UCSB sea water

so the other day rev oscar and i decided to go find this water spiget a few people have talked about that is located behind the science building on UCSB campus. well we found it and got 5 gallons for oscar to use on his tank so he is the Guinea pig but my question is has anyone here used it before? did you notice any pro's or con's? has anyone tested it before for cal, alk...ect? i have talked to one person who used it but it was years and years ago and i did skim through the RC thread about it but didnt see if anyone posted test results.

A long time thread on this water.....
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=541355

I used to use it but you will need to buffer it for your reef.

I think quite a few guys on here use it

hopefully they chime in with some thoughts and ya i read some of that thread and it seems to be okay to use but im kinda weary on it.

why did you stop using it, Mike?

You get more stuff in the water compared to making your own water. We had 2 tours of the water filtration and the school uses deep sand/rock filters, nothing else. Depends what you want. I like to have control of the parameters with my water.

Ask Crusty, he likes the water and it works for him.

Crusty, shrum, and Ian (I think) are the ones that use it. Rusty has a fowlr, shrum has corals and likes the results.

I think it was Jaren that used it recently and saw his corals perk up.

Interesting, I might give it a go to see if I notice anything from it but I do like having control of my parameters and knowing what goes into my tank.

I tested the salinity of it today. It was at 1.024. So far it looks good. Going to do a 5 gallon water change today and use the ocean water.

If anyone makes that Venture from the Ventura area or passes through there I would love to join you. We could split the fuel cost or something. I'd only need to go once a month at most, i can hold 60 gallons at a time.  I don't have a truck and my 20 gallon jugs don't squeeze in my car very well.  When i fill them up all the way they spill into my seats lol.  That's why i will only transport RODI water.  No residuals.

Yep, been using it for years. I'm glad they got it back open again. I've done about 5 water changes now with it, about 500g total. Corals are starting to look better.

I just picked up another ~300 G yesterday. I'm going to try and keep myself on a schedule to do about 50G a week water changes and see what happens.

How does it take to fill 300 gallons?? That water trickles out haha

It takes me about 3 hours total round trip. 45 min to get up there 45 min to fill up with 300g of water. and a little over an hour to get back home. I usually drive about 60 on the way home. It's harder to stop with all that extra weight.