thanks ppl for your valuable input it has given me plenty to think about.
Lorna i live in sunny Darwin, Australia. And everything is expensive up here except live rock and some fish, lol. Been in darwin, our oceans are pritty clear. i done my resurch on collecting salt water from the ocean, and this is what i found out.
Water should be collected on the still of a high tide.
always collect your water from direct sunlight, as most bugs and bacteria are uv sensitive, and will berry thenselves in the substrate during the hot parts of the day,
another thing we have plenty of up here.Sunlight that is.
another benifit from ocean water up here is the copipods and artripod. as these are not avaliable to buy.
I have never heard of anyone getting disease or mysterios deaths in ther tanks from using seawater where i am, but thats just here, and our water quality is really good. and with 8mtr tidal movments our estureys are well flushed out twice a day.