Seawater

[wingmans10]

Well I just Finished setting up my 1st saltwater tank with the LR & LS, starting the 1st cycle. My question to you is that I have extra seawater left over from my innitial filling of the tank, is it safe to save for my 1st water change? My guess would be NO due to organisms in the water dieing off, but I could be wrong. The water is just sitting in the 5gal. buckets i transfered it in from the store. thats why I came here to ask the questions to the experts. Thanks for your help in advance.

[CarmieJo]

You can store it a pretty long time if it is covered.

[gofish]

I would think you need to keep it circulated. I could be wrong...

[gofish]

You may want to put the extra water in one larger container (like a 30 gal brute commercial grade barrel) so you can circulate it and heat it for water changes (which you will be doing plenty of!) :)

[CarmieJo]

I think but will not swear that I have read that you can store it for some time and just heat and circulate it say 24 hours before you want to do the water change. I usually make mine up the day before a water change and buy SW at the lfs if I need to make an emergency water change.

[bertoni]

You should be able to let it sit for months without an issue. I let the stuff sit for many weeks with no problems.

[gofish]

I get what you are saying, Carmie.

Is it mixed saltwater or collected seawater. If mixed water, then I imagine you can let it sit longer. If it is seawater, then it will need to be circulated and possibly heated to avoid the die-off of organizms in the water, and water changes will occur frequently with the cycling of the tank.

I could be totally wrong...someone else care to step in?

[gofish]

Jeff, I must have been typing when you posted. Does it matter if it is mixed or collected water?

[bertoni]

If the salt has been collected, you could run a small powerhead in it to help keep it oxygenated. Also, I forgot to mention that water will evaporate and raise the SG more than you might suspect for a bottle of water sitting still in a corner, at least in my experience.

[CarmieJo]

This is not exactly on topic but here is an interesting thread on using NSW (collected water). http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240 I listened to the podcast some time ago and I kind of remember them talking about storing NSW but I didn't want to listen to the whole podcast again. I did read through the thread to see if there was any info but the only reference was to keeping it for a week.

[Konadog]

wingmans10, your question has been answered, but.....
[welcome]

[gofish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7159999#post7159999 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CarmieJo
This is not exactly on topic but here is an interesting thread on using NSW (collected water). http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240 I listened to the podcast some time ago and I kind of remember them talking about storing NSW but I didn't want to listen to the whole podcast again. I did read through the thread to see if there was any info but the only reference was to keeping it for a week.

Thanks for checking that out (and Jonathan, thanks for your response as well). I had a feeling that there would be a difference in the length of time and method of keeping the two types of water. Glad that we were able to clarify (at least to some degree ;) )

[wingmans10]

To answer your question, Yes I am working with collected water. Thank you for the warm welcome and sheading light on the subject for me.