Safe to use ACTUAL seawater?

[dedragon]

What You See is What You Get - Sea and Reef Aquaculture

What You See is What Yo

www.seaandreef.com

These are great at showing some of the more extreme white variants that are also storms. You can see the lines are not nearly as irregular or as jagged as a snowflake.

Snowflake below

 

[1clownfish]

Yes I see
oh well that’s a really big let down

 

[1clownfish]

Also while we are sort of on the same topic… is it normal for clowns to like play dead? I am almost 100% sure it’s not a disease if she is properly provoked ( food ) she jumps right up like nothing happened

 

[dedragon]

Hopefully it was just a mistake by the company and they can get you a partial refund or something.

Also while we are sort of on the same topic… is it normal for clowns to like play dead? I am almost 100% sure it’s not a disease if she is properly provoked ( food ) she jumps right up like nothing happened

I wouldnt say play dead, but some do see their clownfish sleep on the floor or a rock. They usually tend to stay in an area most of the time, like how they would if they had an anemone. Just natural instinct for these fish to look for a safe area and stay there only to come out for food. My male is 99% of the time in its anemone and the 1% out is just to eat and it only goes at max 10" away from the anemone. They arent the most active fish

 

[1clownfish]

Ha ya this is a more newer development I have to admit the first time I saw her laying motionless on her side I flipped

 

[jabberwock]

I feel for you if you got duped by a clownfish dealer... and I do not want to be abrasive, but after 5 pages of posts, no one has picked up on the fact the the tank is "4 to 5 months old" and is "fully established" (post number 1).

Tanks are not fully established anytime before 12 to 18 months at least. Your algae and live stock problems seem normal to me for a young tank.

I don't have enough knowledge to comment on the clownfish.

 

[1clownfish]

The tank itself is over a year… where did you get 4-5 months?

 

[1clownfish]

Oh I see I meant it’s been established for about 4 - 5 months sorry!

 

[jabberwock]

Hi all
So ever since I have set up my my 20 gallon nano about 4-5 months specifically for my over aggressive female clownfish who can not be housed with any other tank mates I have always mixed my own saltwater using RO from my fish store however recently starting a new job I have not had time so I started using premixed saltwater. I always assumed it was RO water they mixed salt into for you ( for a few extra cents of course ) and really it was a life saver. Now I can’t remember exactly when but I started having HUGE issues with algae and DAYS after I would do a water change lots of algae would just start growing! And they wouldn’t go away no matter what I did. The funny thing was it was different species every time!
So after a few weeks of this I went to my fish store to get some more saltwater and decided to ask the specific salinity since I never knew they told me ABOUT 1.025 I was confused and asked them why they weren’t 100% since this was supposedly saltwater they mixed and they told me it wasn’t and they got it strate from the ocean not filtered or anything! I was super confused since this water is CRYSTAL clear and they use it in their absolutely stunning tanks I mean their tanks have like won awards they are so healthy housing a range of different species not a sign of algae so I wasn’t to worried but thinking over the issues I have had with my tank using this water I wanted to ask… is it safe? Can it bring ammonia or other unwanted chemicals into my tank that may have been in the ocean? And is that why I am having issues with multiple different algae’s I can’t explain? I know many of you are going to ask my water parameters thinking it might be what is causing the algae I assure everything is in check they tank is fully established I have had it tested multiple times at my LFS

All advice appreciated, Thank you

I apologize if I misinterpreted what you wrote.

 

[dedragon]

no one has picked up on the fact the the tank is "4 to 5 months old" and is "fully established" (post number 1).

We did, I just called it biological stability and about establishing stable conditions

 

[1clownfish]

I apologize if I misinterpreted what you wrote.

No you didn’t it was my fault most of the people on this thread have been helping me with this tank for a while lol so I didn’t think to say how old the tank was actually

 

[sixty_reefer]

Regarding your algae issue is not the NSW the issue from what you told us so far it seems that your parameters may be the route cause of your issue as you mentioned zero nitrates and zero phosphates, at this residual concentration heterotrophic beneficial bacteria can become limited to grow and divide with the depleting of both nutrients, you are best now to increase both and as there is no coral present in the system you could just turn if the lights for 6 days to reduce it drastically.

