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Re: Aquarium water...
Kristian writes:
> Has anyone ever considered or used collected rainwater
> for an aquarium? I guess you'd have to check pH with
> all our acid rain and filter it to remove any impurities
> from the collection process but you wouldn't have to
> worry about all the chemicals the city adds to tap
> water. What do you think?
Yep. Been there, done that. Several problems arise quickly. First, how
will you collect the water? In rain barrels catching drainage from your
gutters? Then you also collect all the dirt and dust from your roof and
gutters, all the bird droppings, all the dead critters that have collected in
the gutters... the water in the barrel isn't the nice, crystal clear stuff
you might expect. Another problem is industrial pollution. The cloud from
whence the rain came has also collected all the automobile exhaust, all the
industrial smokestacks, all the dirt and debris from the air. Frequently the
rainwater is quite acid from all the sulfur dioxide emissions of the power
plant 3 counties - or 3 states - upwind from you. I'm sure that 200 years
ago rainwater would have been ideal for fish. Today I'm amazed that lakes
and streams can support life at all when you analyze what falls from the sky.
But go ahead and collect some of this water and see for yourself.