Salt Water For Marine Aquariums
There are two basic ways of supplying your aquarium with water where in the fishes and invertebrates can live.The first way is to utilize natural sea water which you could collect yourself; the second is to use one of the pre-packed marine water mixes available on the market.When you collect your own water, there are certain things to remember.You must get the cleanest water possible, which generally demands traveling by boat out into the ocean and loading your containers there.The containers must be of such material so as not to pollute the water.Metal buckets, for instance, should be avoided.
Because natural sea water bear living organisms, it is best to filter it before storing.This can be done just by pouring it through a clean handkerchief.You will be astonished by the material, living or otherwise, that stays behind in the handkerchief.The living material is largely plankton, which is present in almost all sea water in greater or lesser quantities.A bit of the handkerchief residue placed in a small watch-glass and viewed under a low power microscope is a wonderful sight.There may be larval forms of numerous animals including fishes, crustaceans, echinoderms, worms, as well as eggs of different species or fully grown animals like copepods.Each sample might contain something new and excitingly different.Much of the plankton would die in the water and pollute it if not taken out.If the plankton is bountiful, the water will sooner or later become too foul for the fishes or invertebrates to live in it and will have to be thrown away.
Storage is usually accomplished by placing the containers in a darkened area.This keeps the aquarium plants from reproducing.It is very discouraging to find that your supply of clean water has become green from an algal bloom induced by a high nutrient level (the dead plankton supplying the nutrients) and plenty of light for photosynthesis.
"Natural" sea water has been provided to marine aquarists in the past, but more recently the cost of shipping the filtered water has become prohibitive when likened to the rather safe and easy method of mixing prepackaged salts.The concept of setting up a tank of Red Sea fishes, for instance, using water collected from the Red Sea itself sounds great but is impractical and not even needed.
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