Boxed Salt Water/types of water to start

[jresha]

I have a general, beginner question...Any help is appreciated.
When it comes to water, does anyone have any info on this "REAL" salt water that comes in a box, pre mixed and ready to go? Also, how do you suggest to get started? What kind of water should I use to start my mix? Tap water? Distilled water from the super market? Any special water?
Any and all info will be a huge help!!

 

[drunktank]

buy an R/O unit off ebay, they are very cheap. Don't use the boxed salt water. It has been the boards experience after testing that they aren't equal in terms of saility, and other readings.

R/O water is the best you will get, and safest for your tank. Its an investment that every reefer should make.

 

[charile1]

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/reefs-beginners/23046-new-reefkeeping.html

 

[jresha]

I appreciate all of your help and advice. I am a beginner in this hobby and have found that pretty much everyone that has some level of experience tries to go above and beyond to help a fellow reefer, no matter the experience level. Thanks again for all of your comments and related articles. I will be asking more questions as I get further along in my set up!!

 

[HAVIC]

My buddy was using exclusively the Catalina Water Company Boxed saltwater sold at Petco on a 24gal aquapod. He was suffering from major algae problems, so I brought by my Hanna meter and the boxed Catalina water which claims zero phosphates, tested at .16 which is amazingly high. I would highly recommend that you get a rodi unit.

Needless to say I will be giving him some buckets of the home made goodness and I am convincing him to get an RODI. However he wants to try the Nutri Seawater. I will report back the phosphates of the nutri if he gets it.

 

[jgiordano]

I have been using it since I started (only 5 months ago) and have no complaints. I test it for phosphate, salinity and PH and have never had a problem. I have not had any algae problems either.

The day I bought 10 - 5g boxes to start my tank; I read a thing on catalina saying it had nitrates and high phosphates. I tested 7 boxes and they were all 0. So it could be luck.

Either way you will be testing if you mix, or use real. I choose not to mix b/c for a few reasons.

 

[EmilyT]

i used boxed saltwater and im very dissatisfied. the salinity is about 40ppt so i have to buy a RO/DI unit anyways to dillute it. RO/DI's will pay for themselves in no time compared to buying boxed salt water time and time again. even if you do go with natural seawater, you will need to mix your water change water to the right salinity and you need freshwater to top off from evaporation.
i highly suggest getting a RODI unit if you go either way, so you can top off and mix to the right salinity

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

i used boxed saltwater and im very dissatisfied.

You can't argue with experience :lol2:

Here is my dark dirty little reef secret. I have been using catalina water since day 1 on my 29. I had it F/O for about a year and a half before I joined here and made it a reef.

I have set up my current and past aquariums using solely distilled water and catalina water and I have had no problems. If you have any questions about my tank and how it looks there are plenty of pics in my gallery. Take a look.

 

[jresha]

All of your advice and experience is awesome. Thanks so much for leading me in the right direction. I have a few other hobbies besides this one and I have never found the collective group in any of those other hobbies to be as friendly, helpful or just all around good people as I have found in the Reefer community. I am quite honored to be a part of this community, although i am still quite inexperienced.
Thanks again and good luck on all of your tanks.

Joe

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

With so many of you having problems boxed water, I really wonder what's wrong with the boxed natural sea water we can buy(I mean during the packing, storage or blah blah blah), especially the ones sold by Catalina Water Company because I know a lot of public aquariums, research facilities, and a lot of aquarium fish distributors rely on their natural sea water. Do they sell different water in the tankers compare to the boxes:scratchch I think a lot of reefing magazine and online TRUSTED sites are using their water as base of reference too. It looks as if their water is only good for large facilities not for very small closed environment.