rain water

[scottie73]

ok ..next question..alot of people have said to me that they use rain water in the aquarium...how do you know that it is safe to use???i mean it runs down the roof into a water butt(i presume)..do you then filter it when u decant it?..is it safe to use without adding de-chlorinator?i am just trying to find ways to make my hobby(obssession)more enviro and money friendly....:yes:

 

[macvsog23]

Hi

Whatever people say rainwater is not any good

Reasons you live in an area were this water must pass through the exhausts from cars factories planes ships lorries ECT.

You have no control over the state of this water it is a totally unknown product it has no quality control no soundness test.

Sure people use it sure they don’t have a problem.

People smoke take drugs drive like fools drink to excess and live to 100.

But most people die if the follow that route.
So the few that use rainwater and get away with it are lucky

 

[scottie73]

thxs mac..straight to the point!!!and well answered!!

 

[macvsog23]

as normal a spade is a fugging shovel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Scottie, personally I don't agree with Macsovg's post, (although he is a very good, poster who's opinion I value) I think he is being much too pessimistic, and also his view is coloured by living in a city (with heavy industry at Avonmouth, famously bad traffic etc.).

I think that there are great advantages to using rainwater, it's free, and the only major pollutant in it is CO2, mean it is slightly acidic by the time it reaches us. Since the clean air act etc the air is much cleaner and so is the rainwater, also it is phosphorus free, as phosphorus doesn#t have a gaseous phase.

If you live in an area with reasonably high rainfall, and don't live near heavy industry or intensive arable or pig farming I would recommend rainwater, I've always used it, and still do. Tap water has to be drinkable by law, but thats all.

My suggestions would be connect at least 2 water butts together, use a diverter and put a sponge pre-filter either between the 2 butts, or on the down pipe. You don`t need a de-chlorinator, although you could filter through charcoal, carbon or peat.

I keep Daphnia in the water butts, decant the water (and inevitably a few daphnia) 24 hours before a change, and as long as the Daphnia are swimming about the water before I use it, it has passed the purity test.

cheers Darrel

 

[macvsog23]

Hi

I take Darrel’s point

Sadly not one item enters my tanks that are not 100% safe.

I understand the point that cities are an area that is polluted and it is a good point.

Now my big But, it is not were it falls but were it came from that would worry me.

As water evaporates it is collected in the form of clouds (Simple explanation I know but one that covers the basic points) evaporation removes any items and we are left with Ho2.

The cloud then moves across to the clean country area and a nice plane fly’s into the cloud as the rain starts to fall the next plane fly’s in to this water / rain and they empty the toilets or dump some fuel to bring down the landing load.

Now the rain has reached 2000 feet and the fumes from cars that are every were the smoke from power plants, the released gas from A/C chillers the lighter than air gasses that have all risen to the upper reaches ect.

So for me its tap water treated by me..

As I said that one time when it stuffs up is not worth it for me.

My second point is why use rainwater? To reduce costs? To avoided spending money on an R O Unit? To save water for humans? All good reasons but for me not a reason to risk a life I have taken a responsibility for ie my fish.

 

[scatz]

i have seen treated tap water that has killed lots of fish (irene0100 lost lots of plecs after her water company added loads of nasty chemicals), i use rain water and have never lost a single fish due to it

 

[scottie73]

wow..all very valid points on both sides of the arguement as to how good/safe rain water is/is not.....

 

[macvsog23]

That is the joy of fish keeping

Me I am a bit of a sad case I am never happy unless it has some form of control and Rain water falls out side my control

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I am not arguing that rain water is as pure as R.O, but that it is a viable option for those with reasonably good rainwater, and is likely to be "better" than 99% of tap water.
cheers Darrel

 

[Rabbit]

The key i would propose to rain water is the same as collecting saltwater.
Pass it through a biological and chemical filter first this will ensure purity, any possible gas will be removed during the simple water oxygen turn over rule.
Further more if you are worried about co2 simply add a fast growing plant to this prefilter the bacteria will produce co2 along with the already present co2 this will feed the plant in exchange for oxygen completing a very simple exchange of gas.
Also while collecting rainwater i wouldnt recommend taking it from the roof drainage pipes i would place the bucket far from any sort of run off (unless your guttering is reasonably new and clean). I have a suspended (suspended by all four corners by poles) tarp with a hole in the centre this leads to an 80L tub.