# Ocean Water?



## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

I was doing some reading today about salinity levels and i thought "hey maybe it would be better to use ocean water". Being that i live not far from the beach, i plan on using ocean water for my reef tank. I highly doubt it would be a bad idea being that they live in the ocean.......... but is there somehting i should watch out for when collecting ocean water?


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## cheseboy (Aug 5, 2005)

If I were you I would not use ocean water at all unless you intend to go out to sea and not collect it on your sh-o-r-e. The water will probably be polluted with boat traffic, at least a little trash and possibly red tide on the sh-o-r-e. Plus are you sure you want to lug 5 gallon buckets onto the beach fill them up and then carry them across the hot sand to your car or truck every time you want to do a water change not to mention it may be illegal?


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## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

cheseboy said:


> If I were you I would not use ocean water at all unless you intend to go out to sea and not collect it on your sh-o-r-e. The water will probably be polluted with boat traffic, at least a little trash and possibly red tide on the sh-o-r-e. Plus are you sure you want to lug 5 gallon buckets onto the beach fill them up and then carry them across the hot sand to your car or truck every time you want to do a water change not to mention it may be illegal?


Its not such a hassle to lug them because its going to be 2 big poland spring bottles. But you got a point about dirty water. I live in Brooklyn NY where the water it the crappiest of crappy lol so i wont use that water....as for being illegal, i highly doubt that is the case....


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2006)

not only could it be polluted, especially since you are in Brooklyn, but you also have a high chance of introducing wild parasites into your tank that can cause problems for your fish.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Collecting ocean water isn't illegal lmao. I wouldn't do it..ever..though. You never know if it contains red tide, parasites, parasitic isopods, hydroids, pesticides, chemicals, and the like.

Btw, mixing saltwater is a lot easier and water quality is probably better then if you get it from the ocean.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

I've also read that synthetic salt is more stable (the compounds in it don't break down so easily) therefor you can get more out of the synthetic stuff than the natural stuff.


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