# Rain water and snow



## Tbird (Oct 5, 2009)

Just wondering if anyone collects, stores and uses rain water and or snow to fill up their tanks. If so, how do you collect it and is there anything special you do before using it?


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Tbird said:


> Just wondering if anyone collects, stores and uses rain water and or snow to fill up their tanks. If so, how do you collect it and is there anything special you do before using it?


Talk to Rich aka CanadaPleco. I remember he was doing something like that but I think he said the snow was taking forever to melt.


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## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

I collected rain (and even melted snow!) for more than 10 years when in Barrie, where the tap water is very hard. There's nothing special involved -- if you have a house, put big buckets or cooking pots under the downspouts. That's it. You can also collect snow and melt it -- on the stove, if necessary. Either way, just make sure that when you add the water to the tank, it is at a temperature close to the temperature in the tank so that the fish don't get a thermal shock.


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## Merman (Nov 23, 2009)

...in my honest opinion......considering all the metallic waste and U.S. fumes you'd collect as well - probably NOT a good thing in these parts.....would you drink it?????


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

some use it to trigger spawning. But I wouldnt use it all of the time.....due to the reason Merman pointed out.


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## Aquatic Designs (Apr 2, 2006)

I would not collect it off a roof either. The eaves troughs and downspouts are full of crap from all kinds of animal, build up of rotting leaves and anything that can blow with the wind can end up in the eaves toughs. There are chemicals that can leach out of the shingles and other roofing materials.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I would not collect snow or rain in Southern Ontario. Go out and collect some snow and melt it down - there's a lot of particulates in the water, without considering all the chemicals and other pollutants in the water.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

yuck, makes me wonder what is entering my dogs system when they eat snow...


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Isn't this same stuff in tap water anyways?
As far as I know treatment of incoming water from the lake is chlorination, fluoridation, possibly flocculation, and that's about it..
I drink it. 
If there's a flocculant used, which there is for sure on the way out, that'll help.

Anyways, I just wanted to say you can use distilled water or reverse osmosis water and put it in the fridge. Cold rain. 
Distilled water isn't too expensive if you have a small tank. If your tank is really big you'd need a lot to make a difference and that'll add up. You could just set up a massive pot, take lid for that pot, drill a perfect hole in the middle, fit a hose to that hole, boil the water, and run the hose to a bucket and distill the water yourself. Painstaking and cost prohibitive due to the ruined pot lid, but it's an additional option.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Distilled isn't nearly as good as RO. And if you're going to go through all the effort, go RO.

And no, rain water is not the same as ground/tap water.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

ameekplec. said:


> Distilled isn't nearly as good as RO.
> .


Please explain. Distilled water is purer than RO so how is RO better?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Sorry, that should be that distilled isn't nearly as cost effective as RO/DI. 

Technically, distilled should be pure water, although I doubt that ordinary distilled water from the drug store is actually purer than RO/DI water.


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