Natural Sea Water

[Paul B]

Today I collected some water from the eastern end of Long Island
NY. I have been collecting it for many years and am very surprised that I know of just about no one who uses it.
It's free and much better than any fake water you can mix, it needs no treatment and did I mention it's FREE.
All of your animals come from NSW, none of them come from ASW so whats the problem?
Of course I know that if you are from Arkansas or Arizona it may be a problem, but for the eight million or so people who live on Long Island I really don't see a problem.
The water I collected today was so clean and pure that I diden't actually have to add it to my tank, I just left the bucket near my tank and let the fish smell it
It is so clear that I mistakenly thought it was Vodka and made a Harvey Wallbanger from it, thats how clear it is.
Have a great weekend

Paul

 

[Krish]

It's free and much better than any fake water you can mix, it needs no treatment and did I mention it's FREE.
All of your animals come from NSW, none of them come from ASW so whats the problem?

One bad batch of un-treated NSW added into a "closed system" (fish tank) can cause a major problem. I think some precautions should be taken to be safe if using NSW (eventhough generally speaking nothing compares to it) because all it takes is getting water from the wrong spot at the wrong time...Just a thought.

 

[dragoneggs]

For most it boils down to logistics (not to mention Krish's most important point). If you have a large tank then hauling large amounts of water or any amount for that matter becomes an economical decision as well.

 

[trido]

It is so clear that I mistakenly thought it was Vodka and made a Harvey Wallbanger from it, thats how clear it is.

This statement says it so clearly. You obviously had a Harvey Wallbanger before logging in. :razz: Of course, I had some scotch on the rocks before pointing this out to everyone else.:razz:

 

[Paul B]

Actually Ihad two Harvey Wallbangers (maybe three)

Anyway, I guess you could get a bad batch of seawater and it is also true you could get a bad batch of ASW.
When I collect it I can tell immediately if it is good. Like yesterday for instance. It was crystal clear and full of shrimp. It also had no smell.
If I collect it from a bay which I often do I run the risk of collecting Red Tide paracites. It is very easy to see this and I bleach that water.
Oh yeah, there is that logistics thing, the stuff is heavy. I diden't say it was easy, just good.
I have been collecting NSW in New York from the early sixtees and have never killed a fish because of it. Unless I spill too much Harvey Wallbangers in it. :badgrin:

 

[Damsel13]

.......lurking.......

 

[CarlaW]

Actually Ihad two Harvey Wallbangers (maybe three)

Anyway, I guess you could get a bad batch of seawater and it is also true you could get a bad batch of ASW.
When I collect it I can tell immediately if it is good. Like yesterday for instance. It was crystal clear and full of shrimp. It also had no smell.
If I collect it from a bay which I often do I run the risk of collecting Red Tide paracites. It is very easy to see this and I bleach that water.
Oh yeah, there is that logistics thing, the stuff is heavy. I diden't say it was easy, just good.
I have been collecting NSW in New York from the early sixtees and have never killed a fish because of it. Unless I spill too much Harvey Wallbangers in it. :badgrin:

I like your attitude!!

 

[Paul B]

Today I collected a bunch of snails, crabs and a bunch of unknown eggs, but of course I forgot them on my boat so I will have a nice smelly mess tomorrow. There is a chance the stuff will stilll be living but if not, I will go collecting again. In the tide pool where I collect there is maybe 1,000,000,000 snails. I diden't count but I think that is the number. I am not going back there now as I think they will be fine.
The water was great,
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[Damsel13]

Well that is good news

 

[Bainic]

The water may be "crystal clear" but you also may not be able to see contaminates, pollutants, pesticides, chemicals, that have seeped into the water, I wouldn't recommend using it, too much risk of killing your tank inhabitants.

 

[CarlaW]

I have been collecting NSW in New York from the early sixtees and have never killed a fish because of it. Unless I spill too much Harvey Wallbangers in it.

I think this just about says it all!!!

 

[Damsel13]

When one can't say something helpful it is best to stay silent. I am practicing.

 

[Krish]

When one can't say something helpful it is best to stay silent. I am practicing.

