Water butts instead of Tap

[island lad77]

In my garden I have 4 water butts, three of which are filled via felt roofing on two sheds and the other from the tiles on my roof(all via standard guttering). I would like to look into possibility's of useing this for my 125L tank. All livestock are amazonian tetra's and hatchets and my tap water comes from a chalky source (hard). I would like to do this firstly from an economical point of view but more so to provide the fish with an ideal rather than "acceptable" quality of water). eg - softer and more acidic. Ive only ever used tap water with conditioners for aquariums so I really do need some good advice on this. I only have a nitrate and amonia test kit at the moment so do I need a wider range of kits before contemplating doing this.

Many thanks, Steve

 

[island lad77]

Just tested rain water from water butt. Nitrite is 0 ppm but amonia is 1.0 ppm. Will the bacteria in my external filter (tetratec ex700) bring the amonia levels down to safe levels.
Really need some input on this please.
Thanks

 

[DrRob]

You can use rainwater, but you have to watch a few things. First up, it's a good idea to not collect the first flush of any rain (there are cunning valve thingamies that do this in the downpipe) as that tends to have a whole pile of stuff off the roof in it. Secondly rain water depends a lot on your local air quality (if you live near a heavy polluting industry or by a motorway then you may not want to bother with it). After that it's how you store it, I've used it before but had issues with ammonia levels ranging from next to nothing to very high which always made me wonder what else was in it. Those I've known using it long term are either quite rural or carbon filter what ends up going into the tanks. Someone was discussing rain water quality on here in a water softener thread is quite a lot of detail recently, which contains some excellent links on daphnia toxicity checking and such like.

Water softeners and aquariums..? | UK Aquatic Plant Society

 

[island lad77]

ok thanks for your reply. I'll do abit more research before taking next step

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Those I've known using it long term are either quite rural or carbon filter what ends up going into the tanks. Someone was discussing rain water quality on here in a water softener thread is quite a lot of detail recently, which contains some excellent links on daphnia toxicity checking and such like.

Like "DrRob" says I've used rain-water since the 1970's without any problems, but I've always lived in rural areas where it rains a lot.

Have a look at these posts: <Water softeners and aquariums..? | UK Aquatic Plant Society>&
<Rain Water - Who uses it in their tanks | UK Aquatic Plant Society>

cheers Darrel

 

[ian_m]

See here about first flush valves.

Rain Water - Who uses it in their tanks | UK Aquatic Plant Society

 

[island lad77]

ok so I did a 40% water change with rain water and fish ( all soft acidic species) are doing great. Amonia in rain water was 0ppm along with nitrite at 0ppm. Four hours after wc I tested again and although ammonia is still at 0ppm the nitrite is at 0.25ppm. Also water still quite cloudy. Should my external filter eventually clear the water ?.(I'm running the tetratec ex700 through 125L) I will retest for nitrite first thing tomorrow and see if it has risen or hopefully fallen back to zero.

Thanks in advance for your comments/advice

Steve

 

[Manrock]

I use rainwater exclusively on the nano tank and Walstad Bowls in my classroom at school, to great effect. I do live in rural Devon though and the roof in question is covered in moss, which may filter some of the other organic stuff (like bird droppings) out.

 

[island lad77]

I tested for ammonia, nitrite etc and all is good, however still got probs with greyish mist in water. I've rearranged my tetratec700 media by removing a few ceramic tubes along with the floss and one tray of sponge for better flow. I've also increased holes in spray bar ever so slightly which seems to have done the job. I've also popped in the supplied carbon to see if it helps with clearing the water. Any opinions ??