rain water?

[Billabong_fish]

Is rain water ok to use in my tank? i dont live neer poluted air so acid rain isnt a problem.

[dorris]

You should probably be a little more specific. Like, what sort of fish are in the tank.

I use rainwater in my amazon aquarium. But rainwater is just too soft to have by itself so I mix it with at least 10% spring water. I am fortunate to have an underground spring on the property as our source of water, so I don't have to treat it in any way. I use rainwater when ever it rains but if there is none I use the spring water. Bore water is just as good as spring. Town water should be treated and sat for as long as possible. If I lived in town I would catch rainwater in a large bucket and if it wasn't raining I would have a large bucket sitting with treated water for at least a week.

Different fish like different water though. Different water has different hardness and ph. I am not into marine aquaria so I don't know about that if you have one.

[coupedefleur]

If you're collecting rainwater from a roof, pay attention to the roof material. Metal or asphalt roofs can leach stuff into the water that you don't want. You probably don't want the first hour or two of roof water in any case- all the bird crap and other stuff that's been sitting on the roof and in the gutters will be suspended in the water.

[Sonicblast12]

I collected some rain water just to test, and it had a green tint, and a very low PH.

[BadRoma1]

no to rain water!!

[dorris]

No it does depend of course. If you have a rainwater tank its great.

My pop told me a story when he lived in South Africa and he had loads of fish and he use to live near a mine. He hang out for the first rains and collected heaps of the water and put it in his tanks. He lost nearly everything cos of the chemicals from the mine that blew onto his roof etc. So you do have to be carefull, and it would depend on where you live. Keep an eye on things that could effect the water and test it before using.

Green?? Low ph is normal I think. Isn't that what amazon fish like? How low are you talking? But green sounds very scary, where are you lliving?

[Sonicblast12]

I can't remember the exact PH, but it was around 6.2-6.4 I think.

The only reason I think it was green because I let it sit outside overnight (late evening thunderstorm), and there were some small sticks and leaves in there, which might have stained the water. I dumped it.

[dorris]

I love the stuff. As soon as it rains I am waiting for it to stop so I can do a water change. Amazons just love fresh rainwater. I do live out in the country though so it might be better than in town with pollution and stuff also.