chimera Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 blah... i use NSW purely because of lower cost and little effort (as i live close to the beach) if i lived inland more, i'd use ASW. personally, i dont believe there is much difference between NSW and ASW. it's seawater no matter how you look at it (albeit slightly different compounds or potentially slightly higher nutrients/pollutants in NSW vs ASW. but if it's 1 ppm of motor oil in your nsw mix, that aint gonna kill nuttin' :lol: IMO if you have a decent skimmer, dont be too concerned) Way up ASW and NSW as a cost/convenience thing, not "which one is better". to answer the original question 5, so long as your NSW source is RELIABLE AND TRUSTED, it will be fine. if you find there are too many risks involved, then use ASW. simple. do some testing first or contact the council for test results from samples they take (or whoever does it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 Reef asked... Ask the council why they have to test for bacteria every week?? Why would they test if it was so clean? I suppose that being in the geographical position we are in the world and the currents that can move so quickly down the country, that a very close watch has to be kept on the condition of our waters. Look at just a few years back when the shellfish industry was almost wiped out completely, and this swept through the seas in a very short time. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodle Posted October 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 Firstly thanks everyone. Layton i will definatly be pestering you closer to the time of getting things set up thanks for the offer. The 180ltr is 3foot yes and is sitting in the sleepout at the moment waiting to be filled again (left over from freshwater) and tank stand is half built. Not much will be happening until at least mid november then its Christmas (Sorry everyone for bringing that up) so realisticly looking at January. dont realy want a tank with a few rocks and some algae next to the dinner table while i listen to the inlaws going on about how ugly that thing looks, christmas is stressful at the best of time without that or i could aways tell them that there are the most spendard fish in the world in there but they are very shy and only come out when you are quite and still. Who knows it might work?. Hmm side tracked again :roll: NSW may not be an option for me as Layton says finding clean acessable water might be a problem and no Chimera moving back to Auckland is not a solution to anything other than the lack of traffic jams and sitting on the motorway for over an hour every morning ( Yes i did live close to work didn't i) that i no longer have to deal with 5mins to get to work and its about the same distance that took me 65mins in Auckland. Move to Christchurch and gain two hours a day worked for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 I wouldn't reccoment moving to Auckland, but they do have some great reef tanks, good sources of clean NSW and lots of shops and places to get equipment and stock. And hey a new Mayor too, who knows maybee Auckland will turn around If you can't get decent access to clean NSW than salt mix is your only options, just consider the costs invloved, not so much for the salt but for the filteration equipment needed to make the clean water, RODI filter systems will cost over $500 and don't last forever. You can get you rock and leave it in a bin in the garage with a heater and airstone to get things going. When rock gets freighted there is a lot of die-off which is what caused the problems, so the sooner you can take care of that the better. 3foot is a small tank, but it is doable. Try and make a sump and have it as big as you can get away with. More water in the system will help and you will never regret having a larger water volume. Good luck Pieman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Just cause I said I don't think the water is clean, doesn't mean it isn't. I'm just not willing to take the risk. I'll probably get shot for saying this but I have never used RO/DI water, and haven't had any problems related to makeup water. You could only get away with this in ChCh. Again, I would highly recommend not starting with a 3 foot tank. That's how I started in the hobby. A 3 foot converted freshwater tank, and I can safely say that that was the biggest and probably most expensive mistake i have made. