If you lived near the ocean, and you caught wild fish from there, would you use ocean water for water changes?
using water from the ocean
- Thread starter moray eel man
- Start date
If you don't have to travel far to gather the water why not use it.
I used to live on the beach in IB, San Diego. We had a 5kgal SW shark/ray pond in the yard. We used to run a sump pump connected to several garden hoses to the surf to bring water to the pond (via an in-line sand separator cartridge).
We also had a 400 gal pup tank in the house. We used to take the Blazer up to Carlsbad to get water from the filtration system at Scripp's Institute. They had a public-access tap at a back road access at the rear of their public aquarium filtration plant. We could fill a couple of 55gal drums in about 15 minutes there.
We also had a 400 gal pup tank in the house. We used to take the Blazer up to Carlsbad to get water from the filtration system at Scripp's Institute. They had a public-access tap at a back road access at the rear of their public aquarium filtration plant. We could fill a couple of 55gal drums in about 15 minutes there.
Wouldn't the ocean water have both detriments and benefits though, such as possible pathogens and parasites vs. helpful things that occur naturally as well?
I have seen public aquariums with massive tanks of dingy, murky untreated sea water with signs on it saying "Exhibit empty - seawater being treated for new arrivals"
We only drew ocean water after a steady string of good weather. We never took water during bloom alerts or just after storms. The sand separator elements filtered down to 25 microns making parasites not much of a problem. UV and garlic kept the sharks parasite-free. Although, the occassional shorebird would deposit something that needed treatment every once in a while.
The water from Scripps Institute of Oceanography was so clean the fish looked like they were traveling through air. It was more than adequate for my leopard sharks, brown smooth hounds, guitarfish, and horn sharks. The bat ray did well in this water, too, until he was large enough to move to the pond.