Water ?

[Marke86]

The local fish store said that using there processed sea water was ok for reaf tanks I use it when my calcium is a little high what do you guys have to say about fish store sea water?
thanx
mark

 

[reeffreak]

I would buy some and test it to see if its good enough to use in the future.Test the salinity,nitrate,phosphate,calcium,pH and alkalinity.Also test the freshwater for total dissolve solids(TDS) with a TDS meter.It should be zero or close to it.I wonder sometimes if some LFS pull water right out of tap to sell as RO/DI water.

For me,I've been using water from a LFS for around 10 years now.They gave me a tour of their filtration and its better than what I could do.The water consistently have near zero TDS and all other test shows perfect results.So what I'm trying to say is test the water,don't blindly take their word on it.

 

[fatman]

I would really doubt that the LFS has the resources to obtain good natural sea water, as it would have to come from quite a distance off shore. In some locations that would mean miles off shore. Large aquariums like public exhibits using natural sea water are circulating the water through their systems more often than not allowing for the use of poorer quality water. That option is usually not available to the home reef keeper. I would definitely want the name of their water supplier and ther intenet URL and email address before using their product. Marine salt mix and RO water are still two of the cheaper expenditures in reef tank keeping.

 

[RAYRAY]

I Use Natural Sea Water From My Lfs, And It Has Worked Great For Me So Far. It's Like 20 Dollars For 4.4 Gallons. I Tested The Salinity And It Was Right At 1.025. It Was Loaded With Natural Bacteria And Had Tons Of Minerals. Like I Said It Worked Great For Me When I Had That Major Nitrate Scare. I Changed Like 15 Gallons And Brought All My Nitrate Levels Down To 10 Ppm From Over 100 Ppm !!

 

[fatman]

At that kind of price they could get some pretty pristine water from a long way off shore. At $4.55 a gallon it should at least be as acceptable as mature reef tank water at good parameters. I wish I could get some one to pay me $4.50 per gallon for mature tank water. My freshly mixed RODI marine water costs about 38 cents per gallon. At 1400 gallons of water at $4.50 per gallon I have at anyone time over $6300 worth of mature clean tank water athat cost me $525 dollars. Thats a potential profit of $5775 dollars. You need to find a nearby reefer with a large tank in case you ever need mature clean water again. Wow, $4.50 per gallon. I start up at least a dozen tanks per year with mature tank water and charge my clients and friends the same for it that I charge for freshly mixed water. Wow, $4.50 per gallon. I do not think I could ever feel good about charging someboby that much. And I know my mature water has better parameters than nearly all natural sea water.

 

[RAYRAY]

I Never Said The Price Was Good!!!! Just The Water !!!! But It Did Pull Me Out Of A Jam !! Also ..... Maybe I Can Buy Water From You At Say 2.50 A Gallon But You Ship It For Free !! J/k Fatman.

 

[fatman]

I Never Said The Price Was Good!!!! Just The Water !!!! But It Did Pull Me Out Of A Jam !! Also ..... Maybe I Can Buy Water From You At Say 2.50 A Gallon But You Ship It For Free !! J/k Fatman.

Airport to airport by air freight would be $135 per hundred pounds. That is about 12.5 gallons or $10.80 per gallon shipping. And I thought my having to pay $640 per 300 pounds of Oolitic sand was a high price, and that was shipped UPS ground (I do get it in three days, four tops). Reefing can get exspensive, and you never going to know where or when that price will hit you. I use to be able, just three years ago, to buy fifty pound bags of aragonite oolitic sand for less than $8 per bag, but it was called childrens sand box sand. Now all Bahama aragonite sand from that distributer is sold by Carib Sea. I use to be able to buy the sand from Fred Meyers garden Center, then Home Depot. Now only through pet stores.