In my garden I have good-sized waterbutt, about 250L. It is covered but has several holes in the top. I washed and clean it out in early summer.
Last week it was 50% full, and I got out about 20 litres. I noticed a large (10cm) gross dead slug in there, which got caught in my wateringcan and I deposited it amongst the flowers. It smelt bad, like all dead snails and slugs do, but I thought oh well the waterbutt is large it'll probs be fine and the water just made it look massive. When I got the water in the house I put it in a bucket, and then realised the water itself smelt kinda gross and snail-y, so I poured it down the drain rather than use it.
Yesterday my dad wanted to topoff one of the aquariums with rainwater, so I told him to test the water in garden waterbutt - we've had a big downpour so I thought it might have filled up enough to make the water ok.
The results were:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Apparently it also doesn't smell any more.
I told him to not use the water and we'll have to use water from the butts at the allotment at the weekend instead and I'll ask you guys what to do.
Should I completely drain this one and get rid of all the water, or can I add some Prime and wait for it to fill again to water it down? It just takes a while for it to fill up so I wanted to ask before draining it. All the tanks are planted so nitrate isn't an issue, but also I don't want to upset the livestock. I will see if I can install some sort of net so slugs don't die in it again, though they seem good at getting everywhere in the garden.
Last week it was 50% full, and I got out about 20 litres. I noticed a large (10cm) gross dead slug in there, which got caught in my wateringcan and I deposited it amongst the flowers. It smelt bad, like all dead snails and slugs do, but I thought oh well the waterbutt is large it'll probs be fine and the water just made it look massive. When I got the water in the house I put it in a bucket, and then realised the water itself smelt kinda gross and snail-y, so I poured it down the drain rather than use it.
Yesterday my dad wanted to topoff one of the aquariums with rainwater, so I told him to test the water in garden waterbutt - we've had a big downpour so I thought it might have filled up enough to make the water ok.
The results were:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Apparently it also doesn't smell any more.
I told him to not use the water and we'll have to use water from the butts at the allotment at the weekend instead and I'll ask you guys what to do.
Should I completely drain this one and get rid of all the water, or can I add some Prime and wait for it to fill again to water it down? It just takes a while for it to fill up so I wanted to ask before draining it. All the tanks are planted so nitrate isn't an issue, but also I don't want to upset the livestock. I will see if I can install some sort of net so slugs don't die in it again, though they seem good at getting everywhere in the garden.