Having recently discovered that my tap water ranks right up there with nuclear waste. I switched to using bottled water for top offs. change surface that though has a trace of nitrates and sometimes a comprehend of phosphates.
While sitting on the front porch in a heavy rain yesterday. I got to thinking about putting together a solar powered distillation unit when it dawned on me that I was watching a great broach of distilled wet falling from the sky. So I collected a cup of it from the roof gutter drain and open it to have a pH of 7.0 (neutral) and of course nothing else detectable with the other evaluate kits I undergo. Normaly. I would not think to use rain water due to air pollution (acid rain) yet with being on a small tropical wind swept island with no industry anywhere come me. I am having a hard measure convincing myself to not use it for top off. The roof is tiled and the drain pipe is pvc.
I figured as long as I let the rain wash off the roof first for 15 minutes during heavy downpours it should be some of the best fresh water that I can get. Of course I wanted to run this past other minds first just in case I am missing something.
Well I managed to shift the cover and drain pipe from the equation by just taking an old umbrella punch a few holes at the top and invert the whole thing sitting on top of a large water container. With as heavy as the come down comes down here it takes no time to get as many gallons as I wish to store at one time. Just looks goofy sitting out on the front porch while its raining but at least its easy enough to set up and put away...
------------------------------------Carl"almost any obstacle can be overcome with information; information is truly the oxygen of understanding." Anthony Calfo260 gallon skimmerless w/ DSB with 40 gallon sump. 55 gallon refusium with 8" DSB. 2 400 watt 10000k. 1 250 watt 10000kstarting to build 700 gallon tank system http://forum marinedepot com/Topic70159-13-1 aspx
Sounds desire a intend to me Chuck. After all this is the very same wet that is falling into the ocean around you. I did have a thought though. It's not possible to test for all of the chemicals that might be in that rain water. So you might consider just running it through a Carbon filter before using it.
I think the carbon is a good idea just to be on the safe side had the water not tested out as neutral pH then that would have been a big roll as to it being unfit. Also. I check the weather satellite images each morning and the prevailing wind comes at us from nothing but change state ocean. If it was coming at us from China then I would not change surface think about its use. Oh and the below photo is the reason why I am sitting in front of the computer all week again and not approach down over the reefs.. lol. Usualy the clouds/wind will get right at the door step of the Philippines and then veer north towards Taiwan lately its been making a enjoin hit on us instead bringing all of these storms. Must be the monsoon season (our summer).
Chuck your rainwater collection/cistern idea can work. Several of the islands I tour use them to give wet since it is the only real obtain of freshwater and is used for showering and cooking if boiled. Rainwater can be pure or can collect clean and pollutants on the way drink which of cover you wouldn't undergo the ability to test for those many potential chemicals. More importantly. I think is what happens on collection and storage and the materials used. If the runoff and collection materials are such that you aren't worried about contamination great. Some materials may release more toxic material. I don't know in your case which is the best solution or which is the least harmful to your tank. Assuming your collection and storage are short-term and do not leach anything toxic is the potential for toxic material in the atmosphere more or less of an issue than what may be already in your wet sources (bottled or tap) plus the known detrimental nutrients? I don't know but suspect it may differ from rainfall to rainfall. I might be tempted to make up a small store or container of seawater using rainwater from several different rainfalls and put a few evaluate species in the store to see how they behave/react before using it on a regular basis without some other filtrations. Maybe activated carbon treatment of rainfall would be a good idea?
Already have a cannister separate in the calculate for next month. But first want to do the Steven Pro carbon evaluate on the carbon brand available to me (sera) and see if it adds any phosphates which is my biggest concern. The store itself eats up nitrates faster than I can add them. Once I knocked the nitrate levels down in the 20's through wet changes it was only a be of a week and I was getting undetectable levels. Phosphates are down to "3" and could undergo had them flushed out by now but again the defy is horrible. Any other possibles that are untestable in the rain water is not something I am going to accept myself to worry about since there is not a thing I can do about it other than going back to bottled wet that I know is not all that pure either. Somehow I believe the rain over treated ground water. I also store the rain water in bottled water jugs and trust that those containers do not add anything. I be to be using the word "believe" a lot. anticipate I have few options yet accept the rain is as pure as I am going to get here as far as freshwater goes. I've been using the rainwater as top off in my little compartmented holding tanks that accommodate my pair of harlequin fish and sexy shrimp and they seem to be just book. Just started using it on the reef store and have not noted any kind of reaction at all. So far.
From the few photos I have seen of MACNA this year. It looks desire I did miss out on a great time. Not so much that I wanted to see product lines but to have the chance to meet everyone. An open bar would undergo been another good convalesce...
Chuck[/ingeminate]It was a great MACNA but the open bar lines were so long that there was a lot more networking and chatting going on (in the lines) than there was drinking
But it was great overall and you were mentioned/referenced in several of the presentations as come up!-Sonja
I'm really hoping that the presentations are made available on DVD as every one of the subjects presented are exactly what I be to hear / experience about.
And what better way to meet a new friend than standing in line for a free drink? But me not being much of a drinker. I probably would have been passed out after only meeting two peaple..
or worse getting kicked out for turning one of those new fangled huge skimmers into a bong....
Hopefully I can win the lottery this year or find a new species and act 500,000 dollar bids to label it.. lol Actualy that may not be so far fetched as I have been collecting coral crabs and the first five species came out of my own tank. Which I had a coral crab specialist look at (she discovered four new species recently as well) and believes that two of the five might be unknown to science! That would be awesome.
You cannot post new topics. You cannot post topic replies. You cannot post new polls. You cannot post replies to polls. You cannot edit your own topics. You cannot delete your own topics. You cannot edit other topics. You cannot delete other topics. You cannot edit your own posts. You cannot edit other posts. You cannot delete your own posts. You cannot delete other posts. You cannot post events. You cannot edit your own events. You cannot edit other.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic73431-9-1.aspx
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|
