I use it from New York, right near the city. How bad coule it be? All of your animals come from NSW, none of them come from ASW.
Paul

[MPA]

I though about the pollutants issue, an ddecided to take a chance.


I am 48 hrs in and evrrything is doing well.

And your right. they all come from it.

As for city water, everybody knows its better than bottled water.

[Stoney Mahony]

ORA gets their water off the east coast of florida, they just go way out to get it. I would call them and ask what pollutants they found in the water directly off shore and what the reasons were for getting their water from a mile+ out. They have probably done all the tests already and might even be able to tell you seasonal changes in water quality that you will need to watch out for.

[Laakmann]

I think it would be way awsome if you could live like right on the beach and get a really powerful pump to pump water directly from the ocean into your tank and then have the overflow go right back to the ocean.

The locations where you could do this are limited though and I think this would be illegal but not sure.

[MPA]

I know that removing things like rock & sand is touchy, but I think that the water is fare game.

[uscgbeachbum]

There is a dive shop in the Keys that does just that. They pump it right off the canal. You could never do it if you were on beachfront property. Pumping means plumbing which would need to be buried which means permitting. Of course, I know a few people who go to some low bridges and throw a pump overon the incoming tide. They then pump it into a large plastic tank in their truck. A little bit of bleach and then some chlorine tabs and they love it.

[redFishblue]

Originally posted by MPA
It has been raining for the past week and I figured the water conditions off the coast would be as good as they are going to get. any pollutants should be well dispersed.

You should wait till it has not rained for a while, as a added measure of safety.
The runoff from the rain could wash stuff like fertilizer or motor oil down to the coast.

[Roadtoad]

Hey Tuberider, I live North of the devils slide we should meet up on the old san pedro road for a mountain bike-frag swap

I used to get water from the frothy pacific-1 block away. The biggest problem that I can track to using NSW was two outbreaks of something that looks like velvet which ended killing my tangs. I though about filtering the water prior to use to get rid of the parasites, sail-jelly fish and mole crabs. Now I am too lazy to carry buckets of water down the street and use IO.

[surfjeepzx]

That's the way I've been doing it for 6 years and never had a problem. I didn't use the beach sand though. Just make sure the water is clean and not murky when you collect it.

About once a month or so I pump a 55 gallon tank of water straight into my tank from the inlet. So in my 135 that's about a 30+% water change. Everything really perks up when the fresh water gets pumped in.

[oama]

Originally posted by Stoney Mahony
ORA gets their water off the east coast of florida, they just go way out to get it.

No, ORA does not go off shore to get water. The hatcheries tend to not float very well.

ORA utilizes Saltwater Wells.

[MPA]

the water was clear when I put it in. It looks great.

I put together a nano tank for my wife. Soem thing. it looks really great. there were some sand fleas swimming around, but everything is doing really good.

no stress, color is good and they are all eating.

the water test shows nothing bad. spec. grav is good. good ph, etc.

were at 72 hours right now.

[rsxs1212]

this is pretty interesting.. the only thing i can see is that if you got a barnacle in there and they started to colonize, that would be a MAJOR problem lol.. i have a house on the tampabay and there is a sandbar behindmy house.. wonder if starting a little nano tank with everything from there would be cool?hmm

[CPT. MURPHY]

Any pics yet?

CPT.

[redox]

Ive used it quite frequently with no ill efects .whenever I go out in my boat I will bring back 55 gallons to use. the only problem is it is labor intensive to bring back so..... theres this thing called salt in a box well.... its soo much easier. If you have an easy way to get it i say use it. the times i have used it really made a noticable difference in polyp extension

[nyvp]

here is south florida we have guys that come to your house with the fresh sea water already filtered

[Jens Kallmeyer]

hi MPA

I doubt that you will have any problems. I've been using RI coastal water myself all year round without any problems. Your water is even closer to real "reef water" than the stuff I can get. I don't know if this is an issue where you live, but I would check if the water is really fully marine in terms of salinity, Calcium and Mangnesium levels. If not just add a bit of sea salt and you are done. What I usually do is using 2/3 NSW and 1/3 ASW, plus a bit of extra salt to make up for the lower salinity of the NSW.


