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Water Butt and Daphnia

AlanRR

Member
Joined
22 Feb 2019
Messages
103
Location
Yorkshire
Hi

I have a new rain butt that I’m considering using as a source for tank water changes. I live in a fairly rural area of Yorkshire so there isn’t too much pollution but there is frequent rainfall. I’ve been reading on the forums about using Daphnia as a way to assay the water quality so that I don’t inadvertently harm my shrimp and snails. Will Daphnia grow happily in a dark butt or do I need to leave the lid off for some light? Also do I need to seed the butt with grass or leaf litter prior to adding Daphnia?

Thanks

Alan
 
Hi all,
Will Daphnia grow happily in a dark butt or do I need to leave the lid off for some light? Also do I need to seed the butt with grass or leaf litter prior to adding Daphnia?
They are happy in the dark, you need some form of food for them, a few dried grass stem work really well as a starter, after that enough moss and leaves etc will come down the down-pipe from the roof. I only get a trickle of Daphnia from the water butts, if I want a lot I use a builder bucket and feed them more.

You may also find that your rain-water is too soft for them, I just use rain-water but it is all limestone here and our rain-water has some carbonate buffering. A hand full of chick grit (or lime-scale from the kettle if you have hard water?).

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,They are happy in the dark, you need some form of food for them, a few dried grass stem work really well as a starter, after that enough moss and leaves etc will come down the down-pipe from the roof. I only get a trickle of Daphnia from the water butts, if I want a lot I use a builder bucket and feed them more.

You may also find that your rain-water is too soft for them, I just use rain-water but it is all limestone here and our rain-water has some carbonate buffering. A hand full of chick grit (or lime-scale from the kettle if you have hard water?).

cheers Darrel

Thanks Darrel. We have quite a bit of limestone around here (though the clouds seem to be invariably scooting past at 100 miles per hour so I’m not sure how local they are :p). Is there a reliable way to assay carbonate hardness without science grade instrumentation or is it not worth the effort? The TDS of the rainwater it is currently around 65uS if that provides any clues. I already have some oyster grit in the filter so could probably just leave it there.

Cheers

Alan
 
They are quite happy in my water butt with a lid (have small children).

As Darrel says they will need some food, I have some old lumps of bog wood in mine. I’ve started feeding them with a jar of green water a week and the population has boomed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
af37cba0636b0192a65a701108dccef0.jpg


Tried taking a photo of my colony today, you can see the wood (old bit of oak root). Water butt is teaming with them at the moment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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