Water change with rainwater

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I actually did filter my rainwater at first before i was able to test it. I lived near a chemical plant and they also had a coal burning boiler, lots of power plants in the area and i know what comes out of those stacks, not as bad as it used to be but bad enough. Anyway the water tested fine i just made sure that it rained long enough to flush out the barrel good and after a long rain. If i lived in Canada i'd be very cautious, all the soot, arsenic and whatever else comes from burning coal goes out those stacks and a lot of it ends up in canada (acid rain) :(
 
not true stelco is years ahead of pack with emmissions doffasco on the other hand is catching up and the prob we have is red dust a form of iron wich filters out down east most of the coal mines are gone so not to much to worry about there..
 
MarlboroMan said:
I hear that rain water is also acidic? It rains over rivers and ponds, so I guess alittle bit wont hurt.
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its not that rain water is acidic

assuming that where talking about rainwater coming from safe locations

rain water actually has a neutral ph

but it is unstable

there are no buffers to keep the pH stable, so a pH crash is very likely to happen if nothing is done.
 
ShadowVengance said:
This brings me to wonder, how do all you city slickers do water changes? removing chlorine? that must be terrible and hard to do.
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I guess I am lucky.....I slowly stoped adding chemicals to my tanks on water changes, and they are totally happy with water from my tap.....even breed in it....

Everything checks out fine, and all my fish and rays are happy as can be!
 
I replace evaporated water with distilled water. Has the exact same qualities as the water that evaporated.
 
Delgado hit the nail on the head about the lack of buffering in rain water. As long as you know the water is safe it works fine to simply top off tanks. But unless you were keeping something like wild Discus, their really isn't much of a need to risk using it for water changes.
 
where i live we get like 4in of rain a yr. i use water out of the tap and only every third time do i add chemicals. the experts at my lfs told me there was no need with the fish i have to add chemicals at all. i trust them becouse they have been keeping fish in this valley succesfully since before i was born
 
DeLgAdO said:
rain water actually has a neutral ph
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... not quite. Natural rain water has a pH value of around 5.6 due to dissolved carbon dioxide.

To those of you with wells: Since your water is not regularly tested by water suppliers, you need to pay special attention to your water chemistry. Especially in agricultural areas, high peaks in nitrate are possible (much higher than we tap-water-users get, since tap water is tightly regulated). Having your own well does not necessarily mean that you have better water ...

HarleyK
 
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