# Rainwater



## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

Does anyone collect rainwater for their tanks? I have well water that gaes through a whole house filter. The problem is I burn through these filters about once every 3 wks. Not anywhere near the 3mo. the filter cartiridges say on the label. I have 4 55gl. drums that were used 2 for canola oil and 2 for cocanut oil. I thought about an ro, but for the volume I want they aren't in the budget. Also as I understand about 1/3 of water that goes in the ro is waste.


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## justflow1983 (Feb 26, 2007)

well rainwater is dechlorinated, but that doesn't mean its clean. Rain is actually formed by water vapor condensing around particles in the air, whether they be dust, bacteria, smoke, pollution, etc. So depending on where your rain is coming from, it could be fairly dirty, acidic, alkaline, or whatever else. I would collect a bit of rainwater, and see if its the kind of water you're looking for, but I wouldn't expect to be getting distilled water out of the sky.


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## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

My well water is not the purest either. We are always getting rust stains on our laundry even our dishes have rust stains on them. Not to metion the sulfur smell. My problem isn't dechlorinating its trying to extend the life of my whole house water filters.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

The problem with rain water is you never know where it's coming from. I've often thought about having a collection pond in my back yard plumbed directly to the fish room.... but I'm nervous about the fact there's no way to know where the water's coming from. Of course the pond would be stocked with cichlids too :lol:


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Ok, how's this.... Whilst doing paperwork and making and paying bills I ran across my oldest reference book and it was open to a page entitled "Unfit waters for aquariums" The first one listed was rain water, it often contains "atmospheric poisons" is says. #2 is lake stream or pond water... :lol:


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## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

I was thinking about runnig the water through an activated carbon filter before it enters the tank. My real problem is it's a pita to change the whole house filters. Rght now I'm only running a 75 and a 55 but with 20% changes 2x weekly it seems to burn through the whole house filters. I was actually more curious about collection and storage of the water.


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

someone better give all the cichlids of the world little umbrellas... they must get rained on all the time and who knows what it's doing to them! 
LOL
I used rain water for years with apistogramma before I owned an R/O unit... no harm came to my fish!


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## kid_stripes (Oct 26, 2006)

If rain water is no good for you aquarium then how do people have cichlids in ponds outside uncovered so the rainwater goes directly into them, also how do the cichlids in the wild filter the rain befor it hits the lake?????? :-? :-? :-?


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I agree 1000000000% with the last two posts. But it seems that books won't allow it :lol: I've kept cichlids in my pond outside all summer...


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## kid_stripes (Oct 26, 2006)

i think the no rain water thing is jus a money thing really, if i could collect it i would.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

if you use rain water its worth running it through carbon before adding it to the tank, just to remove contaminants.

in rural areas its not such a problem, but the more built up the more smog is released into the air, and then the rain washes it down. you wouldn't shove an exhaust into the tank as an air supply now would you.


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## boostspike (Apr 3, 2007)

How about snow.  (got another 9" here the other day)


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

boostspike said:


> How about snow.  (got another 9" here the other day)


same as the rainwater, need to purify it before use, as you never know what was picked up while it was in the cloud


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Interesting Madman, I've got a few pounds of charcoal I could use, and Lord knows I've made a filter or two :lol:

I'm liking this idea more and more. I could run piping from my gutters to a pond.... Then plumbing straight from the pond to the fish room... Have the filter in fish room for easy maint. then just turn a valve....... :drooling:


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

obviously, if you do that the gutters must be clean.


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## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

I was going to leave the little plants growing in the gutters there for some filtration! :lol:


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

If you go from your gutters from the roof then a particulate filter and a GAC filter are a must to remove solids and VOCs from shingles, etc. Volatile Organic compounds are not your fishes friends.

Rain water in the city of Cambridge, Ontario used to have a TDS reading of 7... that's insanely low. With all the lovely pollution funneling up the Ohio valley and headed towards us, all that pollution resulted in a ppm reading of 7...

Let's just say I wasn't worried... now off my roof and out the gutters... 45 ppm.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

What if your roof is slate? :dancing:


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

There could be worse things to worry about with a Slate roof. Don't they use copper nails? Any idea what your slate is attached with?

If you have copper in the rain water, you will have to hunt for some of the rarer carbon that will actually remove copper or you can use a heavy metal binder plus AC filtering to remove it.

Maybe this whole rainwater thing isn't as simple as I first thought...  
it was simple for me...


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I don't have slate :lol: They're asphalt three tab shingles. BUT it wouldn't matter what the slate would be nailed in with because water never touches the nails. 