LOL! It's a discussion board Deb...You have to ask questions to learn

How about this...I've never put any fish/coral/invert etc into quarentine ever whether it was wild caught or bought in a store and I never had a case of ich in any of my tanks. Does this mean it is alright to not quarentine anything because I never had a case of ich? Definately not and I know better which is why I tell people not to practice what I do, but to quarentine to be safe. The same goes for sea water. The fact that Paul uses NSW without any problems that he knows of doesn't make it alright to just toss in a batch from the ocean without taking some sort of precautionary measures. He may be one of the lucky ones (like myself with my bad habit) and you may not. There's no doubt generally speaking, NSW is far superior to anything man could ever whip up, but there are also tons of bad things in the ocean as well that only has to make it into your bucket to be transferred rather easily into a tank if certain precautions aren't taken. I guess to "each his own" but to be safe, I personally feel you should treat NSW the same way as you would harvesting live rock, sand, fish etc from the ocean...All can potentially transfer something harmful into your tank so I don't think it would be a good practice just tio dump in. Just my 2 cents

 

[Damsel13]

I got some water from the Pacific one time......but that is a long story...

Hehe
Really, I did. It was way too cold and had lot's of hitchikers (as in stuff I could not see and had no business in a reef aquarium) . Each to her/his own.

 

[Krish]

I got some water from the Pacific one time......but that is a long story...

Hehe
Really, I did. It was way too cold and had lot's of hitchikers (as in stuff I could not see and had no business in a reef aquarium) . Each to her/his own.

LOL! I watched a 350 gal mature tank in a store completely become wiped out because a bucket of sand was added to the tank (to thicken up the sand bed a bit) from the ocean without being quarentined...It had all sorts of these worm like parasites that killed everything! The tank is now empty...

 

[Curtswearing]

Recently I responded to a post on another board where someone's tank was running fine until they did a waterchange with NSW and then everything started dieing off immediately. I'm on so many boards that I cannot remember where it is to find the post.

I just wanted everyone to know that NSW comes with it's own perils too.

 

[Paul B]

Krish is correct. I certainly do not advocate to everyone to do what I do. As most of you know I have been adding things (questionable things) to my tank for years. I also don't quarantine but I would never tell anyone to do that. My tank is and always has been an experiment. I just post my findings, good or bad. I don't have a reef tank just to see how long I can keep a pretty fish. After so many years I have kept just about any fish I can name and also dove with all of them. I am just trying to learn here as this is my life long hobby and I feel like a sponge trying to suck up all the knowlege as I can. I feel I can learn more if I experiment. I have lost a lot of fish along the way but I have also kept some for 18 years and saved a lot of them by operating on them in my tank and in wholesalers.:shock:
For the last couple of months I have been feeding an ich infected hippo tang with copper tainted food. The thing is cured. I diden't post my findings because I don't want people doing that until I have repeated it a few times. It is an experiment to treat fish in a reef tank. Don't put copper in your reef.
I use Clorox to treat some NSW. Don't do that either unless you know what you are doing. I inject guppies with cod liver oil and then feed the guppies to anglerfish, does it work? I really don't know so don't do it.
I use a RUGF and when I mention that there will be at least five people say that it can't work and is a maintenance nightmare. These people never used one. Experience is what runs this hobby not rumors.
To get back to NSW, has anyone ever heard of anyone using temperate water (not tropical) I am talking about cold northern water and having any kind of problem? Not sand but water.
People can disagree with me and I am glad when they do, thats how I learn and I am wrong lots of times but I don't like it when someone argues with me because of a rumor they heard. Now someone argue with me because I am probably wrong. All of those Harvey Wallbangers on the boat today went to my head.
Have a great day and I hope I diden't offend anyone.
I am really just a nice guy
Paul

 

[Curtswearing]

To get back to NSW, has anyone ever heard of anyone using temperate water (not tropical) I am talking about cold northern water and having any kind of problem? Not sand but water.
People can disagree with me and I am glad when they do, thats how I learn and I am wrong lots of times but I don't like it when someone argues with me because of a rumor they heard. Now someone argue with me because I am probably wrong. All of those Harvey Wallbangers on the boat today went to my head.
Have a great day and I hope I diden't offend anyone.
I am really just a nice guy
Paul

Paul, I'm offended. (J/K)

To be honest with you, because I can't find which forum where the post I was talking about is, I don't know if their water was from tropical or temperate waters. For all I know, they threw water with Red Tide dinoflagellates in their system and that's why they had problems. (It seems a little early in the year for this problem but for all I know, they live in Indonesia and speak English well).

Over the years, I've said the following hundreds of times....There's more than one way to skin a cat. My goal on these boards is to provide information. Normally, I like to back up my posts with links to articles, studies, posts that I'm deriving my info from, etc. However, in this case I cannot remember where the post is or even the name of the post.

 

[Damsel13]

Paul B
Glad for the post. I almost always read yours.
Really thank you again.
Deborah

 

[Paul B]

Deb, thank you. I am going to re state my statement and say that I am talking about cold northern water as I have no experience of using tropical water in my reef. I feel that cold water will not harbor paracires or diseases that will effect our tropical fish.
Paul