Rainwater

[Richard]

I’ve decided to try & use rainwater during my regular water changes. Nothing to do with saving water, more due to the fact I live in East Anglia, which is renown as a hard water area. Bought a new water butt, fitted it to the existing downpipe from the guttering, (after a damn good clean) Hey Presto…. all I need now is some rain, doubt I will have to wait to long somehow.
The white pipe is about 200mm long filled with filter-floss, to catch any crap. Will let you know how it goes.

Attached files

[Richard]

Urm!!! photo looks a bit on the large side. /wub.gif” style=”vertical-align:middle” emoid=”:wub:” border=”0″ alt=”wub.gif” />

[dunc]

Edited for you, Richard

#304772

[Matt]

Cool, it’ll be interesting to see how that progresses Richard. Is that container food-grade by the way? I’ve heard bad things about some water butts leaching odd chemicals into the water. Can anyone confirm/deny?

[Richard]

QUOTE(Matt @ Mar 30 2008, 03:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cool, it’ll be interesting to see how that progresses Richard. Is that container food-grade by the way? I’ve heard bad things about some water butts leaching odd chemicals into the water. Can anyone confirm/deny?

Never heard of a food grade waterbutt, you live & learn, I’m afraid this is a bog standard logal diy one

ps.

#304775

[Matt]

I was actually asking because I reckon you’ll be ok using that one Richard. Just wondered if anyone else had heard the rumour?

[Richard]

QUOTE(Matt @ Mar 30 2008, 07:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was actually asking because I reckon you’ll be ok using that one Richard. Just wondered if anyone else had heard the rumour?

I’ve heard of the ‘food grade’ containers, in fact I used to work within the food industry, I was always under the assumption that food-grade containers were made a bit stronger with a better seal, which would make sense, if you think about it. But I am fairly comfortable using what I have, I guess we will have to wait & see if it is suitable, only time will tell.

[keith565]

i’m waiting on my food grade butt arriving. it was used to store lemon juice. so any leeching will only bring my ph down,lol.
i’m sure all food grade butts are fine as they are designed not to leech.
be careful though, some folk are selling drums used to store engine oils, etc without telling folk.

[Richard]

Getting the first rain now, since I set up my new water trap, its about a quarter full at the moment, will wait until tomorrow, then I’m going to test some, purely out of curiousity, hopefully by the time I do a weekly change I will have collected enough.

[Matt]

Looking forward to seeing the test results of this too Richard.

[keith565]

i’ve always been told not to collect the first 15 minutes of rain as it washes all the pollutants out of the air, both big and small. so i have a diverter with a tap on, so i can open it up whenever i want.

[Richard]

QUOTE(keith565 @ Apr 6 2008, 09:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i’ve always been told not to collect the first 15 minutes of rain as it washes all the pollutants out of the air, both big and small. so i have a diverter with a tap on, so i can open it up whenever i want.

me too, see pic in first post

#304846

[Richard]

Right, tested the water collected in the new waterbutt, these are the results

pH – 7.2
nitrite – 0
nitrate – 5
ammonia – 0.25

I expected the pH to be a bit lower, but overall it seems ok, suppose the big test will be when I actually add some when I do a water change,
I have not got any other test kits, do you think I will need to invest?

[keith565]

QUOTE(Richard @ Apr 6 2008, 10:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

me too, see pic in first post

#304855

Richard

Participant

QUOTE(keith565 @ Apr 6 2008, 11:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

lol, sorry m8, didn’t see the arrow.
hmm, water perams seem a bit off to me. there is no ammonia in mine and ph is around 5.5
i’ll do another test in the morning to compare.
good idea to test hardness to.

Thanks for that, I’ll keep an eye on mine as well, don’t think I will risk adding any to the tank yet, until it settles

[Richard]

QUOTE(keith565 @ Apr 6 2008, 11:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

lol, sorry m8, didn’t see the arrow.
hmm, water perams seem a bit off to me. there is no ammonia in mine and ph is around 5.5
i’ll do another test in the morning to compare.
good idea to test hardness to.

Thanks for that, I’ll keep an eye on mine as well, don’t think I will risk adding any to the tank yet, until it settles

[Author]

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