My 400 gallon pond is set up right behind my house. Water falls right from the roof into it. (no gutters on the back) and 8 convicts spent the summer in that pond.... BUT convicts are not a good test because they can live in sludge for water :lol:

I do have a 30' 6" commercial gutter I'm considering putting on the back in summer, I was going to let it dump into a larger pond this year... If I can swing the liner cost.... Then I'll test with say jaguars and midas...

Sorry If I'm taking over your thread Dave 

My hope is I'm typing what you're thinking


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## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

Actually I was wondering about the nails. If your roof is correctly secured even slate then the nails aren't touching the water. When I was iat Kangroo Island, Australia about 12yrs. ago the hostel I stayed at collected its drinking water directly from the roof of the building. To take a drink there was a spigot on the side of the storage tank. I didn't notice what the roof was made of. The story was that the ground water there was too salty to drink. Maybe that's why VB (my beer of choice when I was there  ) was the most common drink.


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## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

fishguy, convicts are not a good judge of water quality. I want to try an experiment to see if they'll breed in my septic tank. :lol:


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

You sure you want thousands of convicts swimming through poo?


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## kornphlake (Feb 12, 2004)

Here in the PNW we get enough rain water that wells really aren't necessary for municipal water except for during the middle of summer when surface water supplies run low. According to the water bureau, surfacewater (IE rain water and snow melt) is only treated with chloramine it is not filtered to remove contaminants mechanically or chemically, during certain times of year water can become brownish as sediment gets chruned up and pumped into the pipes, I clean quite a bit of grit out of the screens on my faucets every couple months. Tap water is very soft almost no hardness with a pH of about 6.8. Nobody I know has gotten sick from drinking tap water, according to the water quality analysis our tap water easily exceeds the minimum requirements for water quality.

It seems like there was someone at the local fish club who was filling barrels with rain water to induce breeding in SA cichlids but determined that it wasn't any better than using cool water from the tap.


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

Rather than using a diy style fish tank filter try plumbing a whole house filter so no bypass is allowed.


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## Izzydawg (Jan 4, 2008)

Lots a snow here, lots melted, but we still have 2' :roll: doesn't melt down to much though.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I think what I'll do is set up the pond and see how things go. It'll be easy enough to plumb from the pond to the basement...


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## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

under_control my plan is to use a whole house filter plumbed into the lines going from my storage containers to my tanks. Right now I have more dilemma if I do go this route- where to store the water. Wife doesn't want them in obvious places in the yard and of course thats where the downspouts are located. I do have a crawl space that may work wel. But I' have to drill the down spout through the wall I am afraid of overflow flooding the crawl space.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Dave, I'd plumb it outside, then bring the pvc through the floor, not the down spout. This way in winter you can completely cut it off


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## danielratti (Feb 17, 2008)

well if you live in michigan don't use the rain water if you keep up with the new we have a huge problem like Dow Chemical, Dow corning, Hemlock Semi Conductor, Dixon, and Acid rain. We so healthy in michigan we can't even eat the fish out of our own lakes and rivers in some places . Wonderful


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

I would get two GE type cannister filters, one for sediment and one for carbon cartriges, and run the water through them before use. I picked some up for $5 at HD, but the better one with remote sensor is only about $20, and cartridges are $18 for 2 carbon, and around $10 or $12 for 2 sediments. With the small amount of water you will use, since you won't use straight rainwater for all your changes, they should last quite a long time.
Living in the country is no guarantee of clean rain. Polluted air moves huge distances. A big part of the pollution in LA, has been tracked from China. The first few minutes are probably the dirtiest until the rain has a chance to clean the debris out of the air.


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## Barbie (Feb 13, 2003)

If you do decide to keep rain water, let the first 10 minutes or so of the rain be bypassed somehow, then flip the valve and store the water. I used to put a rubbermaid tote under my gutter downspout after about 10 minutes (yes, my neighbors already know I'm crazy, being out in the rain with a tote was nothing even unusual for them) and the water that I collected was totally clear and free of sediment. Water running that fast shouldn't be absorbing much in the way of anything, IME. I would then siphon the water in the tote with my python down the stairs to a waiting 44 gallon trash can. It worked great until the day there was a huge downpour and I got busy and forgot that I was siphoning. For some reason, you can't put 75 gallons or so of water in a 44 gallon can very well. Well you can, it just doesn't stay in there! :lol: I stimulated my first two Hypancistrus sp. L260 spawns using rain water with no ill effects. That was 4 years ago now and I still have the same breeders pumping out fry, so obviously there wasn't too much damage .

Barbie


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