Is rainwater safe for fish?

[Barry Tetra]

Hello, me again, I was wondering if rainwater is safe for fishes or not/is there any chemical in rainwater?



@Colin_T

 

[itiwhetu]

Rain water is safe. As long as you don't live in a polluted city and you collect it in a clean container. We collect all our water from our house roof, store it in a 19000 liter tank and that is what we use everyday for drinking, showering etc. and my fish tanks.

 

[kwi]

Depends how you collect and store it, and if you have a consistent amount falling from the sky or not, you need to have enough stored to see you through any lengthy dry spell so your water changes are consistent.

 

[AilyNC]

I wouldn't use rain water. There's too many variables. It could be absolutely fine, collected correctly, etc. Then you get a spike in pollution.

I live in a very good air quality low pollution area. In winter other homes' fires will decrease air quality. As will something like a nearby BBQ. Once our cars were covered in red dust from Sahara winds. I live in ireland. Another area all their cars had dust from a cement factory one morning.

Too many unknown factors.

edit typo​

 

[Lajos_Detari]

I think most rain water is safe unless your place have very bad pollution and factories around your place.
Also, make sure your method of collecting won't contaminate the water.
For example, some people collect it under the roof and if the water passes through a dirty or rusty roof, it will pollute the water.

 

[Essjay]

Non-industrial areas can also have pollution, for example from crop spraying in agricultural areas.

Rainwater has no minerals dissolved in it so has zero GH, something else to bear in mind.

 

[AilyNC]

Non-industrial areas can also have pollution, for example from crop spraying in agricultural areas.

Rainwater has no minerals dissolved in it so has zero GH, something else to bear in mind.

Yeah I'm not near industrial but lots of farms here. And as I said even a neighbour having a BBQ affects pm2.5 levels & so air quality.

 

[Barry Tetra]

Yeah I'm not near industrial but lots of farms here. And as I said even a neighbour having a BBQ affects pm2.5 levels & so air quality.

I know, I can smell it from here and I’m hungry right now

 

[Colin_T]

If you are going to collect rain water, wait until it has rained for 10 minutes before collecting it. This gives a few minutes for the rain to wash any dust off the roof or whatever is used for collecting.

Check the pH of the rain water before using it. If the pH is acidic (below 7.0), then it could be contaminated with air pollution.

If you want to use rain water for livebearers, you will need to add minerals like calcium chloride and magnesium chloride to increase the GH.

 

[Barry Tetra]

After reading all of your post, Goodbye rainwater idea, you will be missed

 

[AbbeysDad]

After reading all of your post, Goodbye rainwater idea, you will be missed

Just when I was gonna chime in.... Good decision.
On the surface, it would seem that rain water would be pure. However, these days, sadly there's enough air pollution collected in the clouds that falls with the rain. There's also the 'stuff' on roofs and collection systems that are bad. Acid rain' has been an issue for years in the northeast. I once tried to collect some and found that it was somewhat yellowish in color - no good!
I also once had the idea I could collect water from my basement dehumidifier...only to come to realize that it was strangely high in toxic ammonia!
Bottom line - best to use the same water that you'd use for drinking, adjusted to remove chlorine/chloramine as required.

 

[StevenF]

I think most rain water is safe unless your place have very bad pollution and factories around your place.

Just a note about polution. i live in California and with all the fire activity we have had over 40 days so far of unhealthy air. There has been no detectable affect on my shrimp tank and my shrimp are reproducing.

The rain generally washes pollution out of the air. So it is a good idea to list it rain a bit before collecting water. That would allow the rain to wash most of the contaminants off of the roof and clean the air before you start collecting. the water.

After you collected the water you should treat it like RO water,. The GH will be zero and should be increased to insure appropriate calcium and magnesium levels in the water. It would also be a good idea to sterilize the Water with UV sterilizer. This would insure no harmful bacteria would be present in the water.

I personally I don't us rain water since we simply don't get enough. So I Use RO water.

 

[Retired Viking]

I collect rain water for my wife's garden, I use RO water for my fish. It is raining right now and I test the water today with a 11 ppm reading. We have been getting flooded here so there is plenty of rain water but I do not want to take a chance. We have mostly farming with a few small factories here,

 

[ghyti]

That's what they live in in the wild.

 

[kwi]

That's what they live in in the wild.

After it's been filtered through land and rocks. And not in a closed system.
Fun fact shrikes (Sea snakes) drink fresh water from the water surface after it rains.