Chriztoph3r wrote:Hey reefers. I'm new to hobby and will be starting my 60g tank this month. Firstly my question is, im a captain offshore here and was wondering if it would be logical to collect nsw 5 miles out. Would yall suggest that or should I go artificial. Btw guys atm the water out here right now is totally clean, blue at times .i work in the Gulf of Paria
Hey welcome to the group.
Better you go artificial. You 100 times safer. Seeing the water blue and blean doesnt mean its healthy. They say that one drop of crude oil can contaminate 1 million gallons of water. I wonder how much drops of oil Petrotrin an Trinmar releases on a daily basis. Besides that, when they do have an oilspill, they quick to throw dispersant. I lived in point fortin for 30+ years and worked on trinmar locations over 15yrs................. an oilspill is a normal days activity. In the gulf we have oil and chemical runoffs from all the industrial estates including all the fresh water that runs off into the gulf. Because of that you really have no idea what problems you might encounter. Remember most of the fish and corals that are being bought into the country by the handful of saltwater dealers, get their stocks from shops that are strictly either tank bred, or tank raised. 5 yrs ago, majority of them were wild caught. These fish that are getting shipped to our shores are more healthy and not prone to disease and swim bladder problems. Putting them in an unsafe environment is just asking for trouble. A mth into your tank getting set up you might start to encounter all sorts of problems and no one, book or research might be able to pinpoint the outcome. I might sound harsh, but this aint no cheap hobby, THE CANDLE MIGHT COST MORE THAN THE FUNERAL. You trying to save $200 on salt that may kill $5000 in fish, inverts, coral, live rock and bacteria in a few hrs or days. A 50 gal bag of salt is $100-$125 for the least (it have more expensive ones) ............. spend the money. Its a 60gal tank and by time you add 75-100lbs of live rock for optimum water quality, you lucky if it holds 45-50 gal of water. Its not much water you gonna be changing in any case. I change 50 gal from my tank (200+gal) every mth and that's still not sufficient to what other men with similar sized tanks. Tobago water that's fine. but nothing in the gulf. You ever realize they always warn people about eating fish and shellfish in the point lisas area???.
The ball is in your court though......... good luck with the build.
