Gulf of Mexico Saltwater Testing

[ZoWhat]

Just came back from a 2 week vacation from Destin FL.

While there bought a fish from a LFS the day of leaving back to Cincinnati OH, 750 miles away, 11hr drive back home.

After buying the fish and placing in bucket with airstone.... realizes I didn't have any emergency saltwater just in case.

Literally right before heading North, stopped by a Ft Walton Beach and grabbed a half gallon of saltwater waist deep.

Never ended up using it.

So to curb my curiosity, I tested the water....

Salifert NO3 Test

SeaChem PO4 Test

Salifert Calcium = 350ppm

Salifert Magnesium = 1220ppm

Salinity = 1.025 ~1.026


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[NashobaTek]

Interesting on the levels of po4, calcium and magnesium

 

[ZoWhat]

Couldn't do a Alk test. Out of regents

 

[tehmadreefer]

Not surprised since you are getting water from the beach area which is more polluted with stuff/people then offshore.

 

[brmreefer]

Stumbled across this thread.

Interesting to see someone test the Gulf here. I'm in Milton, FL and was always curious about testing the local waters.

I don't use the Salifert test often with my test kits, but do you remember what the NO3 levels were at for your test at that time.

Hope you enjoyed your vacation whilst down here.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Salifert Calcium = 350ppm

Salifert Magnesium = 1220ppm

Salinity = 1.025 ~1.026


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Normal seawater that is not impacted locally by a river still obviously varies with salinity, but for a sg of 1.025, one expects a calcium level of 397 and magnesium of 1212 ppm.

 

[brandon429]

Id love to see ammonia here, aka is the whole ocean a stalled cycle as the test would certainly indicate for any aquarists