LRS water in Your system.

[Gilraen Took]

I remember a post a while back where I had asked how one is supposed to get a sponge into their tank without getting it in the air OR getting LRS water into their system. This came up today at my LRS. I asked(it actually came up) the same thing, and he told me and the other customer "well, This water is safe to get into your system, but as a general rule you shouldn't add it." Heh, a bit pompus, but oh well. The reasons he cited were what I'd always heard/believed. When you get something in that you'd ordered, you have coral that has been sitting in waste water for at least a few hours. When you get something locally, you have no idea what was in the LRS's water. They may have parasites, bad parameters(nitrate waay high for example) or some sort of bad bacteria that your system isn't used to/can't handle. I realize in a small ammount, it probably would not hurt(ex. a few cups of water into a 300 gallon reef, the high nitrates would be lauged at, unless you've already got that problem). Also in a quarantine system it wouldn't really matter, since you could treat whatever parasite you found. SO, what do you think? I've always avoided putting LRS water into my tank(well, except with Omen, but she was the first living thing in there, so I doubted it mattered too much.) since that is what I've always been taught(even petco/smart have that warning on their bags). Any other opinions?

[Wiskey]

Even worse yet the LFS water may be treeted with Copper or some other meds, often times allot of LFS's run things like this in there FO systems 24/7.

I never let LFS water hit my tank if I can avoid it.
Whiskey

[Twitterbait]

honestly it really depends on what you are getting. Sponges and some gorgonians are the only things that must stay underwater at all times. the LFS should not be adding any copper to a system that has these in them or they will die. that leaves the only real danger being parasites or bacteria. if you can intro them into a qt tank first and then after a few weeks just use a glass or something to move them to the main tank.

if you can't do a qt you should just be quick with the transfer and pull the bag out with the water that remains inside.