Sea Water?

We're trying out a new fish store and went to get water and they told us they take the water from the ocean with their trailor. Is that even safe for my tank? It seemed weird to me with all the bacteria and things.

 

i wouldnt trust that. you dont know where that water is coming from. maybe it is near a drainage pipe. also with all the organisms/algae/bacteria i would think it would only create problems. unless it was from some isolated tropical island i wouldnt get it.

 

I would say it all depends on if they are taking it and running it through a filter befour using it on their tanks as to just adding it to their tanks.

 

its probably catalina saltwater, its safe Catalina Water Company, real ocean saltwater for home and commercial aquarium tanks

 

I think the OP is from Florida, so it wouldn't be from them. If they do in fact get it from the ocean, I wouldn't use it unless they went out far and deep. Close to shore, it probably has some sort of contaminents in it. You should ask exactly where they get it from.

 

I always feel awkward questioning employees and I didn't know enough to try and question it except that it didn't seem right to me. She said the salt mixtures can be tricky because its hard to mix correctly. Anyone down south know of a store called Reef's Edge off Orange Drive in Davie? Maybe someone here knows more. I'll hold off on the water change for now, thanks for the help.

Edited to add that I'm in Coral Springs, Florida

 

The problem with taking water from the Ocean is we pollute way to much. I wouldn't trust anything that comes from a couple miles of the shore line.

 

Like stated before, it all depends where they obtain the water and how they filter it.

On the other hand, getting RO water and mixing salt yourself isn't hard

 

Totally agree, they may just be trying to get you to buy the water so that you will come into the store more, and it could cost more.

 

I used to get "FREE" ocean water from Scripps Aquarium. You can still get it...Free for the taking. Even the LFS guys stopped doing this d/t the water being pumped in from a few hundred yards offshore (pollution).
I'm sure Scripps filter it further.