 

[road102]

I've collected water from the ocean (Florida) and I truly believe that this helped a lot to get my tank established. I never had problems, the only strange thing I had was:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-is-growing-over-this-hermit-crab-shell.949816/#post-10794996

 

[1clownfish]

Regarding your algae issue is not the NSW the issue from what you told us so far it seems that your parameters may be the route cause of your issue as you mentioned zero nitrates and zero phosphates, at this residual concentration heterotrophic beneficial bacteria can become limited to grow and divide with the depleting of both nutrients, you are best now to increase both and as there is no coral present in the system you could just turn if the lights for 6 days to reduce it drastically.

I was using an API test and don’t 100% trust the accuracy but do believe that it gives me an idea and I am sure there is SOME nitrates and phosphates as mentioned in my first test the nitrate is usually around 5. And the phosphate 2.
I once tried putting lights off for two weeks… the week they were back on the algae started growing back like weeds
thank you for your suggestions

 

[dedragon]

for the algae I would try the cleanup crew. Urchins are also very effective algae eaters. Make sure what you are dealing with isnt bryopsis though, probably just regular hair algae but best to be sure.

And order those new test kits! Salifert is probably the cheapest but still good. Any salifert, red sea pro, or hanna are all good. For phosphate hanna phosphate checkers as every phosphate test I have had has been impossible to read. Best order for you to buy would be nitrate and phosphate, then alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium.

 

[dedragon]

I was using an API test and don’t 100% trust the accuracy but do believe that it gives me an idea

I promise you they really wont. We target phosphates usually at .03-.15 and the api kit doesnt come close to showing useable results

 

[1clownfish]

for the algae I would try the cleanup crew. Urchins are also very effective algae eaters. Make sure what you are dealing with isnt bryopsis though, probably just regular hair algae but best to be sure.

And order those new test kits! Salifert is probably the cheapest but still good. Any salifert, red sea pro, or hanna are all good. For phosphate hanna phosphate checkers as every phosphate test I have had has been impossible to read. Best order for you to buy would be nitrate and phosphate, then alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium.

Yes I plan to try some out soon
how would I know if it is bryopsis? as mentioned previously it’s almost every time a different type of algae sometimes it’s hair sometimes it’s this slime algae and sometimes it’s purple!
ok will check out salifert

 

[1clownfish]

I promise you they really wont. We target phosphates usually at .03-.15 and the api kit doesnt come close to showing useable results

Oh ok
so if there really isn’t ANY nitrates or phosphates ( still finding that hard to believe ) that could be the root cause for my algae issues?

 

[1clownfish]

I promise you they really wont. We target phosphates usually at .03-.15 and the api kit doesnt come close to showing useable results

And I had a question regarding the CUC… I currently do not have a quarantine tank and don’t plan to get one soon as I dont plan to really stock up on fish but since it seems I need a CUC for my clownfish tank would it be necessary to put them through quarantine? My clownfish is doing so good I would hate to introduce possible parasites etc,
not sure if that’s a dumb question or not lol

 

[dedragon]

Oh ok
so if there really isn’t ANY nitrates or phosphates ( still finding that hard to believe ) that could be the root cause for my algae issues?

The algae is most likely absorbing the available nitrate and phosphate before it can be read, but you would still need a more accurate test to determine that.

not sure if that’s a dumb question or not lol

not dumb at all. You are almost always safe with invertebrates, especially if the store you go to keeps them in a separate tank from their fish. Choose snails with cleaner shells so you dont get any other nuisance algae and you should be good. Another option is something like algaebarn to get absolutely clean snails but isnt necessary to do as long as you inspect the shells when you buy.
Any shrimp or urchin cant carry any fish diseases or parasites, the reason I talked about the shells is because stuff like ich can attach to surfaces in the tomont stage and then infect fish later, but this is a low chance of that happening. Inverts in general dont contract fish diseases or parasites