rain water?

Hi all,
is it necessary to treat rain water be4 putting into the tank?

I'd recommend aerating it, let it stand, and filter over activated carbon.
It needs to be stabilise.....the above will help that.

You do, however, need to make sure what it was collected in and collected over (eg roof) is non-toxic.

ian

Hi Ian I use nothing but rainwater! My question is this? I don't airate the water at all but I do filter it trough activated carbon,and have been for quite a while now, without any problems, what are the risks if you don't airate?

anglecichlid wrote:

Hi Ian I use nothing but rainwater! My question is this? I don't airate the water at all but I do filter it trough activated carbon,and have been for quite a while now, without any problems, what are the risks if you don't airate?

There's no real danger as such if you don't aerate...ie not aerating in itself will not have any bad effect.

The reason why I'd recommend (if I were asked) aeration is help stabilise the water and may even help drive out some dissolved gases.

If one lives in a heavy industrial area (of which we don't have many, if any, in Ireland) then the water may need more careful consideration.

ian

anglecichlid wrote:

Hi Ian I use nothing but rainwater! My question is this? I don't airate the water at all but I do filter it trough activated carbon,and have been for quite a while now, without any problems, what are the risks if you don't airate?

Ciaran that rain water you use is like gold for them fish you must be doing something right

Some great tips Ian thank you

If only we could use rain water to mix with salt then we would be laughing for when the water meters come in i know i would anyway for when i get the new tank

Sean

I've used rain water for marines.....and that was in days of living not far outside Birmingham (the air was as mucky as the sewers !!), and in them day the marines were not great either, but it worked well.

ian

igmillichip wrote:

I've used rain water for marines.....and that was in days of living not far outside Birmingham (the air was as mucky as the sewers !!), and in them day the marines were not great either, but it worked well.

ian

Would you ever give it ago again? how was the livestock in the tank?

Could you remember what sort off TDS reading you where getting.

Sean

I used tapwater for the marine tanks the public aquarium....as they would have meant just too much rainwater (and not even the midlands gave us that amount ).

In those days, we were experimenting and developing means of plug-n-play marine keeping....so things were still developing on the knowledge side.

Success was very good in my home tanks and in the public aquarium.
We had breeding of marines as well.

As for what any specific readings were?....that was going back between 30 and 40 years.
But we were measuring stuff in the water at the time that few others were measuring....eg nitrates (not measured normally then), phenols, ion-pair interactions, and redox.

I have no complaints about the methods even though Moorish Idols were the fish to attempt to succeed with, and even using distilled water did nothing to help.

As for delicate corals, they were a problem anyway as safe and cheap to run lighting was not readily available at the time.

ian

Tha'ts great Ian thanks very much hopefully i will not have to go down this route i think ill just have to nip it in the bottom and pay the big water charges as i wouldn't feel right using rain water but then again the ratio between the RO and non RO coming out off a RO unit is crazy would save a lot if it was there other way around in favor for the good water

Sean

The introduction of RO water is a bit of god-send (if used correctly) for fish keeping.

It does remove some of the unkowns associated with rain-water, it is cheap (compare it to double distilled water !!), and it is so so much better than when people were trying to 'soften' water using domestic water softeners.

The use of various zeolites or other molecular sieves will come in very handy in making as few water changes as possible....these are evolving very nicely, and one day fully integrated water re-cycling may be in the grasp of everyday fish-keepers.

ian

igmillichip wrote:

The introduction of RO water is a bit of god-send (if used correctly) for fish keeping.

It does remove some of the unkowns associated with rain-water, it is cheap (compare it to double distilled water !!), and it is so so much better than when people were trying to 'soften' water using domestic water softeners.

The use of various zeolites or other molecular sieves will come in very handy in making as few water changes as possible....these are evolving very nicely, and one day fully integrated water re-cycling may be in the grasp of everyday fish-keepers.

ian

im sure this would need a new thread as would go on for a bit with regards to RO waste water re-cycling

Sean

JohnH wrote:

Sean,
If you still have the pump for your RO you could pump rain water through that. I thory, at least, you shouldn't have as much waste as when running tap water through the system.
(Over to IGM).

John

Would you believe i was thinking something along those lines while writing the other comments great idea

Could collect rain water in a drum and then have the inlet from my pump in that drum and use that has think being done by anyone do you know

I'm sure it would be better then tap going into the RO?

Could even save more on filters as wouldn't be as bad?

Sean

JohnH wrote:

Sean,
You might find that your sediment filter will need changing as often as before, but this would be the cheaper of the filters anyway.
I know that when I filter rainwater for freshwater use the sediment still clogs, due - no doubt - to the dust etc in the rain. It also collects some from the shed roof.
This may not be so relevant, but it's worth mentioning all the same that rain water is very nearly pure (ie almost distilled) since it actually comes about as a result of a distillation process.
I suppose, though, that all the trace elements etc you add with the salt for marine use would compensate for this somewhat.
Still, worth bearing in mind.

John

That's great John thanks very much

Will do a test with it some day and see how i get on for my im happy but when them meters come in i will not be happy

I'm sure the sponsors will be much more un-happy with these meters

Sean

I see the advantage of RO and Rain Water in freshwater tanks in the mixing to make the bulk water load, but I am still not convinced of the advantage in making the bulk of marine water.

However, topping up water lost through evaporation in a marine tank is another question....that is where RO really is a god send.

The big question is what is hoped to be removed by RO (and similarly what is hoped to be removed by using rainwater)?
Heavy metals would be a good answer....as would nitrates,
but some of the stuff removed from tapwater may only be a drop in ocean compared to salt water.
Many components in salt water are in very high saturation anyway, and the pH of saltwater is not simple pH buffering.

RO and rainwater is no where near as good a double distilled water for getting 'pure water'.

RO doesn't remove everything, and even the bits it is good at removing are removed as well as how well the RO filters and membrane are maintained.

Am I being contentious? if not then my middle name isn't Guisseppi.

ian

JohnH wrote:

Guiseppi - wasn't he Pinocchio's creator (or was that Walt Disney?).

OK it wasn't, but adds to the humour and brings a bit of levity to life.

John

That's a lie..

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(I can't find an elongated nose emoticon)