NSW or Salt Mix?

[Daniel07]

Hi Bros out there. I want to find out which is better? So far i been using salt mix and I find its ok for my 4 footer FOWLR which is do 30% water change every 2-3 weeks. I heard from my friend who had his fish wipe out after he switch from salt mix to NSW. His fishes just turn colourless, legathic and died few days later. Could be other things though, but he blame the NSW. Any comments?

[tunicate]

The thing is, I don't see how one would suddenly revert to using NSW after investing in DI/RO filter & salt. I've no problem with salt mix after doing the same for 4 yrs.

BTW, did your friend compare water parameter between his tank & the NSW before using it for WC? There should not be drastic change after WC. And I hope he/she did not change more than 50% tank volume at a time. Otherwise LS would be stressed.

[kenny1111]

first: where did he get the NSW? somw shop or farm the water is not good / VERY BAD.

just my 2 cent from what i read in the forum.

NSW should be good / clean / pure sea water which is really from the sea.

Salt mix is rich in the element.

also depent on the tank size.

[Daniel07]

first: where did he get the NSW? somw shop or farm the water is not good / VERY BAD.

just my 2 cent from what i read in the forum.

NSW should be good / clean / pure sea water which is really from the sea.

Salt mix is rich in the element.

also depent on the tank size.

He bought the nsw from a farm in the east. Btw his are nano. But so far he kept the fish for quite some time without any problem, until he switch to NSW. Well, things might go wrong suddenly in small tank, and i personally dont blame the NSW. But as for me, I prefer salt mix as i know it is sterile and disease free saltwater. To each his own i guess..

[TayHongSiang]

NSW is filtered seawater...as to how clean they have been "filtered" will depend on the individual LFS...personally, i still prefer saltmix...at least one thing for sure, the water is clean if one is using DI water to mix n using quality saltmix.

For nano tanks, the fluctuations in water parameters are more drastic compared to bigger tanks...so for nano tanks, water change regime shd not be more than 20% at one time...ideally, 5-10% is sufficient.

[vidextreme]

It's possible that it's some sort of pathogenic bacteria or virus that infected your friends fishes. Another possible scenario could be, the container used was contaminated with harmful chemicals. I'm pretty sure it's not because of changing saltmix to NSW.

I trust NSW if I myself collected it. Ofcourse, the best practice when you do this is to filter the water first. Removing oil, possible pest, etc.

Some may argue, but for me, the more natural it is the better (of course there are some risks to this). Plus, I don't do any water changes, works for my previous 2+ year tank.

[Daniel07]

Yeah. I ever thought of changing to NSW since i already have a transport to do so. But after hearing some of ppl comments and my friend case i decided otherwise and stick to salt mix. Well, maybe some LFS or farm might use direct NSW from the sea itself and it might be contiminate with pathogens or other harmful stuff. I wonder if any of you guys use NSW permanently without affecting the well being of lifestock? Your input will be very helpful to me. Thanks.

[ayamdodo]

I use NSW since i started when my nano tank. so far no issues. ive been buying them from a particular farm in the east and never had problems all these months. i guess the NSW they offer are quite clean. dunno about the other farms or lfs. anyways i assume the farms use NSW to keep their livestock too right? so if u buy the livestocks from the farm that has been contained in NSW all this while, and their livestock are all healthy, then its hard to blame the NSW for conatamination and stuff. mabe there could be other reasons to why the livestocks died. well this is just my theory. i duno if they use saltmix to keep their livestocks in the farm. correct me if im wrong coz we are all still learning. just my 2 cents

[hmkui]

i have been using NSW from the east and once a month i change almost 90% of the water and all live stocks and corals seem to enjoy the water change.. maybe i m lucky!!! nothing had happened so far ;p ... i used to use DI water and new salt mix and follow a routine of changing just 2 big bucket per week but in average it took me about 1 to 2 hours ... just for the change... and had been doing that routine for almost 17-18 years... and already sick and tired of the new salt mix change... i am a happy man now as now i got this option for NSW which just merely took me 15 mins all in all..... ;P ;P