Rain Water In Fish Tanks?

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livvyy

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I just put a bucket (one I use for water changes) out in the rain and I was wondering if that's ok for the fish tank I have? I had to do a partial water change (Done one through the week already) because my nitrAte was 40 and my ammonia is somewhere between 0 and 0.25 and i'd like them lower (as my nitrAte levels have always been around 5-10 more one the ten side).
 
The rain would would be fresh (as in straight from the sky) not from a tank or anything.... I read somewhere people say put half rain water half tap water... if I was to do this would I still need to put prime in?
 
any help would be much appreciated :D
 
er you could test the rain water it self, i cant see why you cant use it, not sure about using prime tho, as long as the rain water is fresh i don't see it being a problem, i'm sure someone will correct me if i am wrong
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Prime is a dechlorinator that also binds some heavy metals. Generally I'd hope to find neither in rain water.
 
You can use it pure, but only if you're keeping fish that like it soft.
 
The storage tank issue isn't really a big problem so long as the tank is a sensible material (I use a rainwater butt as a sump), it's what's on the roof and in the gutters that's the problem.
 
The general answer is no, as you don't know what pollutants are in it. I personally wouldn't risk it. 5-10ppm nitrate is fine. Most people will tell you that 40ppm is fine too, unless you're keeping particularly sensitive fish.
 
The simple answer is; it depends where you live and how you collect the water.
 
I use a lot of rain water in my tanks, because I live in a very rural area with no industry, or even major roads, anywhere near me. I also know that the tiles on my roof are inert.
 
If you're collecting from shed or garage roofs that are covered with galvanised metal or something, and if you do live near any industry, then you'd be better off not using it.
 
Besides the whole potential pollution issue, it would be extremely dangerous to just tip that bucket of rainwater in without knowing how its chemistry compares to your current tank water. The rainwater will probably have minimal hardness and if your tank water is not similar, a sudden change could shock the fish massively, I certainly would not tip a 15l bucket of rainwater into my gH 13/14 tank water.
 
If I was going to use it at all, I would either drip it in neat very slowly over a number of days, or mix it with tapwater so gH was no less than ~6 and still drip it in over at least 24 hours.
 
Rain water can be slightly acidic but if you get your chemistry right you can use it. However, have you thought about how you will top your tank up in the summer when rain water is not available? Because you really want to maintain consistency with the water you put in a tank
 
I ended up just using tap water (like all my other water changes) as I couldn't wait for the bucket to fill up... and I was going to put the bucket out in the open where no rain from a roof or gutter would spill into it and I also thought about the pollution in the air (as I live in a cityish kinda area) so I just declorinated my tap water as I usually do :D
 

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