Water Swaps

[prawdzwr]

I live right on the Persian Gulf and do my water changes right from the sea. The water here is probably among the saltiest body of water in the world. How often should I do a water exchange. Can I ever have too much fresh sea water?:fish1:

[sedor]

Technically no you can't have to much fresh SW. However, constantly changing out water could stress the fish a bit. I would stick to regular, routine weekly or bi-monthly changes.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How saline is it?

Do you have a pipe to the water, or you collect containers?

[timmyb770]

How have your results been with real sea water?? i have always thought about it and wondered how it worked??

[kimber45]

do you get your water from the shore or offshore?

[timmyb770]

I was wondering the same thing that kimber45 asked, because i have herd that the water closer to shore is polutted and its better to go farther out to collect water?

[prawdzwr]

Well I bought the tank from a gentleman here who kept it going with fresh water swaps for about 5 yrs. I live on a Saudi Aramco camp and drive to the beach in my golf cart, fill up a few (usually 3) 5 gal water carboys and do a water swap that way. I think I may be doing too much though. I am working out in the desert for two weeks at a time followed by one week at home. I have been doing the 15 gl swap thinking that being away for 2 weeks the tank needs it. From what I've been seeing in here though I think maybe one 5 gal on my first day home and 5 gal on my last day home then two weeks without would suffice. What do you all think. The tank seems to handle the swaps well although my black ribbon eel seems to get quite excited when I add the fresh water. I don't know if he likes it or is freekin out.

[prawdzwr]

oh yeah and I get it from shore but it is usually quite calm here so by the time I am waste deep it is very clear water.

[Rich D]

if your animals have done well with it in the past then it should be fine. Like said earlier, you should probably do regular changes like weekly or bi-monthly. A problem could be what kind of organisms you could be picking up in the water. You might find that your putting unhatched eggs or bacteria or who knows what else in there. Many of the nicest aquariums in the world are directly linked to the ocean so I see no problem with it.

[prawdzwr]

Thanks everyone for the info

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What size tank is it?

I change about 1% daily, and I think that 10-40% per month is a fine water change plan. :)

[7hogwarts]

A 1% daily water change. Interesting. Probably more stable?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is slow (takes a few hours each day), easy, automatic with pumps on timers, and I don't need to match temp, salinity, or anything else. :)

[prawdzwr]

It is slow (takes a few hours each day), easy, automatic with pumps on timers, and I don't need to match temp, salinity, or anything else. :)

cool I need to get more automated. Thanks for the info I think I will switch to 10 gal once every 3 weeks. With my work rotation thats the best I can do. I have an 80 gal tank with at least 30 lbs of rock so more like 60 gallons.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sounds good.

Happy Reefing. :)

[Haksar]

A lot of reefers here does WC this way.Most of them preferred this way due to being lazy doing WC(they have said this) but a lot of them have later complained that they had high phos levels and mysterious fish and coral deaths.Thinking this was easy they used to feed heavy.Tanks were in the size of 50-200 gallons.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What do you mean by "this way"?

[Haksar]

This way meaning WC by using sea water.This is mainly by friends over here in Dubai.Sea water here is mostly not clean near the shore area so probably a bad choice.Hope I am clear now.:cool:

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OK, thanks for clarifying. :)

[prawdzwr]

yeah I've heard similar stories. However this tank is going on 6 yrs with changes out of the sea. I am careful to wade out to the clear stuff and do not take water on days when the sea is rough.