Long Island Water

[Paul B]

other than saving money on buying salt, how beneficial can the NSW be if you are treating it with Clorox? The bleach will kill all the beneficial bacteria you're looking to add to your system. At that point, it's almost like adding ASW. You've obviously got all the essential and trace elements in the water, but none of the good bacteria.

Swimmer. I very rarely treat NSW. I only do that if I think there is a red tide or if it smells.

I am not interested in the life in the sea water, it will die in my reef anyway, I am looking for the trace elements. For bacteria I collect amphipods along with the associated mud to add to my tank. NSW is not like ASW. It is a completely different animal. If I had the time I would use 100% NSW. Today I collected dozens of snails and some unknown eggs for my Sound tank but unfortunately one of the girls got hurt and I forgot them on my boat. I will probably have a smelly mess tomorrow and I will have to collect again. There is a chance that the stuff will still be alive but I will still dump it back in and get new stuff. In the tide pool where I collect there are about 1,000,000 snails, ( I counted) so that is not a problem. I also collected some associated mud which I will add.
The water is a little cold but I still stayed in for 45 minutes or so. Hopefully tomorrow will be as nice as today and I will collect a nice batch of stuff. The amphipods are out in force and I will get a few thousand.
Have a great night and a better day tomorrow.
Take care
Paul
PS Bob it is one tablespoon of "Regular" Clorox to 5 gallons. It MUST be "Regular" Clorox or you will kill everything in your tank in seconds (don't ask)
You need to keep the Clorox in there for a week then add twice the amount of chlorine remover and airate. If it still smells like chlorine, don't use it yet. It will disapate eventually.
Don't add Clorox to your tank

 

[Bob 1000]

Thanks will do...With neccessary precautions...

 

[firehazard]

to my understanding nsw has better bacteria and if someone would collect nsw (depending on where) it would have to be treated with clorox. what about and inverts? i.e. snails, crabs etc. would there be a quarantine for them? nsw or asw? what about natural algae to your fuge.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

to my understanding nsw has better bacteria and if someone would collect nsw (depending on where) it would have to be treated with clorox. what about and inverts? i.e. snails, crabs etc. would there be a quarantine for them? nsw or asw? what about natural algae to your fuge.

Inverts I collected around the NY beaches are tuff animals, they hardly die. The algae I collected is another story. it looks as if they need more light than my systems have. I generally under light my tanks by at least 50% of most reefers.

 

[Paul B]

You don't have to quarintine crabs and snails as they don't carry ich. If you are going to use NSW without any treatment anyway there would no point quarantining the animals that come from there. If you are worried about paracites in NSW then you either have to heat it, bleach it or keep it for 6 weeks before use. I personally never had a problem with paracites from northern water. Our water maybe too cold for ich to multiply. The water now is in the sixtees, much too cold for ich.
As for the seaweed, most of it needs colder water than our tanks to live. Only a few types will live, codium is one.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

As for the seaweed, most of it needs colder water than our tanks to live. Only a few types will live, codium is one.

Arrgh, 4get about the temperature factor-good catch.

 

[Paul B]

CharlieTuna, the water from Jones Inlet is fine, just get it on an incoming tide.
Joe I usually get my water from the Sound as that is where my boat is. The water in the Sound is questionable especially the western Sound. The farther east, the better. I sometimes collect right under the Throgs Neck bridge but it is not very good there for obvious reasons and I usually bleach it. I would much rather get it from the ocean beaches out east.
Paul

 

[Will]

I have not read all the posts in this thread but I get my water ( for water changes)from Shinnecock inlet and have been since last summer. It also helps that I live 10 minutes from the inlet.......I get it at high tide right next to the inlet where there is a dock. I get (3) 5 gal buckets , it takes about 10 minutes. In fact I have been there when the AMW tanker was right next to me filling up. You obviously don't have to get NSW miles from shore for it to be ok. My tank never looked better than when I started using this water.In fact I had problems wth my Zoo's and the difference was amazing when I started using this water. I will never mix my own water unless I have to. BTW the S.G. is always 1.024 at the inlet . I add B Ionic part 1 and 2 to increase calcium ...alk which is a liittle low..

 

[lfsmarineguy]

some ASW mixes can contain more than 400% higher copper levels than NSW and other heavy metals. I have messed with little 10g local tanks using only NSW I get from Long Beach (where I live) and they have always done fine. Never gotten the nerve up to use it in my main reef tank mainly because I don't have a boat to go out and get it and the beach water has a ton of particles in it. I am also weary due to the pathogens that may be present in local waters that our mainly pacific inhabitants can have a potentially catastrophic reaction to since they have never come in contact with them before and have no defense. I am going to put together another 10g and using only frags from my main tank use NSW from the beach here and see what happens as far as growth and overall health. I will keep track of everything with photos and if it works maybe I'll try it with my 120g that is sitting here waiting for me to set it up lol.

 

[jgiordano]

I would think another thing to keep in mind would be to not collect a couple of days after rainfall due to run off.

Although I have not used local NSW; I have been using catalina NSW. It makes starting a small tank much easier than mixing, and I am pretty happy w/ the results.

 

[jhale]

I'd like to try using NSW, but carrying it up my 4 flight walk up would be no fun. I can collect off the beaches in Easthampton, it sounds like from what Paul has said that the water would be clean enough.
re: what lfsmarineguy mentioned I wonder if Shaun could include a LI NSW sample in his study and see if he can find any nasties in there.

Paul, how long could you store the NSW? is there a time limit for it sitting in a sealed 5G bucket outside on a patio?

anybody have a pump I can borrow that has about 60' of HH ? :scratchch :Up_to_som

 

[Paul B]

Jhale, if you use the water within a few hours you need do nothing to it. If you keep it for a day it will turn cloudy due to the bacteria multiplying on the sides of the container. In a week it will clear up and then can either be used or stored indefinately in the dark to discourage algae. I also would keep it sealed to keep out oxygen and stop evaporation.
Paul

 

[Will]

I have stored water from Shinnecock Inlet in sealed 5 gal buckets for up to three weeks with no ill effects to my tank.Usually tho I use it in 2 weeks. I 'm not sure about getting water from the beach as it is not flushed out with clean water as it is in the inlets.

 

[daisy]

Having read this entire thread, and living about 1000 feet from the Hudson River, all I can say is that I am TICKED that i can't use this water.... Or any of the water near me.

 

[Paul B]

Daisy, i would not use the water from the Hudson for anything. The Hudson is mainly fresh water and the only reason thert is salt in the southern parts is from tidal surge from NY harbor. It is unsuitable. But you are less than an hour from the ocean atlantic beaches and even closer to Coney Island beach.
Paul

 

[lfsmarineguy]

in testing the waters around long island you have to consider the fact that there are 2 distinct bodies, the sound and the actual ocean. I would assume that the ocean is infinitely better than any water you could take from the sound based just on the turnover rate. Also,, does anyone know specifics on how AMW treats their water before they use it? If it's not hard to do and their reef is doing that well I'd find it hard not to try it out.

 

[Paul B]

Lfsmarineguy. If you live on Long Beach your water is fine with no treatment. You can filter it if you like to remove jellyfish but I wouldn't do anything else to it. I have been using it since Nixon was President. He was after Lincoln.
Paul

 

[jhale]

a 100 micron filter sock would help remove the sediment and any stray jelly fish.

 

[Paul B]

That is correct, you can also use a coffee filter. I usually diatom filter it because it sometimes has a shight green tinge which is single celled algae which will not bother anything.
Paul

 

[cb747]

I have been using it since Nixon was President. He was after Lincoln.
Paul

Man Paul your old LOL