Real Ocean Water

Hi guys.

I had a 30 gallon tank laying around and decided to set it up with Real Ocean Water from Petco, just to see how good this stuff is.

I filled all 30 gallons with the water 24 hours ago. There is also Aragonite substrate and live rock in the tank with a filter.


My question is that since this Real SeaWater, how soon can livestock be added to it? Do I still need to wait for that cycle to happen or not? I checked parameters this morning and everything was percect.


Thanks in advance!

 

You do need to cycle the tank as normal Yptozmy

the reasons that the levels seem perfect is possibly because nothing had started to happen yet

the bacteria we want to process the fishes waste is not going to be in any significant quantity in stored sea water and in reality there is not much bacteria going to be about in the water column of even fresh seawater

the live rock will provide the core of your needed bacteria, but on that there will be some die off, which can result in ammonia readings followed by Nitrite etc
these may be minor, and pass quickly , but that is not 100% certain thus not worth risking higher life forms at this stage

I would run the tank a couple of weeks at least monitoring with test kits as normal
just to ensure those levels stay the same or peak and then return to zero

and after that a trial with a few snails etc and see how they go on for a week, before considering further stocking

JM2C

 

Thank you!

 

Personally, I prefer to add the raw cocktail shrimp regardless so there are no question marks concerning the bio-filter when I begin stocking the tank.

The advantage in using real ocean water is that you get the full chemistry in the exact proportions to which your livestock are accustomed and have evolved to tolerate. Man-made salt mixes may suffice, but they will never truly compare with nature.

 

Real Ocean Water- in a bottle?

I thought this thread was going to be about how I kept a SW tank over 15 yrs ago- With REAL Ocean water! It was from the Inlet at Boynton Beach Fl.
I was an Scuba and snorkeler and hand caught all my livestock!
A slurp gun mostly and scouring the sea weed in the swallows.
I Han a 2 clawed shrimp, Blue angel, porcupine puffer, damsels, and others I can't remember.
Obviously I only got water during an incoming tide- crystal clear.

 

you said you added "live rock" is this stuff you got that is actually still alive or is it dry rock? I know alot of people call their rock "live" when it is actually new rock or dead rock however you want to call it.

The reason I ask is this. If the rock is actually "live" such as already went through a cycle you don't have to wait. If it is live rock you had mailed to you it is now mostly dead so in that case you would get a cycle.

I'm just stated this since my tank when I set it up I put live rock from an existing tank and it did not cycle at all. I actually put a pair of clowns and a rbta in this brand new tank on day 1 and they are fine 3months later.

This is due to the fact that the bulk of good bacteria that is in our tank is located in your live rock and sand. hope this helps you decide.

 

My rocks are 100% live. I bought them from my LFS. It was in their display tank and labeled "live rocks @ $7/pound"

 

Is it cured LR?

Regardless it's is prudent to make sure ammonia and nitrites are undetectable prior to adding live stock.

Natural SW will not provide much of any biological filtering to answer that question.

You can soft cycle, add beneficial bacterial, do a long cycle and ghost feed. So many ways to do it, just make sure before you add live stock that they do not have to suffer through an ammonia spike.

Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone!