Rain Water

[Weaver]

Anyone who has considered using rainwater in their tanks should read this
We had a big thunderstorm yesterday with torrential rain
This afternoon I went to the lfs and discovered the owner had lost all his blue crayfish fry and most of his ciclid fry
He had decided to add some rainwater to the fry tanks.He had tested it first and nothing had shown up in the tests so he went ahead.
The other thing to note was that this happened in the middle of rural N Ireland-no heavy industry or cities nearby.Just goes to show what crap is going into the atmosphere and falling back to earth.

 

[Teelie]

IMO, you should never put rain water in an aquarium. It's far too closed an system and no way to really disperse or minimize the pollution that could be in the rain water.

 

[ncjharris]

You can use rainwater in aquariums, I know that some of the LFS around here do, including some of the big ones.

BUT as you mention caution should be exercised. My gut feeling would be that the pH of the rainwater was out.

Have a look at this link

 

[Weaver]

I asked him about the ph and he said it was 6.8 which was the same as his fry tanks.I didnt like to ask too much as he was quite upset about the whole thing.Guess you live and learn .Expensive lesson though