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 agreed, even with my 4 footer i felt the same. the smaller the tank the less bio-load it can handle too - so less fish (if thats your thing) the literage in my refugium and sump are almost as much as my main tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeBlog Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Just cause I said I don't think the water is clean, doesn't mean it isn't. I'm just not willing to take the risk. I'll probably get shot for saying this but I have never used RO/DI water, and haven't had any problems related to makeup water. You could only get away with this in ChCh. Again, I would highly recommend not starting with a 3 foot tank. That's how I started in the hobby. A 3 foot converted freshwater tank, and I can safely say that that was the biggest and probably most expensive mistake i have made. Layton As with Layton, I only use mix (due to convenience) and don't use RO/DI water either. I was told when I started that ChCh has very clean water (for whatever reason) and it the RO/DI isn't necessary. I didn't know any better at the time and so went ahead with the good ol' tap water. So far so good!!! Redwood uses NSW and seems to have quite good results. So, there must be "clean" water somewhere in/near ChCh. Hey Nodle- Welcome to reefing!! I sent you a PM with my details if you want to get together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 see the trend developing in the advice 8) clear as mud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 see the trend developing in the advice clear as mud! Ah, you must be new then, welcome to the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 RnB - You used to use NSW, and are currently using ASW but are considering returning to NSW, right? Perhapps you can share what your thinking is? Pieman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Nodle A good book I have found very helpfull is "The Questions & Answers Manual Of The Marine Aquarium" By "Nick Dakin" I have brought several books all of which i had to buy of amazon.com or over the phone at jansons and found they were useless for a begginer to much detail examining the taxanomy of the fish & invertabreas but didnt explain the "simple stuff" to you I found this book at my local library and it has been really informative a great stepping stone rather than just going straight into the complicated confusing stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 I was using NSW but i am not sure that i was collecting from the right place or in the right conditions. I changed to ASW at the start of this last winter for simplicity as i am only in AKL at the weekends and have limited time, ASW is easier for me to use for this reason alone! . I may soon be based in AKL and thus want to start investigating NSW. I fly a lot and think that the 1 km zone around the shore is def higher in crap/sediment/nutrient then other places... this zone as we discussed last night varies aound NZ, in many WGTN locations it just does not exist. I think in some locations it would be near impossible to collect clean NSW. In lots of countries the NSW is just not usable due to pollution. We are lucky in that respect. I have a yacht, with no rudder at the moment 8( ,so I am thinking of doing a few trips out a bit to collect. I believe that even 2-3 kms into major channel will make a difference. I do not find the cost of ASW to be an issue, compared to other running costs it is not a biggie (DON'T start me :oops: ) I do not feel i have enough experience to know if good NZ NSW water is better or worse for corals then good ASW, i suspect fish just do not care 8) My tank looks better now then it did, but i believe its because i am taking better care of it, using phosphate reducer etc etc etc.... Alois gets great results with ASW and many of you guys seem to get great results with NSW. seems both work well and are not a differentiating factor IMHO. Hard to collect NSW if you are in most of germany and they seem to have quite nice tanks! Another reason for me to investigate is that in the near future i plan to add more tanks etc. It may at some stage become an economic necessity to consider NSW and only use ASW when i cannot easily collect clean NSW. this weekend i want to start a rock cure tank , so I an interested in the debate about the goodness in NSW, I suspect that by growing plankton culture and feeding rotifers etc, you would be doing you corals more good then just throwing in god knows what. Without a scientific explanation for the "goodness" in NSW I am just not convinced. Sure everything opens up after a NSW change, but the same thing happens in a ASW tank. I will prob use NSW and ASW for different purposes, NSW for curing tanks etc, in fact if i could find the right location i would drop my 50kg of rock into the sea on my scuba kit, but i am scared of losing it and its worth too much!!!!!!! Any ideas from AKLers maybe over near Rangi? would cure WAY QUICK in the sea I know that is not very conclusive report but thats my millage so far..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 one last point. Without a good RO/DI system, i would say go with NSW and bigger changes, this would minimise the effect of the crap you will be adding during evapouration add in...... good RO/DI is a MUST for us Aucklanders as almost all water here is runnoff collected in the waitakeres and if you ever been to the water pump sites (i used to support IT for these) you will understand the ammount of sediment and organics in it. If any AKLer needs RO/DI water PM me, I am sure we could come to a cost sharing arrangement, its quite cheap to make as the RO membrance lasts quite a while and the DI resin is not outrageously expensive in bulk... , and i go through about 100L per week on average, a LOT more in big change weeks..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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