sea water questions?

[Alfredo De La Fe]

One of the biggest mistakes made in our hobby is that people think it is OK to increase their bioload significantly even in an established tank. Even if your tank has been running for five years, it is not a good idea to add six large fish and a couple of new corals at the same time unless your tank is VERY large.

So I hope that I have made myself clearer on this. Whether a tank has been running for one day or two years, you still need to take it easy when adding livestock.

The main key to successful reefkeeping is patience.

Alfred

Thats a great article to read. Interesting to see the amounts of metals in the water compared to NSW.

Im reading your first comments all wrong. It read like "the tank is fully cycled and ready to go" and missing out the tank adjustments and stuff thats important when going through the next steps of adding livestock, how slow, ect. Alot of new people will read the first comments and think they can fully stock a tank the same day they add the cured LR which is what i tried to explain. Wasn't aimed at you Alfredo.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

so are you gonna help out or maybe post your logs? or is that ur lil secret? :shhh:

I agree!!! ... however. IN B4 THE LOCK!!!

I don't think any of my information would help you you.

 

[2slo4me]

I don't think any of my information would help you you.

so please stay off my thread and better yet stop wasting bandwidth. thanks o mighty king reefer. :lol:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

:wow:


I thought this was a public forum, freedom of speech and all.

:weekago:

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

I am not a mod, but posts that are intended to antagonize are out of line. If you post just to say "I have info, but my info is not going to help you" I just dont see the point.

I have tried very hard to stay out of the bickering, but please, dont mess up a good thread. Freedom of speech is not a guarantee on a private discussion forum. There is a reason why moderators exist, you should know, you are one.

Alfred

 

[2slo4me]

:wow:


I thought this was a public forum, freedom of speech and all.

:weekago:

yes it is. too bad i dont have the magical powers you have to DELETE. LOL

 

[2slo4me]

I am not a mod, but posts that are intended to antagonize are out of line. If you post just to say "I have info, but my info is not going to help you" I just dont see the point.

I have tried very hard to stay out of the bickering, but please, dont mess up a good thread. Freedom of speech is not a guarantee on a private discussion forum. There is a reason why moderators exist, you should know, you are one.

Alfred

Well Alfred welcome to MR where Chiefmcfuz is the KING MOD. and can do as he pleases. :irked:

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Guys, I am not trying to get personal here. But PLEASE leave these types of replies for private messages or in a thread of their own. I do not need my inbox cluttered nor do I want to ruin a perfectly good discussion. This goes for everyone. :screama:

This is the last I will write about this type of stuff... Please, lets get back to the topic.

Alfred

 

[jackson6745]

Back to topic

Have any of the bottled natural seawater users seen any results that would make them go through the effort of purchasing again? I know what the descriptions and labels on the bottle read.......I am looking for REAL experiences. IMO it doesn't look like there is anything to gain. If anything i would think that the living organisms in the water would die in the bottle and using the water would be counterproductive???

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Shimek's article used sea urchin larvae to test the water. Based on the results, I would say that NSW is considerably better for our animals. It certainly would stress them out less in the long run.

Alfred

 

[bizarrecorals]

might be more economical in the long run to install RO/DI + and buy salt, if you have a nano is okay, but I can't really imagine people buying that if you have a 150+ gallon tank. Do you know how much work that'll be.

 

[anthony27]

I have used this so called sea water when I went from a 20 gallon to a 46 bow front and of course I did not have a rodi and this was back in 2004 that I did this but I can tell you that I had to ccle out the tank again and as for that powerd stuff that they have the bio enzyme I do not trust that, old fasion buy rock and let it cycle out the tank as well I droped rock in m tank after 2 weeks and then ran the skimmer when it was in there. Good luck also some ppl say that running the lights for a long time produces bacteria i have not tested this out yet considering I do not have the time but in the future I will.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

I use Instant Ocean. But I may start using NSW for some of my water changes. It's about $2 a gallon, not too bad, I do about 30 gallons a month in water changes.

Perhaps we can work out some kind of monthly group buy if enough people are interested?

Alfred

 

[2slo4me]

Back to topic

Have any of the bottled natural seawater users seen any results that would make them go through the effort of purchasing again? I know what the descriptions and labels on the bottle read.......I am looking for REAL experiences. IMO it doesn't look like there is anything to gain. If anything i would think that the living organisms in the water would die in the bottle and using the water would be counterproductive???

Rich thats exactly what i was thinking especially since most bottled sea water comes with a cap. and because of lack of oxygen i would think there would be alot of die off.

 

[2slo4me]

I use Instant Ocean. But I may start using NSW for some of my water changes. It's about $2 a gallon, not too bad, I do about 30 gallons a month in water changes.

Perhaps we can work out some kind of monthly group buy if enough people are interested?

Alfred

thats sounds like an idea. i know there are plenty of ppl with nano tanks that would be down.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Catalina water is well filtered and they run it through UV, so I dont think there is much to be concerned about.

Alfred

Rich thats exactly what i was thinking especially since most bottled sea water comes with a cap. and because of lack of oxygen i would think there would be alot of die off.

 

[beerfish]

My opinion is that Instant Ocean is a great alternative to Natural Sea Water. But if NSW is available, quite frankly, no one has yet to improve on God's recipe/formula...
Alfred

'God' didn't intend for fish from around the world to be kept in a glass box in Manhattan. Water parameters vary throughout the world, and very few reefers maintain a regional biotope. Unless you're matching the water that your livestock comes from, you're already messing with the recipe.

Catalina water is filtered, ozonated, protein skimmed, and pH locked (as per their site), so a majority of what you don't find in synthetic is removed already.

I'm not saying don't use it, just that I'm doubtful that the chemical makeup is much different than synthetic when all is said and done. If I lived near an area that I could personally retrieve quality seawater from, I'd use nothing but.

 

[beerfish]

...and it's heavy. :irked:

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

I asked this question of a bio chemist once (also a reef keeper that was heavily involved in the hobby). His answer was that Sea Water is basically the same all over the world with the exception of alk and Calcium. Even specific gravity is pretty close unless there is fresh water runoff. He said that if I could collect water off of Long Island far enough out, that I could use it for my tank but would have to filter it.

This is a good question to pose to one someone like Joe Y. of Atlantis Marine Aquarium, I'll shoot him an email.

Alfred

'God' didn't intend for fish from around the world to be kept in a glass box in Manhattan. Water parameters vary throughout the world, and very few reefers maintain a regional biotope. Unless you're matching the water that your livestock comes from, you're already messing with the recipe.

Catalina water is filtered, ozonated, protein skimmed, and pH locked (as per their site), so a majority of what you don't find in synthetic is removed already.

I'm not saying don't use it, just that I'm doubtful that the chemical makeup is much different than synthetic when all is said and done. If I lived near an area that I could personally retrieve quality seawater from, I'd use nothing but.

 

[beerfish]