Using Brooklyn Sea Water

[alrha]

i know of some people in canada (from Aquaria Canada Forum) who use natural sea-water from the harbor there for their tanks. I would be very scared to use water from brooklyn (brighton beach / manhattan beach - where i live). However, if it is possible, it would really be great. has anyone ever tried using this water? is there a way to test it to see if its safe to use? any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
-Albert

[alrha]

anyone have any thoughts on this?

[marinefish]

DO NOT TRY THIS. IT COULD BE TROUBLE

[alrha]

has anyone ever tested the water to see if it is suitable to use? does the NY Aquarium use Natural Sea Water?

[marinefish]

:) As I said before"Don't mess with water". The aquarium uses water from about 20 miles out. If you want to try, don't blame me . Bernie

[alrha]

is there any way we can convince the aquarium to sell us water?

[marinefish]

Hi, I do not beleive they would. But good luck anyway :) :) Bernie

[alrha]

know of any good contacts there worth starting with?

[marinefish]

Hi, No sorry, Bernie

[Paul B]

I have been using it for almost thirty years. I try to take it from any ocean beach and in the summer I collect it from my boat in the Long Island Sound. I would rather take it from Montauk but Brooklyn ocean beaches are fine. I have hatched in that water octopus, banded coral shrimp, blue devils, seahorses and urchins. I even collect seahorses in it. I took some last week. I don't tell my corals where I get it from.

[marinefish]

OK, That is really nice to hear. Thank you, Bernie

[alrha]

ah ha! i knew there would be someone out there who has tried it!

[Paul B]

The New York Aquarium has a salt water well right under the aquarium.

[alrha]

what is that? do you know if they would let others use it?

[Paul B]

I don't know if hobbiests could use the water from the Aquarium but you could go 20 yards away and collect it right from the surf in Coney Island. I did the back scene tour at the Aquarium and they told me about the well. I guess if you did a hole at any beach you will get water. Call them and see if you can take water. Ai the Aquarium at Riverhear Long Island they have the largest indoor reef in the country (so they tell me) and they take their water right from the Shinnicock Canal a couple of miles from the Aquarium.

[alrha]

i would love to do it (i live half a block from the beach). i am sure it would be the best thing for my tank, but i am just afraid that one day there is going to be something in the water, and BOOM - my whole tank will get contaminated and crash.

[jackson6745]

Originally posted by alrha
has anyone ever tested the water to see if it is suitable to use? does the NY Aquarium use Natural Sea Water?

I tested the SG by manhattan beach. It's kind of low 1.014

[alrha]

you tested the water in manhattan beach? how did the other paramaters look? could it be that you SG was low due to a temerature difference? in general hydrometers are calibrated for water in the high 70's.

[jackson6745]

Originally posted by alrha
you tested the water in manhattan beach? how did the other paramaters look? could it be that you SG was low due to a temerature difference? in general hydrometers are calibrated for water in the high 70's.

I didn't test anything else. I did test in the summer so the water temp was in the low 70's. FWIW I had a friend who live on a house boat. He had 2 90gal tanks that has a fresh supply of sea water passing through it. He kept local fish and a few tropical like yellow tang and Damsels.

I would NEVER try using salt water from brooklyn in my reef though

[alrha]

thats what i figured. i wouldnt want to be the first to try it. i know of a lot of people up in canada who use Natural Sea Water, but i doubt they have as much pollution as we do. the claim to natural sea water is that the benefits of using ocean water far outweigh the risks as almost everything is probably broken down already.

[Paul B]

Well since I have been using it for almost thirty years, I would call that a test.

[JToddyBAS]

Sea water should be filtered by UV sterlization & mechanical and chemical as well. The NY Aquarium and other major aquariums prepare and filter the water they collect. But Aquariums such as the Montery bay Aquarium do have open systems for such animals as seals, dolphins walrus, etc. It's just too much trouble for an aquarist to haul and prepare sea water for aquarium home use. You would be much better off to stick with prepared salts. The maine worry from sea water is parasitic and bacatera blooms in the aquarium. Al

[JToddyBAS]

The last message was from the President of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society.

