Free Water

So the marine biology research building at my school offers free water that they use in their systems. I am in california so obviously the water is cold and would need to be heated. I am in the process of getting a tank (waiting for something good to popup on craigslist). I was just wondering if down the line I could just get water and heat it until propor temp then add. I would test the water first, but I was just wondering if anyone could forsee problems in doing this. Thanks!

 

Hi Gaucho - i assume you mean freshwater? RO? water? its not clear from your post

if it is RO water and you can be confident ( get it tested) that its OK , I can see no problems moving it and warming it

Although maybe its natural sea water they are using? and giving away? in which case you would be taking a risk - it might be old, maybe its the water they are throwing out and replacing with new?

need more details and then you will get more opinions

 

It is seawater. They have massive facilities where they study marine animals. Im not entirely sure if they just pump in fresh sea water or filter it or both. My guess would be both. Either way the setup is pretty massive. I would assume they give out the water for free because one, it is a college campus and they tend to give many things out for free, and two the facility is literally on the beach so its not as if it is difficult for them to come across it. Hope that clears some things up. Thanks.

 

Now I got it, thanks Gaucho

most people would advise against using natural seawater for a home aquarium as it may contain elements that you dont want , chemicals, polutants, parasites etc

if you where keeping native species then keeping them in the water they came from would arguably be acceptable ( I kept a cold water tank of beadlet nems and rock gobies caught in rock pools of the coast of Wales UK and used natural sea water to keep them in)

if your going to keep imported species from tropical waters, then you may be exposing them to things they have no natural immunity for ?

Steve

 

You must be talking about the Long Beach facility. Their processed seawater is completely reef safe. All contaminants are removed in their cleaning process. As far as the temperature, by time you get it home, it will be equalized with the ambient air temperature. I picked up 3 5-gallon buckets of their water a couple years ago and everything was fine with it in my tank. If I didn't live 60 miles away, I would take more advantage of it.

 

Actually it is the UCSB facility. I will pick up some of their water and have the LFS test it. I just got a 40g breeder that has been running for 2 years with a pair of clowns and a blue damsel. I got the tank, a 36" coralife CF light, ~50lbs live rock, 2" live sand, 2 powerheads, and an eheim cannister filter for $150 Moved everything on friday and now just saving up for a protein skimmer. Anyhow Im excited about getting into this hobby and can't wait to start working on my tank!

 

sweet!! Make sure to give us lots of pictures!!!