Have fun

Jens

[Roadtoad]

When I tested our NSW, I had to make some adjustments. First the temp was 56F, the salinity was about right but the calcium was low. There were a couple of times when I could detect phosphate too.

Good luck, I would seriously consider filtering the water using a 5-20 micron bag before you throw your local water into a fully stocked tank. That will get rid of the plankton which might be beneficial but will get rid of the parasites that can be problematic.

[Jens Kallmeyer]

Originally posted by Roadtoad
Good luck, I would seriously consider filtering the water using a 5-20 micron bag before you throw your local water into a fully stocked tank. That will get rid of the plankton which might be beneficial but will get rid of the parasites that can be problematic. [/B]

a 5 micron filter will take out the larger organisms, but bacteria and viruses will go right through the filter. So you loose all the plankton and perhaps some parasites that may or may not be a threat to your fishes (I heavily doubt that that they will be) but you leave in all the procaryotes. Do you really see that you will gain something from this treatment?

Jens

[revclyburn]

I use NSW during the summer, a little bit to cold in the winter for me. But, I've never had a problem with any water I collected. I wait till high tide, or a hour afterwards, go out on one of the jettis and collect 4 jugs full. Come home, and do a water change. I watch my fish and corals to see what the reaction, if any, is. Haven't have any as of yet.

I know alot of people that are just plain afraid to do this, I was too, till a friend of mines said he does it all the time. And his tank is absolutely gorgeous. So, I gave it a shot, and it works. ALSO, it's FREE, lol

Rev

[Roadtoad]

You had to go and ask! During my undergraduate life stage I was a researcher in the field of fish parasitology before I decided to study immunology focused on autoimmune diseases for my graduate work.

Although not perfect, a small filter will remove protozoa such as Amyloodinium ocellatum (Oodinium), Cryptocaryon irritans, Brooklynella hostilis, Uronema marinum whic are probably the biggest killers in the tropical fish trade. Parasitic isopods, copepods, Turbellarians such as Paravortex, as well as parasitic Trematodes, nematodes and cestodes also are important causes of fish mortality and will similarly be trapped by a 5 micron filter.

While I agree that some of these require intermediate hosts and others may require fecal-oral transmission, cestodes in particular, and many of the worms, proper filtration will eliminate the risk of adding these eukaryotic parasites to your tank full of expensive livestock.

We aren’t really worried about bacteria or we wouldn’t add live rock to our tanks. I am not downplaying their role in disease. I don’t think we have any idea which viruses in salt water are important pathogens of the tropical fish we keep. If you are at all concerned about adding bacteria or viruses them to your tank you can use ASW, filter to 0.2microns (wont get mycoplasma or viruses) or run everything through a UV irradiator very slowly to maximize the kill (even that wont touch some bacterial cysts). They used to recommend filling a tank full of NSW and letting it sit in the dark for weeks to kill most obligate parasites before use (wont necessarily kill viruses or all bacteria). Aquaculturists will filter, add bleach and then run it through a UV filter.

Again, while not perfect for every potential pathogen, I am just saying that it is safer to use filtered water that is free of eukaryotic parasites than to risk their introduction into our tanks.

[revclyburn]

My friend

most people will not think of a bio, lower level pathogens that might attack and destory their tank. I see that you have a lot to share, please share your info. I know alot of people that use NSW, but we are not looking at levels at the level you are. We, NSW users, we look at salinity, ca, pH, etc. If there is something esle we should be looking at, please tell us.

RevClyburn

[DarkXerox]

Originally posted by oama
No, ORA does not go off shore to get water. The hatcheries tend to not float very well.

ORA utilizes Saltwater Wells.

The Waikiki aquarium does the same. The really cool part about that is the concentration of minerals in the water.