Your opinion on Nutri~SeaWater?

[ryangrieder]

hey guys i just wanted an opinion on what your guys think about this Nutri Seawater.

my issue is is that i have a 29g bio cube with the bio cube skimmer, took all the bio balls out and put in two small chemi-pures, small ROWAphos and those bio balls filled with media like sponge, carbon, ect. i set it up about 5 times in the past half a year because my phosphate levels and algae was CRAZY high and litterly over night the hair algae would keep growing and cover all my corals. i do have decent lighting on it but only kept it on a timer about 6-7 hours a day. i have 2 power compacts, one purple actinic 410-420, and a 50/50 420/10K, and then 3 1w leds. one white and two 460 actinic. anyway i recently broke everything down and started all over, but i was reccomended from a few reefers to use Nutri-seawater.
http://www.nutriseawater.com/
thats the link to there site and ect.

so i did it and got 30g worth of it and filled the tank up and doing pretty good on the whole "patience" thing. its been running for about 2 1/2 months now with two 5 pound peices of popcorn fugi rock. no algae, crystal clear, everything looks great. i have been doing my small water changes and top off water with nutri-sea water as well. i just want to know what you guys think about it. you think i should still dose things like calcium, dkh, magnesium, yadda yadda....? ill take any advice, im just curious about it and if it was a good move. thanks guys

 

[jrobbins]

you are using the nutrisea water for topoff??? that will not work out well at all.

as for your question, there is no point in dosing until you need to due to the demands of your corals. keep doing water changes and you should be fine.

also, petco boxed water is much cheaper if you are going to go this route.

 

[JonnyJ]

Top offs should be done with R/O water. When the water evaporates from the tank the salt doesn't. Therefor when evaporation occurs your salt levels increase, you counter that by adding R/O water to the tank.

Like Jrobbins said you should not have to dose at all. The Nutrisea Water contains all of the trace elements needed.

Make sure you have test kits for magnesium calc etc so when you start to fill the tank up with corals you can see what you are lacking and dose accordingly. i have been set up for 6 months and do water changes once a week on my 34 solana and have not had to dose. The water changes replenish every trace element needed for my soft corals but sometimes some salts brands are low in some trace elements. in your case if you want piece of mind check your nutrisea water before you add it to your tank and check your tank daily if you wish.

 

[h2o]

Nutri~seawater, the salnity in that water is very high plus if u use it as top off u just keep adding more salt to the fish tank. for top of use clean water and check your salnity , hope someone can explain it better

 

[ryangrieder]

im retarted. i did not mean top off with the nutri water. i have a ro unit by h2o-science that i use for top off. i ment when i physically took water out and did a water change (which was only once so far) i used that nutri water again. and actually after i filled the tank the salnity was low. only around 021. i usually keep mine at 023-024.

and hey jrobbins. im ryan. i think its you, but i was one of the ones who went to your house and got your 150g for my friend james. i was the one who was admiring your cube tank.

 

[jrobbins]

hey man,

yeah i remember you. so did he get the tank setup yet?

 

[ryangrieder]

you kidding me, yes he did that weekend, i ripped the sump wall out and replaced it and it worked great. the whole tank is up and running real good and everything was fine. we had to do alot of plumming work but in the end it looked great. now he just has to find a 72 inch light, but other then that it looks great. he will be posting pics on here soon once it is packed up.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Petco water. Cheaper for more and works well. I do water changes with it but in a pinch I use nutriseawater.

 

[jackson6745]

IMO buying any bottled seawater is a waste. It's not going to do anything that synthetic made water won't. There are too many witch oils and other products that utilize vague terms in the hobby. "Trace minerals"......My urine has trace minerals. You wanna dose that?

 

[lfsmarineguy]

If you test the levels in 5 different bottles of nutrisea you will get 5 different results. I haven't dealt with it in years but I remember getting a few that were slightly discolored or smelled off. You can't keep a tank stable when the water going in is different every time. If you have an R.O. unit just use it and get a good synthetic mix.

 

[James983]

I heard bad things about Nurtisea water. Remember whatever is alive when collected is dead by time you put it in your tank.

 

[nsiegel5]

I used it on my first reef because the lfs guy told me it was the best thing you could do. Ofcourse I was naive about everything at that point so I believed everything they told me. Everything went well with my tank but my wallet got thin. I dont use the stuff anymore and although I dont have anything bad to say about it I dont think it is necessary. I think using a good RO unit with a good salt mix is much more economical and easier.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

My reason for using the Petco water is simple. Room. I don't have the room for it in my condo with my 2 kids and my wife occupying 98% of the living space here. The cost of salt, membranes and unit plus replacing media is pretty much the same from what I have researched. I have set up every tank I have had with petco, nutri, and carib sea seawater. Never had a bad thing happen that was caused by the water I just monitor the salinity and dilute as needed with distilled water. I check the TDS of the distilled water before I use it as well.

It works for me. I have 2 small tanks. If it works for you then go ahead. If you want to go the salt mix, RO/DI direction There is nothing wrong with it. Also just an FYI, my water changes from start to finish on both tanks take about 10 minutes.

 

[cali_reef]

im retarted. i did not mean top off with the nutri water. i have a ro unit by h2o-science that i use for top off. i ment when i physically took water out and did a water change (which was only once so far) i used that nutri water again. and actually after i filled the tank the salnity was low. only around 021. i usually keep mine at 023-024.

and hey jrobbins. im ryan. i think its you, but i was one of the ones who went to your house and got your 150g for my friend james. i was the one who was admiring your cube tank.

How many gallons are you making for the top off each time? Have you test the TDS of the RO water?

 

[ryangrieder]

well the tank is only a 29 so it does not waist that much water, every week it takes like 2 gallons. i can check on the TDS cause i have that screen on it, what is it suppost to be at? thanks everyone else for the advice so far!

 

[E.intheC]

IMO buying any bottled seawater is a waste. It's not going to do anything that synthetic made water won't. There are too many witch oils and other products that utilize vague terms in the hobby. "Trace minerals"......My urine has trace minerals. You wanna dose that?

LOL.

It's also a lot more to ship (environmental impact..). You're paying probably 20x as much as you'd pay if you bought salt and regular RO water.

 

[cali_reef]

well the tank is only a 29 so it does not waist that much water, every week it takes like 2 gallons. i can check on the TDS cause i have that screen on it, what is it suppost to be at? thanks everyone else for the advice so far!

RO filters don't make "clean" water for the first few gallons, you should get a 5 gallon drinking bottle anf make at least that much at a time, preferably dumping out the first gallon or so. You should look into adding on a color changing DI unit if you don't want to go thru the hassle of making 5 gallon batches.

Preferred TDS is 0.

 

[ryangrieder]

well im only paying 5 bucks for the 4.4 gallon container from my buddy who gets it for me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-RO-DI-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439cb81194

thats the unit i have. seems to be working real well. my 72g has been doing fine. i use the ro water in it all the time but personally i dont notice a difference at all with it between tap and ro, my corals have always been happy. i just wanted to do something better and thats why i did that nutri water. i really just wanted to know if it is as good as it says it is and if i should use any other additives with it. i just want my tank the best as possible. my car has been broken for awhile so i dont go home that often and been staying at my girlfriends every night and stop home a few times a week to check on it. i just want to make it as easy as possible to keep it clean and algae free. my evo will be fixed in about 2 weeks so i can be home every night and mess with it and finally start building my reef back up. still, i just want the best things i can be doing for my biocube. also, is my filter set up good or do you suggest adding anything or whatnot? thanks