[Paul B]

I know that that is the theory but for some reason NSW seems to be much better than the fake stuff. Real fish come from real water. I would imagine you could get paracites from NSW but not nearly as much as you can get from a LFS. I have collected it from every part of the Sound starting with under the Whitestone Bridge to Montauk and my reef has not had a paracite or disease in probably twenty five years. If the water looks particularly bad or if there is a red tide, I put in Chlorine bleach. One tablespoon/gal. I did not invent this, that was Robert Straughn in the fiftees. I wrote an article on it in FAMMA. The chlorine gas disappears leaving very clean water. The water you get from your tap in Brooklyn is very good but where I live on Long Island I dont even want to drink it after it goes through a RO filter.
In my opinion, fish spawn much more readily in NSW and when they are in spawning mode they are as healthy as they can get. If they are not building nests and your shrimp are not spawning every few weeks then they are not as hearthy as they should be.
Just my opinion.

[valleye]

Isn't water that far north loaded with nutrients? I went whale watching in Boston last summer and the guide said that the water was green because it was high in nutrients and phytoplanton. The water in the south was blue because it was low in phyto.

Signed
Curious, Emo

[alrha]

the nutrient issue would only apply in the winter when the surface waters get cold and the waters from below the thermocline (line between warm surface water and cold deep water) rise to the surface bringing the nutrients up with them. that is why the water is green is because it doesnt really get to "balance" out the was the water in the tropics have. because every season, everything gets thrown off again leading to blooms, then copepods, then the nutrients are exhausted, and the copepods die off, and then the whole thing again.
In any event, from what i have heard, even nutrient rish sea-water is still far better then our tanks. the level of nutrients in most of our tanks is far higher than even the highest nutrient level in the cold ocean.
the only other issue with natural sea water is that the micro-life in there in the winter lives in cold waters and would most likely die off in our warmer tanks. so it was suggested to let the water "cure" first before adding it to the tank.

[Paul B]

valleye
The water up north is green because of plankton and we also have a mud bottom which gets churned up. The water in the tropics is compariably dead. Thats why all the major fisheries are in the north. They do not have any commercial fisheries in the south to any extent because of that. We have much more marine life here than in the tropics, people don't think so because if you dive you cant see much of it because the visability here, in the inshore New York waters it is around three feet or less. Again, thats not from pollution it's from plankton and mud. In the Caribbean it seems like there are more fish but thats just because you can see 150 feet. I have almost three hundred dives between here and the tropics and I have seen a lot of marine life. If you take water from New York you should filter out the plankton most of which will die because of the temperature. Also you may have to add salt. If you take a glass of water from Brooklyn water and hold it up to the light you will find it loaded with plankton. Of course there is pollution in our water as there is everywhere but most of your reef animals come from the Phillopeans and if you have been there you will find very little sewage facilities. The water there is loaded with pollution but there is so little plankton and there is a sand bottom that the water is clear. The paracites that you may find here in cold water probably will not live in your tank either. The water in Brooklyn now is about 45 or 50 degrees, oodinium will not live in that temperature. Also in the summer right off Brooklyn at Atlantic beach you can collect beautiful triggers, butterflies and filefish. Seahorses live there all year. Use artificial water if you like but the sea is better, it's natural, your fish came from it and it's free.

[jackson6745]

You got to see how clear the water is here in NY once you get about 20 miles offshore and further. I often go fishing for tuna and Shark and sometimes travel up to 70 miles offshore. Some days you will have visibility over 50ft and the water has that blue/purple color. This NY water I would consider adding to my reef......but I still wouldn't do it. I can't afford to take a chance and kill a tank full of SPS :)

BTW when is the next BAS saltwater meeting?

[marinefish]

Hi, The Brooklyn Aquarium Society meeting in January 9, 2004 at the New York Aquarium Education Hall. It will be a saltwater meeting titled "System vs System, Bernie

[TimberTDI]

Hello to all, I was doing a search on a different topic and this came up.


I say it is definitely not worth the risk to use natural sea water. A few weeks ago my daughter brought me home about two dozen snails from a local beach here. My water was was totally green within 4 days. I mean like Coney Island green.

Thank God that I was just setting up the tank and only had to fish.

Steven