buying seawater in the north

[cjh]

hi guys, i'm new here. can anione tell me where can i buy seawater in the north area coz i'm living in the north area and i'm currently buying the water from clementi which is veri far away from my home..........

plz help

[lightningstrike]

nearest, maybe will be T95 if u hv ur own transport. IMHO, salt mix is still better.

[aStRoBo|]

do ur own salt mix like wad lightning strike advises.. cant always rely on seawater.. and so heavy to bring back.. later halfway burst..

[espresso]

hmm...some bros here have no problem using seawater but from reliable sources...different people have different preference..

For me..i am using ME salt to mix with water.

last time i use sea water from pasir ris farm..but at times lazy to go n buy.

here the link..

here

[typrobin]

IMHO, no LFS in the north are reliable..especially in YISHUN...i stay in woodlands, and get my seawater from t95...my advise is to get a car to go there...if not forget it..

if u take a container of water, i dun think u can even last thru the slope...

[Archilles19]

I mixed my own saltwater.....you can ensure the cleanliness of the salt mix that way because I know of a beginner who have parasite problem even after fixing a UV ster.

You can actually control how strong or weak the solution is & ...believe me.....it save u a lot of strength because you just carry the bucket from...let say...maybe your service balcony to your tank in the living room.

Oh BTW.....are you sure its saltwater from the sea........& how much tap water they add to gain profit.......

[DeepBlue]

no matter what sources you can get your seawater from....

try asking yourself after you have invested a couple Ks into the hobby...with those resilient fishes and beautiful corals ....

are you going to and the fate of your precious reeftank to a LFS in such a way...a mistake..be it intentional or plain carelessness could ruin all your hardwork....and prcious lives.

Bottomline.... your choice....

[Archilles19]

Just buy a pack of salt.....you can try Coralife.....just a small pack & mixed 30 litres of water to 1 kg of salt......add water conditioner (I'm using Nutrafin) then either you use a small pump or an air pump. I personally prefer the air pump since it will remove the chlorine gas faster & provide some oxygen in return.

Try for one water change & see how it goes..........

[hammy]

i used to use saltwater . the prob with that is the water very heavy to bring home ar . and there's once after changing water , my fishes all kanna ich.

from then on , i switched to marine environment . though a bit expensive as compare to saltwater. but find it more convenient and beneficial to my fishes. except kalk , i dun dose other addictive and my tank are doing great .

[RAV-65]

Me is actually voted the best salt...

[madmac]

Natural Seawater has many advantages, too. Chief among which is it is natural.

In the recent online issue, Sept 2004 of Advance Aquarist, it was summarized when the author the following, "In marine aquarium science there are many issues that have been passionately debated for decades. Two of the most common issues involve the questions of 1) which is 'better' - natural seawater or synthetic sea salts, and 2) trace elements in synthetic sea salts: good or bad? [bOLD]Unfortunately, there is little real science to support any side of the arguments for these topics.[/bOLD]"

It is a short article, please read, Advance Aquarist Sept 2004

Among the many advantages of using salt mixes... there are also cons to it. Artificial salt mixes have been rated with alarming differences... some brands have been tested to be detrimental to the health of life stock.... I have also come across several FAQs on wetmedia, where the quality in the production of salt mixes was questionable and is suspect to the widespread loss of live stock... some Producers may recall but how many will? e.g. pls read this articel :Shimek, R. 2003 The Toxicity of.... Some Freshly Mixed Artificial Sea Water: A Bad Beginning for A Reef Aquarium."

Saying it is your choice really answers the question, yes it is your choice, because it is your tank, not because, you've spent Ks and risk losing etc... because you don't know the reason or the background of the person who posted the question. Don't go flaming me pls, I'm just trying to contribute to the "knowledge pool" of local reefers here.

Salt mixes can be expensive on the "overall delivery"... not to mention the trouble you'll have to go thur' to make sure it reaches its optimum state....etc. Surely, time-saving has to be a big point to add to besides money saving.

For those who are proponents of natural seawater, however there are clear points in the care of your life stock with regards to contingency... And like having spare powerheads at home, large pails, having a bag or two of salt-mixes at home on standby is just being clear-headed.

[lightningstrike]

yes NSW might contain favorable trace elements or components not found in prepared salt mix, but along wif it comes unknown pollutants and contaminants of water as well. u dun hv a chemical analysis of what is contained it the NSW do u? whereas for salt mix, u might hv that.

in terms of monies savings, IMHO, i believe it is more or less between the 2 if u take into account all the existing conditions of transportation, labour, etc.

not flaming, juz my point of view.

[madmac]

Point noted Lightning, pollution and contaminations are akin to the production and the QC of artificial salt mixes batches.... point is you never know... however for NSW, if the pollution and contamination is so severe, then so will the LS at the LFSs... do you not think that their inventory is not as valuable as yours is? Don't we all buy rocks, corals and fishes that have been exposed to their NSW for at least a few hours?... Again taken from the link above...

"Amongst professional marine biologists, particularly those who work with invertebrate embryos, the average artificial sea water mix has been recognized for many years as an imperfect substitute for what is the perfect medium for marine animal growth, pure oceanic sea water. This is particularly for delicate organisms such as embryos (Strathmann, 1987). Marine organisms have evolved in natural sea water, and natural selection has fine-tuned their physiology to this medium. Many of these organisms do not have waterproof skins, and the well-being of the creature is directly dependent upon the solution surrounding them. While there is some toleration of variations from the "normal" condition to those that the animals are attuned, generally that tolerance is small and limited only to the range of natural variation (Prosser, 1991).

