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Butt crisis

aec34

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2020
Messages
551
Location
Gloucestershire
(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

I use rain water for my shrimp tanks, but with the lack of rain, and then the warm, then the showers, the water has gone cloudy/yellow/slightly smelly. I have two covered barrels coming off the shed roof, daisy chained together, and I draw from the second of them. I think I’ve been quite spoiled in that the water has been crystal clear for the last year.

I’m confident there is no man-made pollution, and this is just what happens when you leave a barrel of unsterilised water in the sun. Is this going to do anything bad to the tanks? My gut says not - but should I do anything differently for a while? I don’t have fish, so any small critters will have to be hoovered up by the shrimp. I only have 20 and 10 l tanks at the mo, so am not changing vast quantities.
 
I'm in the same butt........I mean boat. I've not had problems in the past when I kept killies or currently with my 85 or so 4 week old kribensis. However, I have been thinking of getting a small pump/air pump and solar panel to keep it from stagnating. If I go the pump route I'll probably fabri-coble an activated carbon reactor on to it. I try to avoid harvesting the first hour or so of rain after a long dry spell but some activated carbon would help remove some of the pollutants heavy metals in the water I'm unable to avoid.
 
<"Probably not">. I have Daphnia in my water butts, they provide <"an indication of pollution">. Basically <"live Daphnia = OK">.
Hi @dw1305

I would politely suggest a degree of caution here. I think you'll find that Daphnia are tolerant of some ammonia in their water. Please take a look at the following:


This is an extract from the above document:

"Daphnia magna was less sensitive to ammonia in both acute and sublethal effects tests than were the fish species tested. The lowest concentration of un-ionized ammonia found to cause an adverse effect on the daphnids was 1.3 mg/L, while effects on fish occurred at concentrations as low as 0.05 mg/L".

JPC
 
Hi all,
I would politely suggest a degree of caution here.
I'd agree to some degree, Daphnia would be tolerant of lower oxygen and higher ammonia levels than most fish. I'm sure there could be circumstances where it wouldn't work, but on the balance of probabilities I still think it is a viable method

When you run an aquatic organism bioassay (on treated waste water) <"you use a suite of organisms with different tolerances to a range of pollutants">. That isn't an option for any of us, outside of specialist labs. However:
  • Daphnia are very sensitive to pesticides.
  • Easy to identify.
  • Found in a lot of peoples water butts, and
  • I've used it successfully as a method for ~30 years
So I'm going to stick by "Live Daphnia = OK".

cheers Darrel
 
Is this issue likely caused by pollen being washed into the butts? I have covered water butts and have noticed a film on top that looks like it's made of pollen.
 
So I'm going to stick by "Live Daphnia = OK".
Hi @dw1305

That's fine. Each one of us has to weigh up the pros and cons. I included the information above to draw attention to something that took me by surprise when I first discovered that Daphnia are surprisingly tolerant of ammonia.

JPC
 
Hi all,
I have covered water butts and have noticed a film on top that looks like it's made of pollen.
Pollen would have a large BOD value (it is rich in protein), but I can't see it would be a problem, mainly because the amounts are never going to be huge.
Each one of us has to weigh up the pros and cons. I included the information above to draw attention to something that took me by surprise when I first discovered that Daphnia are surprisingly tolerant of ammonia.
There would definitely be organisms that <"were a lot more sensitive">. One reason why we know that Daphnia magna/pulex are relatively tolerant to ammonia is that there is a <"large body of scientific work"> using it them bioassay organisms.

I'm not claiming that methods like the <"Duckweed Index"> or <"Daphnia Bioassay"> are perfect, or fool proof, but they both <"combine accessibility"> with <"ease of use">.

Their great advantage, for me, is that you don't need <"test kits"> or <"meters">, all you <"need to do is look">.

cheers Darrel
 
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