whats the deal with salt

[sin]

Hi there all that read this.
well iv been keeping a salt water tank, for almost a year now, and i have been collecting my water direct from the sea. this seems to work sofar. but on occasion i find the need to mix up salt water, using tap water, declorinator , and red sea or aqua one salt. but it is sooooo expensive to buy salt its not funny.around 100 to 180$ for 20 kg, wich makes about 600ltrs.
my question is this. in september this year, i will be driving past a place called Cargal salts. they have massive drying ponds and stockpiles of pure sea salt. and its all free, would this salt do the job.
any help or futher imfomation would be greatly appreciated.......

[Lorna]

I would not use sea water or salt from drying ponds as you can not guarantee the quality of the product you are getting. These may contain trace elements that you don't want to introduce to your tank such as heavy metals and minerals such as copper. I am not sure where you live that you are paying such a high cost for aquarium salt mix but a 50lb bucket of Tropic Marin sells for about $60 US at Dr. Foster & Smith. This would probably be about the equivilant of 20kg and make up about the same amount of salt water. Even so, it is part of the cost of the hobby and should be taken into consideration when venturing into this realm.

[TRe]

i use NSW and i actually prefer it, only thing is u have to collect at the right times/distance ect...
btw i get my water from a lfs @ .50 per gallon

[Lorna]

Tre what you are using is monitored I am sure by the lfs for quality control, I don't recommend anyone go out with a bucket to collect their own water.....as there is no way to ensure it's quality.

[Airborneguy]

I'd trust the LFS even less as far as collecting that water. For that cheap, they must be collecting it themselves. And what quality control could they really have? I would never even think of using ocean water from around here, but if I was out on a boat off the coast I might try to collect some and test it.

[Lorna]

Well I know that some places sell seawater which they collect and test on a regular basis. With Tre living in FLA I am sure that the source of the water is well monitored and I think he is sure to only get it from a reputable source.

[TRe]

theres actually a few reputable companies that go out and collect it at the right times (which is where the lfs gets it from ) but to get it delivered to your house they charge around $80-100 per trip no matter how much u get, so unless u have a resivour it isnt worth it so i just get it from the lfs down the street when i do my bi weekly water changes

[Airborneguy]

How far out and what times are the reccomended times to do it?

[TRe]

preferably a few miles out or sum people even collect from the inlet... i do belive u wanna collect as the tide is coming in rather than going out

[sin]

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.