Fresh Ocean Water

I'm currently mixing salt water for my tank, but as I do this, i gaze
out my window at the ocean and wonder. Wouldn't real Ocean water work
better? It would have all the ions, minerals, etc, but it may have some
unwanted bacteria.

I live close to the atlantic. I've heard of fish stores in Santa Clara
that send a truck to the ocean every few weeks to collect ocean water.

Any ideas?

--Kurt

KurtG wrote:

Any ideas?

Water taken close to shore is frequently polluted to some extent. That said,
many public aquariums take their water from the ocean. The Boston aquarium takes
water from Boston harbor. I don't know what steps (if any) they take to clean it up.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

* KurtG wrote, On 11/29/2006 3:30 AM:

I'm currently mixing salt water for my tank, but as I do this, i gaze
out my window at the ocean and wonder. Wouldn't real Ocean water work
better? It would have all the ions, minerals, etc, but it may have some
unwanted bacteria.

I live close to the atlantic. I've heard of fish stores in Santa Clara
that send a truck to the ocean every few weeks to collect ocean water.

Any ideas?

--Kurt

Hey, I'd try it. The real thing has got to be better than something that comes
in a bag.

Cindy

"Cindy" wrote in message ...
Hey, I'd try it. The real thing has got to be better than something that comes
in a bag.

Even if contains a lot of nitrates, phosphates mixed with gasoline
from the nearby roads washed to the shore with every rain ?

If you really want to do it than take a boat couple of miles far
from the shore and take the water there...
Other than that, I would not risk it - one day might be fine, the
other day might be quite ugly water...

KurtG wrote on Wed, 29 Nov 2006:
I'm currently mixing salt water for my tank, but as I do this, i gaze out my
window at the ocean and wonder. Wouldn't real Ocean water work better?

Yes.

It would have all the ions, minerals, etc, but it may have some unwanted
bacteria.

There are also lots of miscellaneous organics, so if you collect a lot and
let it sit without filtering it first, you'll wind up with a lot of decomposing
life that pollutes the water.

I live close to the atlantic. I've heard of fish stores in Santa Clara that
send a truck to the ocean every few weeks to collect ocean water.

I live near the Pacific (SF bay area), and a LFS a few miles from me gets a
regular supply of ocean water from Half Moon Bay, a relatively clean town right
on the coast.

I generally do my water changes with 1/2 salt mix and 1/2 natural sea water.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we
are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in
tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the
ocean is flat again.
-- John Maynard Keynes, "A Tract on Monetary Reform", 1923

Been using it for as long as I can remember myself and have yet to
have aproblem. Just do not get it after a heavy rain, or in areas
there is a heap of run off or where storm drains empty into the ocean
at. Same for the sand. I find the silica baed (Quartz) is as effective
in a marine tank as the high dollar aragonite. I just do not buy that
crap about aragonite being needed to help stabilize the ph or for
certain sand sifting critters..None of mine have complained.

Hi Kurt: I visited the backstage of the Tacoma Zoo and Aquarium. They took
the water out of the Sound and just used a lot of sand filters. Then
recleaned the exhaust water from the cold water tanks and heated it for the
warm water tanks then back to the Sound. Bill
"KurtG" wrote in message
...

I'm currently mixing salt water for my tank, but as I do this, i gaze out
my window at the ocean and wonder. Wouldn't real Ocean water work better?
It would have all the ions, minerals, etc, but it may have some unwanted
bacteria.

I live close to the atlantic. I've heard of fish stores in Santa Clara
that send a truck to the ocean every few weeks to collect ocean water.

Any ideas?

--Kurt

Your assumption is typical of many new aquarists.
Your reasoning is logical and if it wasn't for a small detail, it would be
the perfect water to use.
The only small detail that you are not considering is that in the ocean
there are, other than contaminants, a whole spectrum of bacteria and
microorganisms that are dangerous to aquarium fish. In the ocean, fish get
a fresh pool of water every nanosecond, in the aquarium your fish will be
stuck with it for weeks or months.
In the wild fish are able to coupe with these microorganisms but in your
aquarium they won't.
There is also the larvae and juveniles of dangerous species that could
create havoc in your tank, copepods of all sorts just to mention an example.
I wouldn't use ocean water if I don't UV-filter this water many times before
adding it.
Consider my position and read about it from other sources.


"KurtG" wrote in message
...

I'm currently mixing salt water for my tank, but as I do this, i gaze out
my window at the ocean and wonder. Wouldn't real Ocean water work better?
It would have all the ions, minerals, etc, but it may have some unwanted
bacteria.

I live close to the atlantic. I've heard of fish stores in Santa Clara
that send a truck to the ocean every few weeks to collect ocean water.

Any ideas?

--Kurt

"Guayni; SAHS" wrote in message .. .
The only small detail that you are not considering is that in the ocean
there are, other than contaminants, a whole spectrum of bacteria and
microorganisms that are dangerous to aquarium fish.

Misterious bacteria again...
Would you add the same "bacteria" with every live rock addition ?

Guayni; SAHS wrote:
The only small detail that you are not considering is that in the ocean
there are, other than contaminants, a whole spectrum of bacteria and
microorganisms that are dangerous to aquarium fish.

Okay, but I'll be damned if I'll pay $40 for 20# of live sand. I'll
just bake my own sand at 400 for an hour and add it to my existing live
sand.

--Kurt