I live in the Bahamas and have a house on the beach. Does anyone have any experience in plumbing a tank directly to the ocean? The water in front of our home is very clean and clear with many types of fish thriving there. Will I need to have a filtration system or can I just pump the water in and have an overflow for the old water?
Plumbing direct to the sea
- Thread starter Raymond Fanelli
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Crabs McJones
I'm so shi-nay
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Article Contributor
Moderator Emeritus
Hospitality Award
Reef Tank 365 Boss
Wisco Reefers
My Tank Thread
Welcome to R2R! I'm not sure on your question, I live in the middle of the country lol. I guess my biggest concern would be contaminants and unwanted pests getting into the system this way. But hopefully someone else chimes in with an answer to your question
#welcomeToR2R
Welcome to R2R!!! I would love to have your problem... Bahamas....house on the beach.....
I'm actually further inland than Crabs!
I'm actually further inland than Crabs!
Muttley000
Valuable Member
Welcome to R2R. I would suggest you take a bucket of water and leave it set in the dark for 24 hours. I think you would be surprised what settled out! I would guess (I’m not sure not an expert and never tried it) you would need to be turning enough water over to evacuate this stuff. Now there is a lot of info out here on preparing natural sea water for aquarium use though.
dantimdad
7500 Club Member
In an old aquarium book I have(I will have to look again for the name) the author mentions doing this and the settle out tank he had.
Basically, he pumped water to a settling tank and then to the aquarium. It was done at a very slow flow to allow the settling and, IIRC, it was the first usage of UV I had read about as well.
If I were to do it, that would be how I would do it. And I would shut the flow down a couple times a month to clean the settling tank and UV unit.
Basically, he pumped water to a settling tank and then to the aquarium. It was done at a very slow flow to allow the settling and, IIRC, it was the first usage of UV I had read about as well.
If I were to do it, that would be how I would do it. And I would shut the flow down a couple times a month to clean the settling tank and UV unit.
eggplantparrot
Valuable Member
Can you plumb in a settling chamber with low flow so all the pests and stuff you dont want would stay in there, and you could just clean it out once in a while.
Build a big overflow into it to dump excess water back to the ocean when your main pump to the tank is off.
Build a big overflow into it to dump excess water back to the ocean when your main pump to the tank is off.
TerraFerma
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2017
- Messages
- 840
- Reaction score
- 634
...
TerraFerma
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2017
- Messages
- 840
- Reaction score
- 634
Public aquariums by the water usually have some sort of rudimentary particle filter. And a UV would help cut down on unwanted algae and other stuff making it into your tank.
You could just plumb direct but be prepared for algae and unwanted visitors to make it into the tank. Another issue is ensuring the line from the ocean doesn't get clogged up with encrusting stuff.
You could just plumb direct but be prepared for algae and unwanted visitors to make it into the tank. Another issue is ensuring the line from the ocean doesn't get clogged up with encrusting stuff.
bsn_rn_cen
Grandmaster Algae Farmer
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2018
- Messages
- 1,790
- Reaction score
- 6,661
Welcome to reef2reef.
Welcome to Reef2reef!
You’ll be pumping a lot of plankton in.
A basic rundown of how scripps Oceanographic institute does it.
Settling tank , sand filter.
http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?11201-Scripps-Water-Google-Map-Quality-Transport
They back flush the entire system weekly I belive.
One word of caution , when importing coral and macro algae you do not want to flush back into the ocean. The filtration at Scripps outlet is much much much higher than the inlet. Full uv boilers etc. the water going out is actually of higher quality than going in.
we had a few lagoons north of San Diego get clogged with a commonly sold calurpas. It cost millions to clean up. It’s now illegal to buy trade and sell it.
You’ll be pumping a lot of plankton in.
A basic rundown of how scripps Oceanographic institute does it.
Settling tank , sand filter.
http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?11201-Scripps-Water-Google-Map-Quality-Transport
They back flush the entire system weekly I belive.
One word of caution , when importing coral and macro algae you do not want to flush back into the ocean. The filtration at Scripps outlet is much much much higher than the inlet. Full uv boilers etc. the water going out is actually of higher quality than going in.
we had a few lagoons north of San Diego get clogged with a commonly sold calurpas. It cost millions to clean up. It’s now illegal to buy trade and sell it.
kschweer
Moderator
Welcome! I do not know the specifics in the Bahamas but here in the states I know this can be an issue. At one point I consulted with the head aquarist of a large aquarium that did this. They would pump the water in from the nearby ocean and pump it out almost continuously. Water was filtered on the way in but also had to be filtered on the way back to the ocean. The parameters of the outgoing water had to meet strict guidelines when being returned, these guidelines were stricter than the in coming water.
Lovemyreef2015
Reefing Mom!
- Joined
- May 21, 2017
- Messages
- 6,123
- Reaction score
- 30,570
mike werner
2500 Club Member
welcome to r2r!!
reef lover
It's a reef thing....
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Hudson Valley Reef Keepers
Hospitality Award
518 Reefers
My Tank Thread
Welcome to r2r!!
P-Dub
The ocean is open to all, merciful to none.
Welcome!
Follow the advice of @saltyfilmfolks. If you can emulate the way scrips did it I think that will work for you. The big question is it in your budget to do it that way. I do miss the accessibility of water I had from Scripps when I lived in San Dog.
Share and like often!
Follow the advice of @saltyfilmfolks. If you can emulate the way scrips did it I think that will work for you. The big question is it in your budget to do it that way. I do miss the accessibility of water I had from Scripps when I lived in San Dog.
Share and like often!
Similar threads
