Moving and only rainwater accessible.
- Thread starter Johnykiwi
- Start date
Ok, thanks for your help. It’ll come in handy
Once you mineralize the water The GH and KH should not change and it will keep indefinitely a sealed bottle.
With rain water all you really have to do is to sterilize it to kill and bacteria, mold, or parasites that might get in. A UV sterilizer does that. Also you should periodically sweep the roof to remove dead leaves and stuff. In all likelihood that you will collect a lot more water than bird droppings So it would be very hard to detect any contaminant in it. And after the sterilizer has done its work any biological or organic continents will be sterilized and will be harmless.
Using RO to filter rain water simply a waist of time and money. In my opinion Excessively clean water is more likely to cause problems than slightly contaminated water.
With rain water all you really have to do is to sterilize it to kill and bacteria, mold, or parasites that might get in. A UV sterilizer does that. Also you should periodically sweep the roof to remove dead leaves and stuff. In all likelihood that you will collect a lot more water than bird droppings So it would be very hard to detect any contaminant in it. And after the sterilizer has done its work any biological or organic continents will be sterilized and will be harmless.
Using RO to filter rain water simply a waist of time and money. In my opinion Excessively clean water is more likely to cause problems than slightly contaminated water.
We do none of this and drink the rainwater from our roof, mind you we have both developed a twitch lately.
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So would you also not bother remineralising the water. I’m planning to breed plecos (bristlenose and l numbers) German blue rams, discus, angel fish, Tetras and other species later on. And any recommendations for specific uv units?
No I would continue to remineralize to add some GH. Some fish naturally live in water with a very low GH but other need more. And additionally all rivers have some GH Some fish probably would do OK in water with only 1 degree GH I don't have UV sterilizers so I have no experience with them. I would consult with company the specializes in rain harvesting installations
ONe thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that remineralizes tend to reduce the water PH over time. The reason for this is that GH boosters often have the following ingredients, Calcium chloride, Capsicum sulfate, Magnesium chloride and Magnesium sulfate. All animals and plants and bacteria need these. However They need a lot more calcium and magnesium then sulfur and chloride. So over time chloride and sulfate levels will increase and this pushes the PH down. Over time it can drop well below 6.
You could buy a KH boster to control PH but they don't have the most common form of KH found in nature water, Calcium an magnesium carbonate. Mainly these ingredients are not used because they don't dissolve easily. A better natural way to control PH is to put about a spoon full of crushed coral in your filter. Crushed coral is mainly calcium carbonate but also has some magneisum. When the water is acidic it resolves arnd reacts with the excess sulfates and chlorides and push sthe ph up to about 7. At a PH of 7 it stops dissolving and and the water PH will self stabilize very close to a PH of 7. One spoon full of crushed coral will probably last a year and a 1kg bag of crushed coral will likely last years and it cost less than most things i in the store. And in my tank my PH does stay very close to 7 and dissolved KH stays around 40 ppm.
ONe thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that remineralizes tend to reduce the water PH over time. The reason for this is that GH boosters often have the following ingredients, Calcium chloride, Capsicum sulfate, Magnesium chloride and Magnesium sulfate. All animals and plants and bacteria need these. However They need a lot more calcium and magnesium then sulfur and chloride. So over time chloride and sulfate levels will increase and this pushes the PH down. Over time it can drop well below 6.
You could buy a KH boster to control PH but they don't have the most common form of KH found in nature water, Calcium an magnesium carbonate. Mainly these ingredients are not used because they don't dissolve easily. A better natural way to control PH is to put about a spoon full of crushed coral in your filter. Crushed coral is mainly calcium carbonate but also has some magneisum. When the water is acidic it resolves arnd reacts with the excess sulfates and chlorides and push sthe ph up to about 7. At a PH of 7 it stops dissolving and and the water PH will self stabilize very close to a PH of 7. One spoon full of crushed coral will probably last a year and a 1kg bag of crushed coral will likely last years and it cost less than most things i in the store. And in my tank my PH does stay very close to 7 and dissolved KH stays around 40 ppm.
So I should mineralise for gh, and for kh look at getting some crushed coral? And would you recommend doing this in each individual tank or in one large drum which is connected to my auto water change system? Thanks
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Yes remineralize for CH. And Yes put the crushed coral in the the filter of each tank insure the PH in each tank will stay stable. And I would put some crushed coral in drum. One spoon full in each location should be enough for a year.
I built a roof catching rainwater barrel earlier this year completew with inline filter to catch the muck and have a speparate UV filter that I place in it after each rainfall.
It works very well. However it hasn't rained much at all lately. My build is shown somewhere on the forum.
Yeah, it rains a lot here though
I think you are making this all way to complicated, just keep it simple.
I’ll try my best, just though I’d find out what others think I should do
Where would you recommend buying crushed corals/any brand you like using?
CarissaT
Fish Fanatic
As an alternative to the UV sterilizer you could add a small amount of bleach (would have to look up how much is needed for sterilizing) and then add some circulation and let the chlorine evaporate before adding. You could also put a UV sterilizer on your tank. This worked wonders for me when I had issues with parasites in the past.
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