# Rain water



## blancmange (3 Apr 2012)

Greetings , can anybody please advise me about using rain water for my weekly water changes  :?: Have a tropical tank. Is it safe and do I have to add anything to it   :?:


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## Tom (3 Apr 2012)

My only successful planted tanks used rainwater. I can't grow stuff in tap to save my life :/ 

Depends on where you live though. For example if pesticides/ferts get in the water, or if there's anything nasty on your roof/guttering etc.


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## blancmange (3 Apr 2012)

Hi Tom  I live in north staffordshire (in the sticks as they say) the water comes off my shed roof(felt) . Had a look at it tonite and it looks clean enough.Did add anything to your water ??


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## awtong (4 Apr 2012)

You can always run it through some activated carbon to remove any possible heavy metal contamination.

Andy


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## Aqua sobriquet (4 Apr 2012)

Some folks say to just not collect the first ten minutes of rainfall due to possible contaminants in the air. Sounds reasonable to me!


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## Tom (4 Apr 2012)

As Andy says, it would probably be worth filtering first to make sure but I never did. Mine came down slate tiles and guttering. Oddly enough, since I've "cleaned" the gutters, I've had manky water!!


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## darren636 (4 Apr 2012)

have a look at the .... If its yellow let it mellow .... Thread on here. Should give you some info.


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## Ed Seeley (4 Apr 2012)

Best not to use it from a felt roof but if it's tiled, and especially old tiles, then you will be fine.  I used to use it but switched to RO as the water butt was at the far end of the garden and when it snowed, rained or got really cold I didn't do many water changes...

I filtered the water through a carbon pod before use just in case.


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## dw1305 (5 Apr 2012)

Hi all,
Daisy chain 2 water butts together and take the water from the second butt, furthest away from the down-pipe. If you want you can carbon filter etc., but I just add some _Daphnia_ to the butts. If your water has swimming _Daphnia_ in it you are good to go.

cheers Darrel


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## Morgan Freeman (5 Apr 2012)

dw1305 said:
			
		

> Hi all,
> Daisy chain 2 water butts together and take the water from the second butt, furthest away from the down-pipe. If you want you can carbon filter etc., but I just add some _Daphnia_ to the butts. If your water has swimming _Daphnia_ in it you are good to go.
> 
> cheers Darrel



And of course, free fish food!


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## darren636 (5 Apr 2012)

dw1305 said:
			
		

> Hi all,
> Daisy chain 2 water butts together and take the water from the second butt, furthest away from the down-pipe. If you want you can carbon filter etc., but I just add some _Daphnia_ to the butts. If your water has swimming _Daphnia_ in it you are good to go.
> 
> cheers Darrel


so the first butt is to allow the contaminants to precipitate out? Allowing the cleaner water to flow into butt 2?


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## dw1305 (5 Apr 2012)

Hi all,


> so the first butt is to allow the contaminants to precipitate out? Allowing the cleaner water to flow into butt 2?


 Yes, I'm not sure about soluble contaminants, but it stops any solid bits getting into the second butt, it also allows you to clean the butts out with-out losing all you water. I started out and I used to filter everything with carbon etc, but for the last 10 years I've used the _Daphnia_ method without any problem.

cheers Darrel


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