Question for the coast
 

Hi, just wondering if anyone uses seawater and adjusts everything to match for water changes?

I know a couple of guys in town that do it, but too risky for me. The risk of contaminants is too great.

Unless you have a boat.... :lol:

a boat that leaches out gas/oil etc

Natural Sea Water
 

There is alot of people in Nova scotia using NSW,with no problems at all.Most of them been doing it for years.I'm thinking about doing the same here in New Brunswick.


Pluff

I asked this very question to Dr. Ron Shimek - one of the reef gurus on Reef Central - he actually did graduate work here in BC and knows the area. He thought it would be perfectly safe, as long as you made sure you were in a good area. I know that people have had good results with going to Island View beach here in Victoria - I would bet that the water off West Van would be fine - not sure about the areas where the Fraser effluent is prominent.

I haven't done it myself, since I am more lazy than cheap - but it would be interesting to try. Might wander down to Shoal Bay near Trial Island where there are very fast currents and try it one time. Would at least be a good workout.

NSW
 

Do they sterilze the natural water?. I would think you risk catching Vibrio or many other "natural" micro flora and or pathagens??
Also reefs are slightly higher salinity ( I think) so do you add salt or simmer and reduce?

Natural pathogens
 

I would think with the temperature change and increasing the salinity of Pacific NorthWest NSW to reef suitable would probably eliminate all the microfauna /natural pathogens out of the PNWSW but thats my uneducated guess. I've read that people let the water sit for a few days or a week before using it. Vancouver aquarium uses nsw from the coast but it is apparently filtered through huge sand filters.

IMHO I would not do it. Salt and RO water are pretty cheap, and all it would take is one bad batch of water to possibly destroy your reef. Collecting live plankton I would consider, but water for water changes no.

Mike

Mike, very good point. For me to do a 20g water change, it costs about $7 for salt, RO water and power to mix the water.
To drive down to the dock, load 4 5g jugs in my boat and travel to where the water is actually clean, fill 4 heavy jugs with water, travel back to the dock, tie up the boat, carry 200 pounds of water to my car, drive it home, carry it in the house, put it in a large container to heat and add salt, stir for a day, etc, cost me at least $7 in fuel, many hours of my time (which is money, right?), and I still risk adding some unknown killer to my reef, just hardly seems worth the trouble. And my back hurts from carrying all that water around all day.

So why does one want to add NSW to their tank again??

Some American reefers use water truck services to fill their reefs... I've heard of people having the hose lifted up through their apartment window for water changes.

When I was in L.A. some 4 of 5 years ago and would visit the LFS's I noticed that a lot of them would have these huge water holding tanks filled with something they called "Catalina water." Which I assumed to be seawater from Catalina Island or nearby.

Only thing is I don't think it any harder to keep 30g onhand of Catalina than it would be keeping synthetic onhand, but the nice thing about synthetic is I can make up as much as I want (as long as I have the salt onhand). Fill up my 30g rubbermaid with water, mix in my salt, and away we go... and I hopefully don't have to worry if I'm adding sewage or motor oil or whatever when I use it.

yes but this water has been steralized and filtered. there was a big thread on it on RC.

Steve

I read in one of the magazines about using seawater, an aquarium used sea water and would basically pump the NSW into an old swimming pool, chlorinate it for 24 hours then de chlorinate it and then filter it. Synthetic looks pretty good to me.

Doug

Is the water from the taps on the piers filtered as well?