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Hey guys
not sure if this is the right spot or not, but just wondering if anyone uses rainwater in their aquariums for setup and water changes?
I did a search and couldn't find any posts on it? anyone tried it? pros? cons?

cheers

i personally dont, but after a good rain i am sure many people do this and if i am not mistaken one member by the name of BRENGUN uses collected rain water, but i am not positive about this...



and hello

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Well it IS clean water. Doesn't get much better than rainwater. Personally I don't use it, though.

The biggest con I can tell you is that in most regions rainwater is frickin' cold. You'd give a pretty big temperature shock to your fish because of that if you don't heat the water first.

Rainwater also is usually lacking in normal water buffers, and in a tank the pH can pretty easily crash; in the wild mineral inputs come from the rain washing over rocks, but in the tank this doesn't really happen so the pH can just drop.

Some people also have to worry about acid rain and air pollution particles...

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Hi,
Many folks do use rain water for their aquariums. However,
it actually depends upon where you are living and what is
"upstream" of where you live. Rain water in the North
Eastern US has so many pollutants from smoke stacks, crowded
highways, temperature inversions, and other sources that in
some cases its called "Acid Rain." If you have no sources
of contamination back in the direction of the prevailing
winds then, maybe, the rain is OK for your tank(s).

Another problem is what the rain water is caught in,
how long its stored, and if any outside contaminates can
get into the storage container. Using it in an aquarium
does come with some risks.
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

As mentioned it could and will depend where you live, this could be the Country or a particular area of that country city or rural.

Just because it falls out of the sky certainly does not make it pure and clean. If collected off roofs that can even make it worse all the pollutants that are on the roof.

If I remember corectly there has been several articles in Australian news about not drinking the collected rain water. It is perfect for gardens etc but many areas certainly not for drinking.

For aquarium water certainly not for me even though our town water is just as bad some times.

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I personally don't trust rain water. I live in Pittsburgh and the rain here is bad enough that my eyes start burning when it gets in my eyes.

So I wouldn't, even if you live far away from the city you have to be careful of pollutants. As they can travel a long way on the wind currents. In my opinion Well water is best. as the water travels through the ground it is filtered by everything.

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agreed.. I would determine that on where you live and what is around you. As in factorys, refineries or any kind of industrial companys. If your a distance from any major city, I'd try straight rain water right into buckts. Unless you created something to capture and store it.


heck, i have read articles about people capturing rain water and filtering it for drinking purposes.

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ive done a bit of reading on that what i learned is that urban rainwater should stay away from the tank but you could use the rainwater in a rural area if its colected and cleaned in a safe way but i would NEVER trust it unless i was far away from any polution areas like smoke stacks factories and any other sort of polution

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Adam and I use it on our tanks. The water from the aquairum gets taken out to the gardens, then the tanks themselves are refilled by hose from the rainwater tank.

If it wasn't for the aquariums we'd have a very overflowing tank right now . Go figure, once we get a tank it starts raining enough to make it overflow most every storm . It's a good thing though, since we live pretty near the dams.

^_^

I dont use rainwater, and since i do live in FL, it rains A LOT! (This year was an exception. First Drought in 6 years!) I just never bothered to get the collection tanks for rainwater, and i certainly do not want some mosquitoes making their dream home in my water!

I guess though, if it is safe in far away places, especially where you are surrounded by a sea and get a nice breeze, it would kinda be like RO water, in that it is mineral free and completely neutral pH if it isnt acid rain.

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I've thought about doing it myself. But I have to many steel and chemical factories near me in michigan.

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Actually, even non-acid rainwater is fairly acidic. "Acid" rain contains sulfuric acid, whereas normal rainwater contains mild carbonic acid thanks to passing through CO2 in the atmosphere as it falls. While that's not bad for some fish from more acidic habitats, rainwater should definitely be buffered for rift lake and Central American fish.

More on rain and acid rain...

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