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i have finaly chosen to go with natural sea water i live close to the soth coast of england and we have the gulf stream go past our door. all the paramiters apear to be the same as most reef systems.
but (there is always a but) , i was reading a string where it was sugested that the slinity will be afected by the sand bed and live rock
is this true? and would i still have to use the procesed stuff. as there is surley quiet a large leway. as in the wild there is rain storms river / land wash.and shurly sun evaperation will make surface water contain more salt on some days.
there was a note that appeared to sugest that is the stability that was more important to maintain?
opinions please
Last edited by kodocat : 07-13-2007 at 06:58 AM.
Reason: dislexia
I would be far more concerned with pollutants! Most people that use natural seawater use water collected a ways offshore and not at the surface. Try getting the water tested by a gas chromatograph or a mass spectrometer. This will tell you what you are putting in your tank! HOWEVER, pollutants not there today could spike dractically at any time. Are you sure you really want to try this?
First and foremost my dyslexic friend, WELCOME to the Talkingreef. Glad to have you here. Big shout out from New England, to good Ol' England.
While there may be residual salts in the sand and rock, it is not going to be enough to affect a reasonable sized system. It should NOT raise the SG much, if any at all.
For what it's worth, I've found that natural salt water (NSW) is a little low in the salinity and often have to let mine sit and evaporate some, or add some Instant Ocean or other product to help raise the salinity.
Keep in mind that if you are using two part additives or other additives, you MAY have a small increase in salinity anyways.
As with anything else you do in the hobby, you'll want to test, adjust, and test again.
I'm a fan of NSW. I use it as often as possible. You just need to make sure you match the salinty, alk, calc, etc. to that of the natural waters where the specimens you keep are found. Whether it be Red Sea, Pacific, Carib etc.
thanx justdave, good to hear from a pro NSW user. there is mention that you should let it stand to allow you to raise the temp and allow setlement. and that this should be done while airting to keep alive all that good free food.
also while sihponing into the tank allways leave an amount at the bottom so as not to disturb the settlement.
is this true and do you have a set time? or is it best to reach the paramiters as quick as posible so as to preserve as much free floating live stuff?
Yeah... when I collect, I let it sit, in 5 gallon buckets, with NO airline, for a few days. I then siphon it out (all but the bottom 1/2 inch of sediment) into a 20 gallon bucket, where I adjust for temp, ph, calicum etc.
as this is my first SWT , i have decided to reuse an old fresh water and upgrade it!
ive bought a "prizum pro"this is masive over kill for a small 45 tank, but all the forums sugest that by big now so that i can up grade later at little extra cost ha ha! the built in cerculation pump behind the skimmer ive swaped for a chep pond pump .with the hope that its not to manly for the job but if it goes it hasnt cost me to much?and the strips are now "3ft T8 marine x2". the only thing left is to replace the existing heater with a new one. there is just to many hora stories about what happens when they go wrong.
id like to thank you all in the comunity for getting me this far if it wasnt for all the talk in such an open maner then this would be a dauntig hobbie even for people used to FWT.
thanks.
ps: this is going to be a long drawn out log book as i am doing this on a shoe string. and ive just busted my ankle while rock pooling.
One thing to be careful of when you used the tank for FW did you ever use a med containing copper? If so you will want to be careful as the Cu can be in the silicon seals and will then leach out into the water. Cu is poison to invertebrates.
I have a VisiTherm heater. For safety I run it with a temperature controller. But I still had a heat incident when the controller failed, my chiller didn't run and my tank when up to 90 F (about 30 C).
found a company in england that make reflectors for all types of marine lighting. they had a list of shops that outlet for them. and one of them was just down the road. it clips on to my t8's one for each of them. great salotion. also got me new heater again its rated well over the tank size so should not be over worked. keeping the old one to pre heat water topups etc.
next is the water and all this theory start to get real!at last.
dose any body know if you should run the protine skimmer with air while cycling the tank? or isit best left off compleatly! or maybe runit with the air off?
tryed to listen to episode 50 TR but cant down load any think it keeps asking for a pass word? never done that before,
foots getting better so should be able to hall the 45 gallons of water from the sea soon.
ive decided to run the protine skimmer without air .So that i get maximum flow through out the tank, but without exstracting any protine .That i need to help feed the bacteria! the hope is that this should help with the cycling. many thanks bobby for your imput.
crying shame about the pod casts, they were the thing that atracted me to this site in the first place hope the lack of access dosent put any other newbies off? and more to the point i hope the team get this sorted out soon. as it is one of the worlds best and i for one am desperate to listen to the next........................ones.
I thought that the problem was resolved but over the weekend it has reared its ugly head and I have heard of others having the same problem. Rob is working on getting it resolved.
took two trips with my 6yr old, she realy enjoyed helping dad by throwing the bucket into the sea. untill she saw the size of the fish a bloke next to us caught.
my son got the pleasure of turning on the pumps, and lights for the first time!
every body got well fasinated by the water flow moving my nice flat sand into a mini shara desert. i will asume that when i get my live rock the obsticals will slow the flow down?
and my wife got the pleasure of sniffing the roting prawn i put in last night.
to TR.
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