How many of us are using NJ seawater?

[Jimmy]

Any pics of your success using natural ocean water? I was thinking of trying it out. I live in Barnegat and the bay is only a few minutes away.

Anyone set up a tank using only local fish inverts and rock?

 

[Stan]

I have local sea weeds and sponges growing. Also lots of amphipods in the sump. My rocks were cured in the lagoon. I also use local snails and hermit crabs for cleanup crew

 

[Jimmy]

That’s awesome. My parents have a lagoon in their backyard. I should definitely try this out

 

[hubcap]

cured rocks in the lagoon?
man, you have balls like church bell.

Goes to show a lot of the hype of pristine conditions is overstated.
While the tank isn't "textbook looker" you can tell the corals are doing just fine.

Do you notice any difference in stability in the parameters when using harvested seawater (and macro algae) as opposed to mixing in salts?
Do you test for trace elements? Id be interested to see -exactly- what the contents are........
maybe its the radioactive isotpes? (i keed, I keed)

 

[Stan]

I use kalkwasser for calcium. No other additives. Tried B-Ionic, but had mixed results. When I tested the bay water, the parameters were awesome. I would love a pristine tank, but the fish and corals are doing well. The radioactivity, being one mile from the nuclear power plant, makes the fish glow. I need less lighting that way. lol

Curing the rocks in the lagoon worked well. I have hundreds of sponges growing. I do get the occasional crab which goes back to the lagoon. I get common spider crabs which I leave in the tank. Crustaceans - Crabs ~ Marine Biology ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving

I use as much local critters as I can- gobies, blennys, snails, hermit crabs, pipefish, and sea lettuce.

 

[Trio91]

Do you process the water before it goes into the tank?

 

[Stan]

I warm it and check for salinity. Thats it.

 

[hubcap]

" The radioactivity, being one mile from the nuclear power plant, makes the fish glow. I need less lighting that way. lol"

literally, laughed out loud.




Get any horseshoe crabs?
Fluke? Blue claws?


Must be nice to have a large bay with constant exchange.
Shark River is a silt pit and only gets turned over as far as the marina. After that, its all silt flats.
Can almost walk across it now, if one didnt sink in the silt.

 

[Stan]

Get any horseshoe crabs?
Fluke? Blue claws?

Horseshoe crabs molt too fast and you have to hand feed them daily- a pain after a while. Fluke and blue claws are predators. I don't want any predators in the reef.

 

[Aqua Creations]

Jenkinsons aquarium I believe has a pump 1000 feet in that pump all their water in. Not sure if they are running it through any filters first.

 

[DangerDave]

I'm not. I'm thinking it's better to make my own, to avoid the pollution. I live on Great Bay. It's interesting, last year I was talking to a guy who works at the Rutgers science station doing research (I donated them a 500 gallon tank). He mentioned how interesting it was to be able to research the extremely clean water in great bay (it's flushed constantly due to the geography of the area), compared to Little Egg Harbor and Barnegat Bay. He called them both polluted bodies of water.

 

[Jeremy Brito]

Ive been really interested in trying this out on a larger scale. Last summer while I was at the beach I found a bunch of baby clams in the sand I collected them along with the sand that cleaned in,the surf. I brought these home and feed the clams to the puffer and trigger they loved them, as I did this the sand sat and a ton of small worms, came to the top I skimmed them off and feed them to the tank the fish went bonkers for them, I used the sand in the sump. Over all I experieced no issues with this small scale experiment but reading some of the posts on this thread I really want to experiment further with the water and maybe some local clean up crew I am just not sure where to collect

 

[steamman]

I guess if you are afraid of unseen unwanted pest you could run the water through a UV filter.

 

[Kai]

I had my dad bring my home a ton of ulva from Atlantic Highlands and right after I noticed I had a bunch of pods on the glass which I didn't have before. He brought it home in a bucket and I've dumped that water in too. I also have some inverts from the area and whatnot too. I don't exactly have fish in there yet to know too much but I haven't seen too many issues that can be attributed to the water/collected things.

 

[diana a]

When I was collecting from Sandy Hook, I had to run it through a diatom filter. The seawater needed to be cleaned