Saltwater tap for reef tank?

[Luke’s reef]

Ok so firstly I am not new to having reef tanks before any one bites my head off.

I have always been of the mind set that using Ro water and mixing your own saltwater is the way to go as you know exactly what your putting into the tank. I know a few people locally who do run their tanks without ever having made salt water mix and simply using the saltwater straight from the tap (our toilets here run on salt water) so we always have a semi filtered supply.

The massive problem I am facing with my new tank is that 1. Fresh water rates here are high so making my own Rodi using the unit I have is insanely costly. 2. I have the facility of having our local water treatment plant give me the RO water free but I have never asked for such a large amount of water and I would have to spend around 4 hours and 4/5 trips carrying around 125L of water per trip (going to kill my already ****** back). And that is IF my LTP agrees to give me over 500 litres of RODI

So my question is not if I should but if it is feasible to use saltwater from my tap (not fresh tapwater and mix it with salt) to fill/start the cycle and then slowly do weekly water changes to get good salt mix in?

In a perfect world I would love and want to do it 100% fresh mix but its a massive undertaking, not impossible but I think that would be a little cheeky on my part asking them for so much when i usually take around 100L every two weeks for water changes with my previous tank.

All views are appreciated both negative and positive. Bare in mind the salt water is pulled directly from the sea filtered at the plant and then sent to our toilets.

 

[tvan]

icp test your water....

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

I would think that at a minimum you would risk there being a lot of possible nutrients in the water that could promote algea. At the worst, a chemical like chlorine that would need to be neutralized. Either way I would opt to use the purest form of water available as yoj are laying the foundation for the entire ecosystem.

 

[Luke’s reef]

icp test your water....

Sadly to hard to do, country is small and has no labs nearby. I could sent it out via post but most places are currently not sending/receiving postage from here which is a massive pain (still waiting for a package from poland over 3 months now) I could alternatively test the water using the standard test kits from the tank but ICP testing is prob not a good idea atm.

 

[aabjones888]

It might be a pain, but just start out with perfect water and it will save you lots of headaches in the long run. You don’t want to promote algae right from the start.

 

[Philly Reefer]

Thats interesting. Do you know where that saltwater from? sea or mix by water company?
Can you ask your water company if they mix it themselves for its chemical information?
We here in the US, we can ask our local water to share the water treatment chemicals

 

[Luke’s reef]

Thats interesting. Do you know where that saltwater from? sea or mix by water company?
Can you ask your water company if they mix it themselves for its chemical information?
We here in the US, we can ask our local water to share the water treatment chemicals

I was told its a direct feed from the sea then filtered through the plant to remove any pollutants like oils ect they did not mention using chemicals on it other than it going through filters. What I do know is that the salinity is very high about 1.030 so it would require lowering ofc.

Not saying I am going to be using it but trying to weigh my options.

 

[Philly Reefer]

I was told its a direct feed from the sea then filtered through the plant to remove any pollutants like oils ect they did not mention using chemicals on it other than it going through filters. What I do know is that the salinity is very high about 1.030 so it would require lowering ofc.

Not saying I am going to be using it but trying to weigh my options.

With this understanding, it is a viable option then. I am pretty sure some reefers actually grab some saltwater from the sea and pour them in their tank. But you might want to do more research on that. I would think they started with rodi though

 

[Luke’s reef]

With this understanding, it is a viable option then. I am pretty sure some reefers actually grab some saltwater from the sea and pour them in their tank. But you might want to do more research on that. I would think they started with rodi though

Yeah, I do get my RODI from them but on smaller amounts and just coz its a favor from a friend that works there. My problem is walking in and asking him for 500 litres, if I were to run my rodi unit id have to use about 1500 litres of water as its a 50GPD unit the rejection rate on it is insane. The bill would prob be around £250/300 to fill my tank if i filter my own water and i would also need a pump as the wall pressure is to low. So much to sort out lol

 

[Mark3]

I think I change my vote to: check out that saltwater from the tap. Sounds like it is filtered and might be an option that we don't have here in the USA. Might have to add just some RO water to bring it to the salinity that you want?
Sounds like that might be an option worth checking out.

 

[Luke’s reef]

On another note if I were to get fresh RODI from my local plant Would filling my tank with fresh salt mix and not introducing anything in the tank be ok(not start a cycle)?

