Using rain water collected in a plastic water but.

[Aqua Andy]

Hi,

My tap water is heavily nitrate; around 40 ppm. I have also checked the tap water at my parents house which is less then a mile away and it is identical.

I therefore am thinking about using water collected in a plastic water but in my parents garden for water changes as I cannot lower the nitrate level in my tank by using the tap water.

Is this OK?

I have read on this forum that some posters in America use well water.

Do I need to do anything to it before adding it to my tank?

I have collected 5 gallons in a demijohn and I'm letting the temperature acclimatize indoors and I have added some Stress Coat just in case.

I have checked the water collected from the water but's ph and it is around 6.8 so that should be more ideal for the fish I keep.

The tank water's current ph is around 7.2 -7.5.


Andy

 

[rdd1952]

I wouldn't add it until I checked the nitrate in it. I would think that the rain water might be high too. I'm not certain what kind of impurities might be in rain water.

 

[Aqua Andy]

That was the first thing I did. Sorry I should of added that on my original post.


Water from water but : nitrate 5.0 ppm
Water from tap: nitrate approx 40 ppm
Water from tank: nitrate approx 40 ppm


Andy

 

[rdd1952]

I don't have well water so i can't really help there. My son does and to the best of my knoweldge, he uses it straight from the tap without doing anything special to it. At least you know the rain water is lower in nitrate than your tap water.

 

[GSD]

im not sure rain water is a good idea
think about the pollution that could be in it etc.
i would use dechlorinated tap water

 

[Aqua Andy]

My tap water is heavily nitrate around 40 ppm.

 

[IovaykInD]

You better watch out for any acid rain...and check all the impurities in it before using it. Rain water can contain a lot of chemicals since it's pretty much ocean water without salt.

 

[IMCL85]

acturally 40ppm of nitrate is acceptable in my opinion. If you have plants in ur tank ur fish should be no problem at all. Since live plants absor nitrate as food.

 

[annka5]

Atmospheric pollutants will be highest in industrial/urban area, so to some extent it depends where you live.
If you collect the water after the rain has been on for a while, then this should help - the pollutants are bound up with the water so the first part of the storm will have worst pollution. However, I would be inclined only to use it if you live somewhere reasonably rural (depending on direction of prevailing winds) and never use rain collected in the first shower after a prolongued dry spell.
You could test the GH and KH. These should be (very) close to zero. If not, then there must be some contamination -either atmospheric pollution or roofing tiles drainpipes, etc.

 

[fawnmodel]

why not use bottled reverse osmosis water its pure.

Even if you used it half and half with tap water, that would be sufficent

 

[smithrc]

the rain water will be fine...

we've tested ours for dissolved solids and the reading was 4 times lower than our nap water (about 120ppm against 450ppm)

Nitrates we not on our test kit and KH was low but acceptable (due to the lake of dissolved solids)

we live on the edge of the country and the rain is pure - a PH of 6.8 tells you that you have no problem with acid rain.

we used ours for a few months while trying to lower the TDS (total disolved solids) for breeding our plecs - but in the end i setup our RO unit as it has virtuall 0 TDS so is a lot purer.

I did however test the condensation from the lid of our water but... now that was very pure