Rain water

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Codyheitmiller

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
681
Could I use rain water for a top off? I have no acid rain where I live and it rains alot.
 
The manner in which you collect it would matter. Other than that, there is little reason I can see it wouldn't work. I would check the ph and maybe pump it thru a filter first.
 
Exactly what I was thinking kinda. I was just going to put my top off bucket outside before it rains, bring it in and run a HOB filter, carbon, and a heater. Sound good?
 
Someone else thought about using snow to fill up their tank for cycling; but like snow, rain forms around dust particles, so it won't be the cleanest water.
 
I wouldn't use rain water... look up what it has in it.... first thing that should come to mind guy is acid rain.
 
i would imagine rain water would be MUCH better then tap water lol
 
Perhaps.. but then comes on to play the collection methods ... I use rain water for gardening and washing my cars but its off my roof and im aware of poeple using it for washing their clothes. I think it would be impossible to adequately place a rain barrel in the middle of your yard and get more then a few gallons even in large storm then debris from wind. Even anyone has a setup id be willing to give it a shot I've tested snow for the same purpose and only came up with rain water with a ph of 7 if i remember correctly.
 
Doesn't matter about the just the acid there is all other kinds of pollutants in the rain water.
 
I was just referring to acid because it was first to come to mind... i would prolly use tap water before using rain water...
 
All rain water is acidic to varying degrees. Some rain might be very close to a pH of 7, but I would say 90% of rainfall in America is actually pretty acidic thanks to pollution. Rainwater actually has a lotta stuff that you don't want in it and remember, just because you live in a pollution free area doesn't mean that the cloud where the rain came from was pollution free
 
RYANLAWRENCE said:
All rain water is acidic to varying degrees. Some rain might be very close to a pH of 7, but I would say 90% of rainfall in America is actually pretty acidic thanks to pollution. Rainwater actually has a lotta stuff that you don't want in it and remember, just because you live in a pollution free area doesn't mean that the cloud where the rain came from was pollution free

That is a vary smart statement.
 
Also I have like 10 buckets from salt that I buy, maybe I can put all those outside, put a screen or cloth over the top some how to filter out some dirt and run some tests on them and run a filter then use it in my frag tank and see how that goes because I only have three frags in there and they came from my tank so I didn't buy them.
 
Certainly acid rain would be an issue I would check with a PH meter. Filtration can eliminate any atmospheric particles you might be concerned with. Deionized R/O water is without a doubt the best makeup water you can produce at home, but filtered rainwater, PH balanced, would be far better than any tap water available.
 
Different strokes for different folks. I have been a power seller on eBay since 1998. Have been burnt very few times and have saved some serious money. Compare pricing by doing a Google shopping search and you can determine quickly the best price for the filter.
 
Lets forget the fact that rain coming from the sky may or may not be clean. How much rain do you get in your area? So if you have 10 buckets and get 2" of rain in a week....that still not a lot of water, maybe not enough to even do top offs. You'd need a really large area to cleanly funnel the water in. Just putting the buckets out probably wouldn't be enough, just a thought.
 
Just collect it from a clean surface, even a plastic trash bag stretched out. You need to filter the water and maybe even boil it. A lot of trouble when R/O units are 50 bucks.
 
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