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The expense of hard water....

I actually really like this idea..

I will buy a water butt this weekend and leave it to fill up.

Where would I find the daphnia? Maybe I will put some duckweed there as well... :)

Really good idea.. :)
 
Hi all,
You can buy Daphnia as live food at some LFS it doesn't matter whether it's Moinia, or D. pulex/D. magna. If you can't find any I'll have a go at posting some.

I used to put some duckweed in the buckets I used for mosquito larvae (the mosquito needs somewhere to perch while she lays her eggs), but I kept on forgetting to clean it off regularly enough and it used to cover the whole surface, and kill of the mosquito larvae, so I use (wine bottle) corks now. The water butts are better with a lid so not suitable for duckweed, and if the water is very clean you may find the Daphnia will be very sparse, you might also have problems with acid rain, although our rainwater always has some KH (probably from limestine dust).

Daphnia are fairly easy to culture if you are keen on breeding your fish. http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/.

cheers Darrel
 
Many thanks.. I will follow your advice.

Will leave the water but with a net on top, as I would not want a cat or leaves to fall into it, but want mosquitos et all to drop criters there, then once a week with a net catch whatever is there for the tank. :)

I will buy daphnia at the LFS, I remember now that I have seen them for sale.

As a kid I use to go catch daphnia at local ponds for my fish, nowadays we buy almost everything at a shop.. :D
 
Hi all,
but want mosquitos et all to drop criters there, then once a week with a net catch whatever is there for the tank.
Click to expand...
That is what I do, I also have an allotment and when its quiet I have a trawl through everyone else water butts as well. My neighbour puts lots of Comfrey leaves in tank, and produces the most foul smelling liquid you can possibly imagine to feed his plants with, the amount of mosquito larvae in there is immense, but I've never been brave enough to feed them to the fish (although I do take them from less polluted water).
cheers Darrel
 
I wanted to ask. Ive set up a water collection on the roof of my flats and it fits a 20l bucket perfectly.
How do I know if the water is suitable to use in my tank? how do I test this?

It falls directly onto the lift room (Where the lift motor is) and Ive devised a small run of from the roof.

Please advise. I tested my water and its around 8.
 
Ive decided to give it a try, wait for a heavy downpour for maybe 30 mins or so then put a few buckets on the guttering to collect the water. I will then filter the water for dirt/debris with a charcoal sponge and filter pad to collect the water.

If what you all say is fine then it will be fine for my discus, but I only intend to use 20l with my end of week big water change.

Im currently dosing ferts which I do a 20% water change every second day and followed by a big 60% water change on sunday.

I will be mixing the 20l with about 40l of normal treated tap water. Will see how it goes.
 
Sorry for not replying earlier. I've used rainwater a long time ago and filtered it slowly through carbon and it was fine. Just make sure that the roof it's coming off isn't going to add anything nasty to the water (i.e. cement based tiles that harden the water or fresh roofing felt) and that you don't have any heavy industry nearby that could add things to the rain.

I don't know how you could test for these things really as there aren't suitable test kits!
 
Thanks. I will wait for a downpour first. But typical english weather its now changed to sunny and 15 degrees each day.

This means I wont be able to collect any rain water untill later as I will want at least 1 day of rain to clear out any debris and crap on the roof.

I know that the roofing felt isnt fresh, but hopefully over time I will be able to test for the ph level etc.
 
Hi do not know where you buy RO water from and where someone is paying £80 for ro unit when here is one for £40 50gpd should be enough
 
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