Jump to content

it's raining


smicko

Recommended Posts

Hi all, I've read some posts on here about the danger of using rainwater from tanks.

Last night I got all my buckets put outside ( there is advantages to not being allowed to do anything) to collect falling water.

Is this safe to use for shrimp.

The buckets have only ever been used to transport ro water.

If the rain water is tds 100 does that mean I still only make it up to 150-180?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers mick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all' date=' I've read some posts on here about the danger of using rainwater from tanks.

Last night I got all my buckets put outside ( there is advantages to not being allowed to do anything) to collect falling water.

Is this safe to use for shrimp.

The buckets have only ever been used to transport ro water.

If the rain water is tds 100 does that mean I still only make it up to 150-180?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers mick[/quote']

Are you sure your rainwater is 100 TDS???

I collect rainwater for my fish tank. My whole collection system and tank is plastic, so no metal leeching.

But, clean rainwater should only have 3-10 TDS.

If yours is 100, don't use it.

Otherwise you'd need to treat it just like RO water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with the above. Mine is 13 ATM and even that is pretty high. Probably due to the lack of rain for the last few months. :bighug:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I should recalibrate the Tds pen and try again.

I thought it was quite high.

Cheers mick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Mick,

I only use rainwater for my tanks and it has never shown higher than 12 on the TDS. Worth investigating further.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a miracle, i recalibrated my tds pen and the rain water is 2, yeah.

Bb I'm sure there would some minerals in rainwater but I would have able as to what it is or how to test what it is.

Cheers mick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a miracle' date=' i recalibrated my tds pen and the rain water is 2, yeah.

Bb I'm sure there would some minerals in rainwater but I would have able as to what it is or how to test what it is.

Cheers mick[/quote']

LOL Mick.

That's a huge miscalibrated pen.

Just remineralise it like you would RO water now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just curious' date=' what elements would be in rain water to make it 1+ (TDS) ?[/quote']

Got me thinking now BB. Had just assumed it was a result of leaves and dust particulate in the gutters, but now??

It might pay to run some other tests. Hmm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just curious' date=' what elements would be in rain water to make it 1+ (TDS) ?[/quote']

"Stuff" floating in the air when the rain drops fall, it collects in the water.

Dust, pollen, petrochemicals, etc. That's why you don't collect the initial 15-30 minutes of rain. After that, the air is cleaned by the water drops, TDS should read 2-3.

TDS is affected where the rain drops touch as well, like the roof, gutter, storage tank, bucket, since these aren't 100% sterile clean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL Mick.

That's a huge miscalibrated pen.

Just remineralise it like you would RO water now.

Yeah its kinda embarrassing lol,

Time to get a real pen instead of a $10 special I think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine was a $10 special including postage lol and seems to work fine. :whip:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine was a $10 special including postage lol and seems to work fine. :whip:

I think my issue was i haven't recalibrated for six months and I take the batteries out after every use as I has a really cool feature of turning itself on whilst in the box lol

Cheers mick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Stuff" floating in the air when the rain drops fall' date=' it collects in the water.

Dust, pollen, petrochemicals, etc. That's why you don't collect the initial 15-30 minutes of rain. After that, the air is cleaned by the water drops, TDS should read 2-3.

TDS is affected where the rain drops touch as well, like the roof, gutter, storage tank, bucket, since these aren't 100% sterile clean.[/quote']

Thanks jayc....I've also been told that...

If there is a lot of lightning then you will get nitrates too..,.Nitrogen gas and ozone - fuze them together with a crap load of energy.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • sdlTBfanUK
      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
    • ngoomie
      Yeah, cancer risk was a thing I'd seen mentioned a lot when looking into gentian violet briefly. I kinda just figured it might only be as bad as the cancer risk of malachite green as well, but maybe I should look into it more. I've been doing a pretty good job of not getting it on my skin and also avoiding dunking my unprotected hands into the tank water while treating my fish at least, though. Maybe I'll just not use it once I'm done this course of medication anyways, because I know a store I can sometimes get to that's pretty distant carries both malachite green and methylene blue, and in pretty large quantities.
    • jayc
      Can't help you with Gentian Violet, sorry. It is banned in Australia violet for potential toxicity, and even possible cancer risks. I thought it was banned in Canada as well. At least, you now know why there isn't much info on gentian violet medication and it's use. But keep an eye on the snails after a week. If it affects the snails, it might not kill them immediately. So keep checking for up to a week. Much safer options out there. No point risking your own life over unsafe products.
    • ngoomie
      Hello! I have a tank that currently does not contain shrimp, but does contain neon tetras which I am currently treating for Ich, as well as some bladder snails. Shrimp will be a later addition, likely cherry shrimp but I'm still doing research just to be sure. Initially I'd intended to buy some sort of Ich-fighting product that contains malachite green after doing a decent bit of research on it, most of which indicated that it should be shrimp-safe so I'd be good if I ever needed to use it again once shrimp were actually introduced (though I should note I'm aware shrimp can't get Ich, I'm more wondering in case the tetras could get Ich again, or something else that responds to similar medication). I ended up not being able to find any MG-containing products without either having to travel quite far or wait multiple days for delivery (which I was worried could lead the Ich to be fatal), and ended up picking up 'Top Fin Ick Remedy', a product that contains gentian violet which is a triarylmethane dye like malachite green. The bottle has two slightly differently worded warnings about its use with invertebrates ("not recommended for" and "not safe for" respectively), but when I'd been researching malachite green, I'd also heard of products that contain MG but not any other ingredients that would be harmful to inverts still being branded with warnings that they could be harmful, just as a "just-in-case" since the manufacturer didn't test it on any inverts, and I'm wondering if maybe it could be a similar situation here. I'm having a very very hard time finding information about gentian violet's use in fishkeeping at all though, it seems currently extremely uncommon. What I will say though is that I'm on day 2 of treating my tetras with it, and the bladder snails seem just fine -- in fact today I noticed what looked to be a bladder snail that appeared to be newly hatched (because of its size) that I hadn't seen before that was zipping around the tank without issue. But obviously, shrimp are not snails, and bladder snails are also notoriously hardy little guys, so what I'm seeing right now could easily be totally inapplicable to cherry shrimp. It might even be inapplicable to other species of snails, for all I know. Has anyone else here ever used anything that contains gentian violet in a tank that actually does contain shrimp? Were they okay, or should I make sure to not use it once shrimp are added?
×
×
  • Create New...