Natural Sea Water ?

[ahayes13]

So i saw an article this evening and got me thinking about it.

I know many attraction aquariums use natural sea water. But what about using NSW in our home tanks?

Does anyone here use NSW? Or anyone have any experience with this or thoughts, opinions?

If you did get NSW to use would you then have to filter it somehow?

I live in Florida and it would be feasable for me to use NSW and was just curious about everyones thoughts or experiences...

 

[Cuda]

It would be hard to get unless you were on the coast

 

[ahayes13]

im only 30 mins from clearwater beach area...

 

[seafansar]

My dad grew up on Anna Maria island. He kept a saltwater tank in his dad's hardware store. There was no such thing as a lfs then, so he caught all his own fish, collected his own rock and sand, and used NSW. He never kept corals (alive at least). He would collect the water on an incoming tide, keep it in a trash can for a week or so to make sure anything in it died, and put it in the tank. He apparently was really good about making water changes. lol.

I'd be afraid to use NSW now, just cause the water near shore is probably polluted.

 

[Acezwild]

clear water would be nice idea but the brown water by me would be interesting on my skimmer lol

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I would think you would need to go way out off the beach several miles to get clean enough water.

 

[ahayes13]

yeah rev. thats kind of what i was thinking as well. that you would prob. have to go out 5 miles or so to get decent water. i wonder about high tide though when fresher water gets pushed in?

 

[cloakerpoked]

I would think you would need to go way out off the beach several miles to get clean enough water.

I don't know...granted that I'm sure the saltwater off our coasts is more poluted than the saltwater in some of the reefs in the bahama areas, but I think if you were careful enough with where you collected it, the ocean is a HUGE place. Any polutant, even being added several miles away, unless it was very very toxic, would be diluted to almost untestable levels by the time it got very far.

Obviously fish would be a lot more tolerant to slightly imperfect water conditions, so a stock list of what you're keeping in your tank would be helpful. And I'll assume it's reef animals so that would make me think that it's not worth the risk.

 

[ReefDreams]

i use nsw on my tank and i haven't had any issues. (knocking on wood)
i just try to do my water changes when ever they get a fresh shippment in.

 

[Nate82]

yea I've heard of lots of people usin NSW with no problems. They just get it filtered I believe.

 

[bodofraggins]

i would like to use clean nsw. I have heard people swear it was better for their animals

 

[Aloha Corals]

I use and have used NSW since i have been in Hawaii. There are two places to get it here, Waikiki Aquarium & Anuinui Fisheries. Both sources come from underground salt water wells. Since it is from the wells there is little to no oxygen. Both facilities use large aeration tanks bring the o2 levels up.

I would never think about grabbing it myself. From polluted harbors to shores with city run off and tourists sun tan lotion.

I'm thinking of going back to mixing. My issue is i had a ich breakout that killed a lot of money in fish. Thinking about it, there is no real way to get rid of ich using NSW. You can quarantine all you want, but you still may introduce it through the fresh NSW.

I guess i could UV it before using. Not sure if that will kill ich. Probably... UV kills everything.

AC-Kevin