Sea water is not just a solution of sodium chloride and water, but rather is a complex and incompletely understood mixture of virtually every substance that has graced the face of the Earth. Anything that can be washed downstream eventually finds its way to the seas, and is incorporated into the solution of the oceans (Pilson, 1998)...."

The constituents of artificial salt mixes just cannot hold a candle to NSW and what it provides organically, to your LS, factoring some pollution etc. in...

[lightningstrike]

well, to each has its own. at least to me, i swear by my limited experience and whatever limited literature i hv come across. at the end of the day, it still boils down to urself.

for better prepared salt mixes, it is more than likely that u will find a chemical analysis of individual major elements on the packaging. as for NSW, unless u wanna spend tons of analytical kits, i'll hv nothing to say.

furthermore, i think NSW is more likely to contain parasites such as ich than when making comparison to synthetic salt mixes.

as i hv oredi put it, it all depends on ur choice.

[XPeriment 626]

In the north you can try BioOcean, at Cactus road off Yio Chu Kang road. The location and opening hours can be found at the sponsor's area of this website.

[XPeriment 626]

BTW regarding the discussion on salt mixes v NSW, I personally use NSW cos I have not gotten around to mixing salt yet. Might try it sometime in the near future. While I think that there are good points made by the people quoted in favour of NSW, you have to note that the quotes are between 5 to 10 years old, and the research itself could be even older. Hence, the arguments might not longer hold true as artificial marine salt mixes are constantly being improved and fine-tuned and it is entirely possible that today's brands can offer NSW quality without parasites and impurities.

[DeepBlue]

Good points are shared. Well done.

Personally... I find that whether its knowledge and data shared from thorough scientific researches or just plain experiences of reefers ... it all boils down to putting it into context.

Yup...using all the impressive data can prove that NSW are great...no one will dispute that. But bear it in mind the place where the NSW was collected and tested by the biologist who wrote the articles (consider the time as environment's rapid changes can be quite great over a short period of time). Lastly, whether our local LFS does the same thorough filtering of unwanted elements in the water is another thing.

As a newbie...you can read up a whole lot of things in the net and put them here....(who cant?) . Head knowledge is one thing...the smart thing is actually looking at the local situation and decide, at the same time considering what the biologists say. Reef keeping hobby is pretty young in Singapore....esp with a lot of new LFS being setup...seriously..I dun share that kind of confidence yet in their method of processing NSW.

[RAV-65]

I get this fear dat u might juz get a batch of NSW dat is contaminated, maybe even without the LFS knowledge and dat could crash ur entire tank.... So i never wan to take the risk, u can be safe buying NSW from a LFS for months or even years, but it only takes one mishap...

[typrobin]

I get this fear dat u might juz get a batch of NSW dat is contaminated, maybe even without the LFS knowledge and dat could crash ur entire tank.... So i never wan to take the risk, u can be safe buying NSW from a LFS for months or even years, but it only takes one mishap...

u really make me worry....lets pray that the day won't come...

[cjh]

ohh icic... haha... is it advisable to add seawater with salt mix coz i mix some of the seawater inside the salt mix

[AlfaRomeo]

cjh, why would you want to do that?

[XPeriment 626]

Deepblue, agreed that LFS might not properly filter the NSW. For me, where I buy from I'm quite confident they filter it properly as it takes a day or two of passing through filters before it is for sale. In fact, most of the water they prepare is not for individual buyers like myself but for the servicing of the many corporate tanks they maintain. I figure they would be extra careful as one major crash in businessman's tank can badly damage the LFS's reputation.

[aStRoBo|]

ohh icic... haha... is it advisable to add seawater with salt mix coz i mix some of the seawater inside the salt mix

pEnGz.. u wan to increase the salinity tat's why u do tat?

[cjh]

i mean for water change coz i using seawater now...

is it advisable to do the 10% water chg using salt mixed water??

and 1 more thing my damsels and clown fish started to have white spot after i moved them from a tank with salt mixed water to a seawater tank but now the diesease is under control... but 2 out of 3 clown fish still got white spot... does keeping doctor fish in my tank help to clean the white spots away from the fishes??

i noe its off topic but its veri urgent.... HELP plz i dun wan my cute little clown to die.... btw i buy all the fishes from pasir ris farm

[typrobin]

i mean for water change coz i using seawater now...

is it advisable to do the 10% water chg using salt mixed water??

and 1 more thing my damsels and clown fish started to have white spot after i moved them from a tank with salt mixed water to a seawater tank but now the diesease is under control... but 2 out of 3 clown fish still got white spot... does keeping doctor fish in my tank help to clean the white spots away from the fishes??

i noe its off topic but its veri urgent.... HELP plz i dun wan my cute little clown to die.... btw i buy all the fishes from pasir ris farm

cleaner wrasse help to eat away the parasite...but once the ich is cleared, the cleaner usually dies of hunger...a cruel way to ensure that your precious fishes survives but no choice...i will be getting one soon too...my ich is getting outta control...