I believe our community seller DavidW does that. He saves the rain water in big plastic barrels. As to why he does so, I think it's to save on the water bill, but don't quote me on that. He may have a different reason.
When i lived in Ohio a few years the town i lived in had extremly hard water! Which was great for my African cichlids but not my oscars so i used rainwater to do my water changes, just buy a heavy duty trash barrel and put it under the downspout. Doesnt take very long to fill up though so i recommend a back up to take care of the overflow. Made my water very soft though and i could see a difference in the fish.....
I would strongly advise against the use of rain water in Europe. Think about it: Rain washes out all pollutants from the air. Do you really want your fish in that water? Wild fish also receive seepage and spring water, which "dilutes" rain water accordingly. Unless you undergo filtration thru carbon before you add the water to your tank, I wouldn't do it.
Particulate Matter travels further than you may think - and Europe is highly industrialized and there're lots of cars on the road. I wouldn't do it ...
take a ro unit remove the ro membrane and you have a great high flow filter with a micron filter and carbon filter inline you might want to tap out the the small line to something bigger and run it inline from your pump to tank will clean out the pollutants and save you a $$$$ on your water bill!!!!
We have an Artesian Well in the backyard. Our water comes to us for free, with the exception of the electric bill because of the pump.
Theres no chlorine on the water, it runs through 2 filters, so i just use the python to run it right in the tank
I'd think rain water would be more acidic, I left a 25 gallon out on the deck for about a week in the summer, it got frequently rained on and i kept a couple of lake minnows in it lol.
I was just testing it for leaks though and it looked fun so i was in no rush to move it lol.
This brings me to wonder, how do all you city slickers do water changes? removing chlorine? that must be terrible and hard to do.