The only time my Mate says he can try and give me the 500L would be this Thursday, however I will be cycling the tank using red seas reef mature which is a 21 day program. THE problem - Mid month I will be out of town for a week so I would not be able to do the program 100%, question is, if I do NOT introduce anything into the tank just the salt mix with dry rock and sand would that be ok with pumps working ect? And then just start my cycle when i get back?

 

[Luke’s reef]

I think I change my vote to: check out that saltwater from the tap. Sounds like it is filtered and might be an option that we don't have here in the USA. Might have to add just some RO water to bring it to the salinity that you want?
Sounds like that might be an option worth checking out.

What I will do is when I get home from work in a few hours I will run a full test and post it here see what you folks think. Phos/nitrate/nitrite/cal/mag/ammonia and salinity see what we get & IF we decide to use it I could also dose a de-chlorinator a day before i start the cycle. However I am trying to leave this as an absolute last option in the case that my mate says he cannot supply me that much RODI so in essence it might be a 50/50 mix and not straight up tap water.

 

[Luke’s reef]

On another note if I were to get fresh RODI from my local plant Would filling my tank with fresh salt mix and not introducing anything in the tank be ok(not start a cycle)?

The only time my Mate says he can try and give me the 500L would be this Thursday, however I will be cycling the tank using red seas reef mature which is a 21 day program. THE problem - Mid month I will be out of town for a week so I would not be able to do the program 100%, question is, if I do NOT introduce anything into the tank just the salt mix with dry rock and sand would that be ok with pumps working ect? And then just start my cycle when i get back?

Without having any bacteria added or food ect to start the process it should be fine till I get back from my trip right. Since most of my old tanks only went through a mini cycle (used cycled rock/filter media from a mature tank) it has been a while since ive done it 100% fresh dry everything lol

 

[andrewkw]

While the tap saltwater does sound like it could very well be a viable option, have you considered collecting seawater yourself?

 

[DSEKULA]

I wouldn't but probably for different reasons than most people. I work as a water/wastewater operator here in the states. I honestly have no experience with a saltwater wastewater system but I know treatment systems in general. The first thing to realize that many people overlook is that any water being transported to your residence is only as good as the transmission lines. Idk the specifics of your location but I know there's very few places that are on top of the maintenance for drinking water lines and would think a sea wastewater system would have the potential to be over looked and allow some infiltration of unknown origin. Seawater waste systems are usually closed loop at least to an extent, the water gets cleaned, sanitized and recirculated. hopefully I don't have to go into all the details of things that people could add to their toilets that you would not want to add to the tank but you would definitely want to find the specifics of how your plant operates before considering this. Sea water is corrosive as it travels to you it can pick up all kinda of contaminates. The fact that your saying the salinity is higher concerns me, are you testing true salinity or specific gravity or conductivity converted to salinity? If using either of the other two measurements and converting the measurement could be false due to other things being added to the water, the conversion only works when you know your dealing with fresh mixed water without contaminates. If that's a true salinity reading via an ec I'd definitely check it compared to the local source. In my mind there are just too many unknowns to be comfortable but if your considering this I think you definitely need to do more homework on the plant maybe even see if you can get a plant tour? I might not tell them specifically why but you can always call up asking questions and see if someone would be willing.

 

[Luke’s reef]

I wouldn't but probably for different reasons than most people. I work as a water/wastewater operator here in the states. I honestly have no experience with a saltwater wastewater system but I know treatment systems in general. The first thing to realize that many people overlook is that any water being transported to your residence is only as good as the transmission lines. Idk the specifics of your location but I know there's very few places that are on top of the maintenance for drinking water lines and would think a sea wastewater system would have the potential to be over looked and allow some infiltration of unknown origin. Seawater waste systems are usually closed loop at least to an extent, the water gets cleaned, sanitized and recirculated. hopefully I don't have to go into all the details of things that people could add to their toilets that you would not want to add to the tank but you would definitely want to find the specifics of how your plant operates before considering this. Sea water is corrosive as it travels to you it can pick up all kinda of contaminates. The fact that your saying the salinity is higher concerns me, are you testing true salinity or specific gravity or conductivity converted to salinity? If using either of the other two measurements and converting the measurement could be false due to other things being added to the water, the conversion only works when you know your dealing with fresh mixed water without contaminates. If that's a true salinity reading via an ec I'd definitely check it compared to the local source. In my mind there are just too many unknowns to be comfortable but if your considering this I think you definitely need to do more homework on the plant maybe even see if you can get a plant tour? I might not tell them specifically why but you can always call up asking questions and see if someone would be willing.

