Started using natural seawater!

[Pat H.]

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've posted (or even lurked) here. Lots of health issues of late, including open heart surgery last May. It never just rains for me, it pours! lol
Feeling much better now and mostly back to my "normal"

So I've been trying to get my system back to health too. It has suffered much over the last year, but now I'm doing my best get it back on track. The tank is mostly soft corals now as almost all of my acros, digis and my favorite turbinaria have past into the great beyond

I've been doing frequent water changes (about 25% per week) with Coralife salt mixed with RO/DI and not seeing too much improvement as far as slowing algae growth. But I am seeing positive results as far as polyp expansion. The corals overall just look happier.

Recently I found a buddy of mine from high school on Facebook. He owns and operates his own lobster/fishing boat out of Gloucester, and I asked if he'd mind filling a couple 60 gl barrels as far out as he goes. He said no problem, and I got very excited!!

So Wed I picked up 120 gls of seawater collected about 25 miles west of Gloucester. It was collected on Tues before the heavy rain. I noticed it smelled nice and fresh and was very clear. Just for a reference I decided to send a sample to Aquarium Water Testing for analysis. Here's the results:

Ammonia (NH3-4) ........................ Good ......................................... 0.000
Nitrite (NO2) ................................ Good ......................................... 0.005
Nitrate (NO3) ............................... Good ............................................. 0.2
Phosphate (PO4) .......................... Good ........................................... 0.01
Silica (SiO2-3) ............................. Good ............................................. 0.2
Potassium (K) ............................... Low ............................................. 279
Calcium (Ca) ................................. Low ............................................. 201
Boron (B) .................................... Good ............................................. 4.0
Molybdenum (Mo) ......................... Good ............................................. 0.1
Strontium (Sr) ............................. High............................................ 12.2
Magnesium (Mg) ........................... Low ........................................... 1025
Iodine (I¯) ................................... Good ........................................... 0.09
Copper (Cu++) ............................ Good ........................................... 0.01
Alkalinity (meq/L) .......................... Low ............................................ 2.00

Not too bad. Once the water heated to 78 deg the salinity tested at 1.020. I added 6 cups of Coralife salt to the first barrel to bring it up to 1.025. After letting it mix for a day, I then did about a 30 gl water change.

Can't say I see much of a difference yet aside from even better polyp extension. My corals haven't looked this happy in quite a while...lol.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. I'll keep you all posted.

-Pat

 

[Pat H.]

ahh...I meant to say east of Gloucester....duh!!

 

[Turbosnail]

Keep us updated I always wanted to use NSW.

 

[JayM]

did you do anything before using it for the water change? It seems to be reef happy, Mg, Alk and Ca all needed to be raised.

still NICE to have access to that kind of water.

 

[delta]

How close to a rain was the water collected? We have also had massive amounts of melting of snow.

 

[stevenp]

Good to hear from you Pat, it's been quite some time. Stay well.

 

[afboundguy]

Is it safe to assume that the quality of NSW is better the further from inland you are? I could easily get NSW as the beach is only a few miles from my house but would think it might be heavily polluted.

Also did you run it through a UV sterilizer or anything like that?

 

[Pat H.]

did you do anything before using it for the water change? It seems to be reef happy, Mg, Alk and Ca all needed to be raised.

still NICE to have access to that kind of water.

Just added a few cups of salt to bring up the salinity. I'll boost those parameters in the tank after I do my testing today. I still have lots of mag flake from the group buy a few years back and a bucket of PelaDow from around the same time.

How close to a rain was the water collected? We have also had massive amounts of melting of snow.

It was collected the day before that real rainy day (Wed). I hadn't thought of the snow melting, good point. We have had massive amounts of runoff lately.

Good to hear from you Pat, it's been quite some time. Stay well.

Thanks Steve!

Is it safe to assume that the quality of NSW is better the further from inland you are? I could easily get NSW as the beach is only a few miles from my house but would think it might be heavily polluted.

Also did you run it through a UV sterilizer or anything like that?

Well I assume that any pollution would be diluted out around 25 miles. I had planned on collecting from a fishing pier in Hampton at the mouth of an inlet. The boat option is way better though, lol.

No, didn't do any filtering at all. Just heated and bumped up the salinity.

 

[afboundguy]

I might have to look into filtering and UV sterilizing water from the beach

 

[ava420]

anyone around the Merrimack river may wanna watch out for the poop disks in the river. its been upped to around 8 to 10 million that where let go from a sewage treatment plant up river in hookset, NH. they've been found out as far as Beverly beaches... 25 miles out to sea by Gloucester I'm sure would be fine but afboundguy in Ipswich and pat H near Hampton probably wouldn't be a good idea... i live on Salisbury beach and these poop disks are everywhere! i was going to use NSW this past weekend to upgrade my 55gl to a 90gl (iv used it before and the fish seem to love it n so does everything else) definitely not with these things still flouting down river still.....

 

[JayM]

anyone around the Merrimack river may wanna watch out for the poop disks in the river. its been upped to around 8 to 10 million that where let go from a sewage treatment plant up river in hookset, NH. they've been found out as far as Beverly beaches... 25 miles out to sea by Gloucester I'm sure would be fine but afboundguy in Ipswich and pat H near Hampton probably wouldn't be a good idea... i live on Salisbury beach and these poop disks are everywhere! i was going to use NSW this past weekend to upgrade my 55gl to a 90gl (iv used it before and the fish seem to love it n so does everything else) definitely not with these things still flouting down river still.....

poop disks.....ewwww.

 

[afboundguy]

I can just use them as extra filtration for the tank If they work on poop particles imagine what they would do to lowely ammonia, nitrites and nitrates