Anyone using real ocean water (besides me)?

[dennisd78418]

Is anyone out there using real ocean water in their tanks (besides me)? If so, how do you gather and purify your water?

Here's what I'm doing currently: I live very close to the beach, so I simply drive on to the beach (this is legal in Texas, yee-ha!) with 6 five gal. buckets. I use one for a dipper and the other 5 for storage. I filter the water through a two layer filter: one layer of fiberglass screening, and one layer of weed barrier sheeting. I store the water in 25 gal. trash cans. ( I store up to 100 gal. at a time). The water is held for at least 2 weeks before use. During this time the plankton in the water dies and is consumed by bacteria. When used, the water is crystal clear. There is a layer of fine silt-like detritus on the bottom that should be left undisturbed.

Does anyone else use a similar system? Any tips or techniques I could use?

 

[Anonymous]

Nope, but if I lived closer to the ocean I would!

 

[Len]

Out of curiousity, have you tested the water for the usual suspects? What I fear most about beachwater is the contaminants we can't test for at home, such as industrial run-off and bacterial levels.

I've used real ocean water, but I purchase them from the Catalina Water Co. They collect water 25-35 miles off shore and process the water through a bank of micro, sediment filters, carbon, and UV filters (perhaps ozone as well).

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, they ozone the water as well as protein skim it.

 

[Bojangles]

When I can get up there I go to the Seattle Aquarium and buy water from them. They have a pumping station that sells you RO/DI saltwater for 5cents a gallon. Comes straight from the ocean and runs out at tap power. Other times I dont or cant make it up there I use regular saltwater mix. Right now I'm using Coralife salt mix and I really like it.

 

[coastal]

I use it but I live on the beach. I dont collect it from there. I jump in the boat and collect it offshore (anywhere from 3 to 20 miles off) It works great. All I do is gravity feed it through a uv and thats it no waiting game and the acros love it I guess they do there growing dannear out of the tank

 

[Anonymous]

When I can get up there I go to the Seattle Aquarium and buy water from them. They have a pumping station that sells you RO/DI saltwater for 5cents a gallon. Comes straight from the ocean and runs out at tap power. Other times I dont or cant make it up there I use regular saltwater mix. Right now I'm using Coralife salt mix and I really like it.

So is it RO/DI or is it ocean water?

 

[Anonymous]

I've used water from the L.I. Sound. The reason I stopped is that it was a hassel to collect and to readjust the salinity. I did't have any problems with the water except for collection and preparation. If I lived off the gulf or the FL keys I would use NSW all the time.

 

[Anonymous]

From my understanding, Offshore is the best way to collect..there are a few tips to check to see if the Ocean water is good...hold it up to the light and see if you can see microorganisms..More than likely that water isnt contaminated...also checking the water surface for oily residue is a good way to make a quick check also...Without proper test kits which are probably out most peoples price ranges it isnt easy to completely tell.

 

[Bojangles]

So is it RO/DI or is it ocean water?

Its ocean water that they purify. I believe I was told its RO/DI but I cant be sure exactly what they do. I just assumed that they send ocean water through the unit instead of tap water like we do.

 

[Anonymous]

>...I just assumed that they send ocean water through the unit instead of tap water like we do.

I doubt that very much, unless Seattle get so little rain that water is more expensive than gaseline and milk on per gallon basis.

 

[Fastmarc]

I collect my NSW from an area that is very low traffic, even by boats and open to deep sea. The area I collect from doesn't suffer from any land run-off, but I still never collect for a few days following rain fall.
Fifteen mins after being collected, the water is in my tank. I do not filter it and as a result the corals goes into full feeding mode during water changes. My water is also teeming with life and my fish and corals have a feast during lights out.
It is definitely a big plus for my tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I use natural sea water - and although I live close to the ocean, I purchase it from my LFS.
I'd have to live on the beach and have access to a very long pier nearby to bother collecting it myself.

 

[starfish 1]

I have been collecting nsw for eight years now. It is from a seserted fishing pier.I filter the water in a 500 liter vat this filtering is done with a large cannister filter,filled with carbon, filter wool and a poly filter. We take a bucket and 25 liter drums and fill them.We trolley the drums to the car. Before that I used to buy it from my LFS. But I found out there collecting method was not to my liking. I have to say it has worked for me never have had desease out break during our summer month I have a small algea problem wich goes as the cooler month approach. 8)

 

[dennisd78418]

quote-

Out of curiousity, have you tested the water for the usual suspects? What I fear most about beachwater is the contaminants we can't test for at home, such as industrial run-off and bacterial levels.
__________________________________________________________

Nope, I don't test the water. Run-off is not a big concern at my location. I live on a barrier island, and run-off from the mainland (and the island) is fed into the bay, not into the Gulf. The nearest channel from bay to Gulf is several miles away, from my collection location. The island itself is relatively sparsley populated to North (for the time being anyway), and directly to the South is Padre Island National Seashore; the longest stretch of undeveloped ocean beach in the United States.

 

[garagebrian]

I live in Texas as well and work on Galveston Island. However, there is NO way I would collect water here, just too much junk coming out of the Houston shipping channel and the sand is silica based. I just would be too afraid of pollutants to collect it. So I use artificial seawater.

B.

 

[tld]

One of my "other duties as needed" for my job is to drive a large pick-up truck to the coast (135 miles away) and collect seawater from our marine lab. The seawater is collected in the estuary and continually pumped to the lab. They do have some in-line mechanical filtration (which requires a lot of maintanance) and they don't worry too much at the coast about the effects of storage because they are continually getting fresh seawater.

I collect 1000 gallons at a time and drive it back inland. Fortunately the trailer does have some baffles in it to help reduce the effects of sloshing. It's quite a load when that trailer is full (don't get me started on the idiot drivers out there who have no clue how long it would take me to stop that thing - I have much respect for truck drivers after having to haul my comparitively small load.)

Inland we have 2 storage vats that each hold 2500 gallons. We have a lab facility that makes use of the water and additionally we use it for several display aquariums. It can take anywhere from 2-12 months to use all 5000 gallons. We advise all of our users to at least filter it with a 5 micron bag, although we don't do that for our display aquariums. By using nearshore natural seawater, it naturally has a higher organic content (the water has a yellow tint to it), so we run carbon as necessary. Also, because it is collected from an estuary, I have to make sure I collect at high tide when the salinity is full strength. I cannot collect after periods of heavy rains and I try to avoid the spring and fall plankton blooms. Other than that, it has been working well for us for the past 20 years.

 

[dennisd78418]

Tid-

That's great info, and comforting that it has worked well for so long. I should mention that I, too, use carbon filtration in my tank. I sometimes notice a slight yellow tint to the water when I gather it, but I've never seen it in the tank itself. Probably the carbon takes care of that.

 

[HClH2OFish]

pumping station that sells you RO/DI saltwater for 5cents a gallon. Comes straight from the ocean [/b]and runs out at tap power. Other times I dont or cant make it up there I use regular saltwater mix. Right now I'm using Coralife salt mix and I really like it.

So is it RO/DI or is it ocean water?

LOL the answer is *yes*