Yeah I understand, my reasoning behind this question is that the plant is about 1Km from my house and it is a new building around 2 years old so all pipe work should in theory be relatively good and all pipes used locally are plastic or some form of plastic, however does not change the fact that contaminants can still be collected.

On the note of the system it is sadly to this day no closed loop as their is a large waste pipe that leads directly to the ocean at the other end of the country, guess its because our government never built a sewage treatment plant... horrible but sadly how it is. So to my understanding the water is collected at the station near my house processed through their filters to remove any pollution ect from the heavy population of ships in the area.

As for testing I used a Ppt refractor meter and it was showing 1.030/031 last time I decided to see how the salinity was. Could be that the filtration method used is retaining salt or its creeping out from some place on its way to my home as seawater around here is normally 1.034.

 

[Luke’s reef]

While the tap saltwater does sound like it could very well be a viable option, have you considered collecting seawater yourself?

I have but unfortunately Gibraltar Is heavily surrounded by local fishing ships and large tankers so I would not be comfortable using it without filtering. Tap idea is not bad as its pre-filtered but I understand the point a lot of people are making. I will try to see if i can arrange enough RO on thursday and just hold back on the cycle till i get back to town, just leave circulation on till then.

 

[DSEKULA]

Yeah I understand, my reasoning behind this question is that the plant is about 1Km from my house and it is a new building around 2 years old so all pipe work should in theory be relatively good and all pipes used locally are plastic or some form of plastic, however does not change the fact that contaminants can still be collected.

On the note of the system it is sadly to this day no closed loop as their is a large waste pipe that leads directly to the ocean at the other end of the country, guess its because our government never built a sewage treatment plant... horrible but sadly how it is. So to my understanding the water is collected at the station near my house processed through their filters to remove any pollution ect from the heavy population of ships in the area.

As for testing I used a Ppt refractor meter and it was showing 1.030/031 last time I decided to see how the salinity was. Could be that the filtration method used is retaining salt or its creeping out from some place on its way to my home as seawater around here is normally 1.034.

I'd try to get more information from the plant then to make a more educated decision, see how they sanitize and what filters they use to only remove "heavy pollution". I really wouldn't want to introduce any pollution to my tank but I understand your situation. If you can get small quantities of rodi why not just fill the tank slowly? Instead of slowly changing out the water it will slowly fill up but accomplish the same thing. I also honestly think your overthinking asking for water. with the plants I work with if I'm there all day and the community has given consent it really doesn't matter the amount, 20gal or 200 is <.001% of daily production from a large plant. I know it seems like a lot to the average person but treatment plants operate on x amount of million gallons per day (or x million liters per day). I'd consider asking your friend before just ruling it out and explain it is a one time thing etc if it helps, maybe get someone to help in transportation.

 

[Luke’s reef]

I'd try to get more information from the plant then to make a more educated decision, see how they sanitize and what filters they use to only remove "heavy pollution". I really wouldn't want to introduce any pollution to my tank but I understand your situation. If you can get small quantities of rodi why not just fill the tank slowly? Instead of slowly changing out the water it will slowly fill up but accomplish the same thing. I also honestly think your overthinking asking for water. with the plants I work with if I'm there all day and the community has given consent it really doesn't matter the amount, 20gal or 200 is <.001% of daily production from a large plant. I know it seems like a lot to the average person but treatment plants operate on x amount of million gallons per day (or x million liters per day). I'd consider asking your friend before just ruling it out and explain it is a one time thing etc if it helps, maybe get someone to help in transportation.

Yeah I doubt they would say no, was just trying to figure out IF they did for some reason say no lol. The only reason for not doing it on more than one occasion is simply because on my days off I have my son with me making it impossible to do what needs to be done. A one off would be ok as if leave my son with my mother in law for a few hours but thats about it as she has a back injury and any more than that would be a no no. But yeah its ok wanted to see peoples view on the matter as this sort of salt water system is not used in many places. Ill see if i can arrange and fill it on thursday and then do the cycle when i get back.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

How about trying to add filtering to the tap water, de-clorinator and fill only 2/3 full, then fill the rest with RODI water