Originally Posted by
New2Salt1
http:///forum/post/3175706
ADEE, don't get me wrong, Im not saying ocean water is unhealthy or unfit for our tanks. Just because there are nitrates doesn't mean it's unhealthy. In fact, marinebiology.org says ALL ocean water has some amounts of nitrates.
And Im sure the brand of the test kit is good. Maybe the drops are old though? Or maybe the color chart is unclear? Im just saying...there is more concentrated die-off, decay, and pollution in coastal water than any other part of the ocean, so for a kit to read 0 amm, trite, and trates is hard to conceive. Here in Jersey we have gulls pooping up and down our beaches, people making messes, corporate pollution, skate/horseshoe crabs dying everywhere in the surf, baitballs caught in the shallows, predator fish eating, pooping...etc. I can't believe that our coastal waters are healthy enough to cycle all that death and decay in to zero readings.
The test kit is practically new, only about 3-4mos old. I dont doubt that the ocean is a mess, I believe you in that but what I will say is I do know for a fact we have plenty of stores (five of which i can think of off the top of my head) that use water right off our coasts with no problems, its gotten to a point when we walk in we ask what kind of water the stores use because we have found so many that do use local water. Im not sure if its because of cost (convenient its right here) or what but they do use it and sell it at around $0.60 a gallon, if it was *that* bad or caused that many problems/complaints multiple stores wouldnt do it... I dont suggest going to the beach while there are a million people swimming, urinating, exc and filling your buckets and come home.. what we did was slightly different. We did it on an incoming tide (best water by comparison) late at night and we went to an unpopulated beach, went waist deep and filled the jug. I certainly wouldnt recommend everyone do this by any stretch of the imagination but its a neat experiment to do on an otherwise empty tank, its not like im dooming an entire collection of fish/corals/inverts/ to execution via pollution... aside from the natural livestock that came in the water/sand and from my established live rock there is nothing else in it... to be completely honest with you there have been plenty of times I have caught little shrimp, hermit crabs, exc and dropped them in my tank when we got home and still have a good number of them. Its not the smartest thing to do but it can be done... and some places smarter than others to do it, such as cape lighthouse that doesnt have people swimming its not your "usual" beach that would be a wonderful place to collect, lord knows there are enough people snorkeling right there and collecting, even though its illegal! (for the record we do not collect there, we go further down the coast where its legal to do so) Our friend collects a TON of fish and various live stock throughout the year for the Miami Seaquarium collection and has brought me pork fish for my tank in the past.. its all in where you go I think.
I would happily take photos of the test kit and results off that tank without hesitation.
ETA: the miami seaquarium is on an OPEN SYSTEM and they arent even on an open ocean, they are on more of an intercoastal where there are boats, jet skies, exc passing by... want to talk about pollution! Their sharks, sea turtles, dolphins, exc are all on an open system, their water is pulled directly into their tanks.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ami+seaquarium
the photos in this link are one of the shark keepers at MSQ talking about their open system
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...&highlight=msq
perfect collection place
