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Rain Water - Who uses it in their tanks

Hi all,
An easy option for filtering is to have 2 rain-butts, daisy chained together. The advantage of this is that all the crud etc
ends up in the first butt which is connected to the down-pipe, and you draw the water from the second butt. By having 2 butts you can clean the butts alternately without losing all your water.

I usually just give mine a clean in the autumn, and I draw water of them all through-out the winter. I don't treat the water in any way, and it trickle feeds Daphnia with every water change.

Our rain-water still has some dKH, probably from dust etc in the atmosphere, and I'd expect that is the same for much of the S and E of the UK.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,
An easy option for filtering is to have 2 rain-butts, daisy chained together. The advantage of this is that all the crud etc
ends up in the first butt which is connected to the down-pipe, and you draw the water from the second butt. By having 2 butts you can clean the butts alternately without losing all your water.

I usually just give mine a clean in the autumn, and I draw water of them all through-out the winter. I don't treat the water in any way, and it trickle feeds Daphnia with every water change.

Our rain-water still has some dKH, probably from dust etc in the atmosphere, and I'd expect that is the same for much of the S and E of the UK.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

Brillaint idea Darrell, Thats might be an idea, as I have two, a 100ltr (cost 19.99 which is far cheaper then an overflow option) one and a 210 ltr one. Maybe have the 100ltr hooked up first, and at the top have a overflow into second, it does mean that the 100ltr will need to fill first, but means the second will have the better water skimmed from the top from tank 1?

another benefit, is tank 1 can be used to water the garden :thumbup:
 
I live in Devon and use rainwater straight out of the butt - no filtering (apart from all the moss on the roof) for my nano and Walstad bowls. They all seem fine.
 
I've been experimenting with rainwater since I moved a few tanks into my new place. There's 2 butts already set up here with taps on so I just couldn't resist.

The tapwater's as hard as buggery round here so I'm really hoping to see a difference in my South American fish.
I went online, here, there and everywhere and could not find one report of someone saying using rainwater has negatively affected their fish.
There's plenty folk saying you shouldn't do this because of contaminants, but there's enough of an argument against that worry, so I'm delving right into this now.
So far I have given 2 tanks 3 30% waterchanges with pure rainwater. At some stage I'll add a percentage of tapwater to it but so far fish all look fine.
I wonder how my Geos are going to take to it???

So I've no carbon filter or any fancy first flush gadgetry.

And if I decide to go softer, then this link has really surprised me:-
Peat Filtering your Aquarium Water
 
I used to use it and just filtered it through a length of pipe with carbon and floss in it just to be safe. I'm going to be experimenting with using rain water in my koi pond soon too to reduce the GH in there. I only stopped using it as the water butt was at the end of the garden and in winter it was too cold (for me and the water) and a hassle. I went with an RO unit instead.
 
Ponds are the best proof of how good rainwater is. Every pond in the UK has a regular top up with rainwater. Fish are fine.
:)
 
Just wondering if it makes any difference what kind of surface the rain water has passed over ? Our water butt is from the garage roof which is bitumen sealed with stone chippings.
 
I've read that it should be a worry but I don't know for sure.
I guinea pigged a few tetras and shrimps with a waterchange :)
 
Jason Greenslade said:
Just wondering if it makes any difference what kind of surface the rain water has passed over ? Our water butt is from the garage roof which is bitumen sealed with stone chippings.
Click to expand...

Mine was used from a shed roof and no problem. It wasn't a new roof though but a couple of years old. This is one reason why I used carbon as I drew the water out to help reduce any slim possibility of any contaminents.
 
Ed Seeley said:
Mine was used from a shed roof and no problem. It wasn't a new roof though but a couple of years old. This is one reason why I used carbon as I drew the water out to help reduce any slim possibility of any contaminents.
Click to expand...

OK thanks Ed I will give that some thought :)
 
Hi all,
dw1305 said:
I don't treat the water in any way, and it trickle feeds Daphnia with every water change.
Click to expand...
I have the Daphnia as "Guinea Pigs" as well as fish food, they are used a lot in the water industry as a bio-assay, because they are sensitive to water pollution. I just draw the water off into a container assuming there are swimming Daphnia in the water, the water is OK to use.

Daphnia bioassay: <http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Business/daphnia208_1669241.pdf>

cheers Darrel
 
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