Puget Sound Water

[kcharm]

So the Seattle Aquarium sells sea water really cheap. It's run through course filters and a UV filter. It's salinity would be low and I'm sure it's a little on the chilly side. The upsides are cost and convience. Other then having to heat it and add a little salt, what are the downsides?

 

[mattseattle]

phosphates and other undesirables... if you are going to use it for a fish only tank then i'd use it. for an sps tank i would not.

i used it for a while a few years ago and had issues with it.

 

[zoltun]

I have an Softies and LPS 110gallon reef with fish same config as a friend of mine. We both use water from the Aquarium and never had any issues. The Corals in my tank are all doing well, same with the Fish and inverts.

The Salinty is fine never had to add salt. The temp is a little cold; water usually comes in at just below 50f. I can't answer the SPS issue as I have never had any in my tank. The water tests I do all run at normal parameters.

Just my experience.

 

[KRMNAL1]

How cheap is "really cheap" ???

 

[kcharm]

How cheap is "really cheap" ???

Pretty darn cheap...

"The Seattle Aquarium now offers UVA-disinfected, filtered sea water for sale that can save you money!

$35 gets you started and includes a $10 sign-up fee which gets you a reader card for the self-service valve, and $25 goes to prepayment of the saltwater at 5 cents/gallon. (If you've ever made your salt water artificially, you know it can cost up to $0.35/gallon.)

After you've signed up, come at your convenience. Swipe your card through the reader to open the valve, swipe it again to shut the valve off. You'll be billed when you are close to depleting your account balance for a minimum of $25 based on your past consumption.

For information and to start saving money, call now: 206.386.4300"

For those as mathematically challenged as I (and that's very challenged) I grabbed a calculater and the math. That's $25 for 500 gallons. A $30 bag of IO salt makes 50 gallons and you still need to aquire RO/DI water whether that be from a store or the purchase of your own unit.

But, if the quality isn't there, it isn't there. I'm still very interested in hearing more stories, positive and negative about using their water.

 

[Wink]

We've been using it for about 7 months now. I started thinking that all the successful commercial seahorse breeders use natural seawater so I decided to give it a try. We are using it in all 9 of our display tanks and all our cultures and have had excellent results although the only fry we have had are dwarf seahorses but we have a 90% success rate with them at 4 weeks old. Aquarium Paradise south of Tacoma is using it in all their tanks including the coral display - they're happy. If you want to raise the salinity a bit just use seawater to top off instead of fresh - it's not hard to find a balance. We do have to boost the PH but our tanks test phosphates near 0, calcium around 450.
Really cheap is 5 cents a gallon - sign up, get your card and bring your own container (we have a 195 gallon poly tank on the pickup).

 

[liveforphysics]

I actually started out just going to the docks with a weighted (to help it sink before its full) 5gal bucket on a rope years back. I would go to the end of the dock, dip it full, pull it up, carry it to the 45gal rubbermaid container, dump it in and repeat untill it was full.

I had great results from this (now that i think about it, maybe my best results), but i was convinced by LFSs that I was poisoning my tanks and I wasnt giveing them adquate minerals and things etc. So, i jumped on the instant ocean band wagon and have been there ever since.

Now, seriously, for $.05/gal, it would actually be worth the money to me to avoid the extra effort of carrying the bucket back and forth. I supose haveing the water drawn off the bottom would be much cleaner as well.

 

[dnjan]

Take a look at:
Seattle Aquarium Water link
I have been doing this for a couple of years.

 

[WaGuy82]

I was interested in this method a couple of years ago, but decided against it after speaking to one of the curators there.

Some points to consider:

The filter does not remove all parasites. For this reason, the aquarium keeps their largest display at a salinity of like 1.017. He mentioned that fishes that had become infected before because of the use of the water. Additionally, if you choose to use the water, be sure to come after several rain free days, otherwise the runoff flushes alot of pollutants into the sound and affects the quality of the water.

 

[Wink]

When I talked to them a couple years ago, they weren't doing the UV thing and also were not using as fine a filter as they do now - at that time we had decided against it too. We also run it through another filter ourselves.

I'm sure you're right about more pollutants after rain, but they do collect from quite a ways out from shore and quite deep down so hopefully that would be minimal.

Vicky

 

[-=dieseldave=-]

Do not use that water.

 

[aquariumdebacle]

The water is fine. The calcium and magnesium levels will need to be brought up but if you are all ready using a calcium reactor this should not be a problem. Avoid the use right after it rains because the water is taken from right under the dock. It is filtered through the sand but is not treated with UV or carbon

 

[Wink]

It is UV treated now according to their website and what we've been told. I also believe it is taken from out in deep water, I could be wrong on that though and the website doesn't say. We deliver it to Aquarium Paradise and run it through a 5 micron filter as we transfer it from the truck to the store.

 

[-=dieseldave=-]

Here is what I know as I volunteer there. About 10 months ago we had to do a massive water change in the tropical fish/reef exhibits we did not have enough RO water, salt, or time we used the salt water that we sell, yes is it is run though 2 large UV sterilizers yes the salinity is low 1.017 – 1.020(depends on the season) and it come from mid peer. The net result, massive and I do mean massive algae bloom. Go ahead use it if you want but the aquarium will never use it in there tropical tanks again. We do use it in all the cold water exhibits excluding the Sea Dragons.

 

[dnjan]

You got the algae bloom because of the phosphates. That is why you need to first remove the phosphate, as I described in the link I posted earlier.

 

[plack]

PCB's Nasty and permanent are in the sound !!! (stay away from this if you can for that reason alone)

 

[SaltyTemple]

Thanks for posting about this Ken, you answered my questions like a star