Natural Sea Water in a Reef Tank???

[emanliame]

Posted this as part of another thread, but some might avoid that original topic. Does anyone have experience with using natural sea water in their tank? I live by the ocean and I'm wondering if that helps or hurts. Certainly, one would at least need to avoid collecting water near a source of pollution (roads, runoff, waste water treatment plants, airports, etc.).

[fihsboy]

A big problem you will incur......if the water close to your house was good enough to sustain a reef.....then there would be corals off the coast of your area. That being said.....90% of the time the water doesnt have the essential elements that you will need. Calcium wont be as high as it is on a reef....there may be nitrates etc. I might use a cup of it to grab some bacteria from the ocean.......but then your still running a risk.

[chrisd]

i dont think the essential elements will change i think it has more to do with the water temperature.

[crvz]

I'm not so sure I agree about coral being present or the contents of the elements in the water being off... but before we get into it, emanliame where do you live?

[Loverotties]

You can buy it from Petco(5 gallon container),but if you want to take it from the ocean you need to go out a couple miles and dive down deep to get clean water.

[emanliame]

Originally Posted by crvz

I'm not so sure I agree about coral being present or the contents of the elements in the water being off... but before we get into it, emanliame where do you live?

I'm in San Diego!

[Jnicho]

I used NSW when I lived in CT years ago, but it was a local sp. tank...I also used NSW for a reef tank when I live in WA...nutrients were always too high in the NSW as compared to what is on a wild reef...in WA I collected my water on the incoming tide well away from large populated areas (3 hours west of Seattle)...being in the San Diego area unless you go way off shore there will be way too many nutrients for algae blooms etc. pretty much anywhere you go close to shore...IMO/IME I would stick with mixing your own water from commercial salt mixes.

[raskal311]

Originally Posted by Loverotties

You can buy it from Petco(5 gallon container),but if you want to take it from the ocean you need to go out a couple miles and dive down deep to get clean water.

That Petco stuff is from Catalina Water Co taken out of Long Beach harbor in S. Cal; not really far out and not deep and it’s in a dirty harbor. I’m not sure if they use a different source in other parts of the country.

[raskal311]

Originally Posted by emanliame

I'm in San Diego!

If you are able to pump water from below the surface a hundred yeard or so out then I say go for it.

I just did a 40 gallon water change with catalina NSF and have been using it since I put the tank up. I’m getting good softy growth and coralline is growing like crazy. My power head that has been in the tank for about 3-4 months is already clogged and needs serious cleaning. I don’t supplement for anything so all trace elements were from the large bi weekly water change. My SPS growth has been slow but they are healthy. I plan to switch to Tropic Marin mix soon now that I have a lot more SPS.

[bb0029]

I would be afraid that I would get some contaminants in the water from boats and such. You could go 15 miles from shore and I don;t think it would matter. We would watch the navy ships come back in from a tour and while they were still in international water they would dump all kinds of stuff into the ocean. You could see them with a bobcat just chunking stuff into the ocean. It was disturbing to watch but they out gunned me lol.

[fihsboy]

I live in florida......and the water off of jax is nothing like whats on a tropical reef. Water temp is around 75-78. siltation is not a problem......but we do have deep water reefs off the coast.......they just recently found out its possibly the biggest deepwater reef in the world. But I used to go out to the peir and grab water....Its just not the same.
I also think that a huge factor in why the results are different here.....the St. Johns River flows straight out of here. It flows north all through florida and out here. So calcium levels are less.