Also, in high pollution areas you would need to be cautious. In order to
become rain, moisture needs to condense onto a particle of dust. The dust
can indeed be pollution, though I am yet to hear of a case where it has
been a problem.
Phil.
BTW, thanks for the tip about the drums, I have been wanting to get some for
awhile.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Stanton" <matthews at sf.nsw.gov.au>
To: <rainbowfish at pcug.org.au>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2000 12:00
Subject: RE: [RML] Re: Filtering tap water (was unhappy xmas)
> It occurs to me that a lot of you could get around the tap water problems
> just by collecting and storing a bit of rain water. Back when I was on
town
> water I just cut the top out of a plastic 240 litre drum and sat it under
a
> broken bit of down pipe. The drums cost me five dollars a piece but I have
> since discovered that you can get them for nothing from large bakeries or
> other food producers. They only get used once for things like lactic acid
or
> other ingredients. Once you have cut the top off the barrel it is easily
> cleaned. The cost would come if you wanted to have a pressurised system
(as
> opposed to bucket brigade). A solid stand to hold the barrel(s) 1.5 m off
> the ground and the hose/pipe with tap might set you back a few dollars.
>
> Obviously this won't suit everyone. During a drought you would either have
> to drastically cut back the feeds or go back to using the tap water.
>
> I used to think it would be pretty neat to have a tank set up that only
had
> water changes when it was raining, i.e. the water flows off the roof and
> into the tank which then overflows the tank to a drain. The technical
> difficulties associated with such a system for tropical fish in a
temperate
> climate have made me change my mind. If I lived in BrisVegas I'd give it a
> go.
>
> Phil's note about Canberra tap water is interesting as it is similar to a
> problem I have with my 105000 litre concrete water tank (10 years old).
The
> pH is often off the scale but the hardness is actually very low so as soon
> as I put the water into an aquarium, the substrate easily "resets" the pH
to
> a more midrange level (within a couple of minutes). No need to use any
> bottle products. I wonder if they use concrete water pipes around
Canberra?
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Phil [SMTP:peekay at acay.com.au]
> > Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 6:21 AM
> > To: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au
> > Subject: Re: [RML] Re: Filtering tap water (was unhappy xmas)
> >
> > I live in Canberra, where pH out of the tap is often well into the 9's.
I
> > usually use Seachems Acid Buffer and have found it cheaper to use in the
> > long run than sodium biphosphate as it is much more powerfull and has
the
> > added advantage of being phosphate free.
> >
> > Canberra water is very strange, it has almost zero general hardness,
zero
> > carbonate hardness and very high pH. It is good though, very easy to
> > manipulate for any species.
> >
> > Phil.
>