Rain Water

[mematrix]

:biggrin: Hi All. I have a question but not sure which area to post so I am trying it here. I was wondering if I needed to reconstitute rain water? If so do I do it like RO I have about 35-40 gals collected so far. Should I age it? and how should I do it? I have 3 55gal drums(plastic) hoping on collecting more. Now my tap water is 4 milgramsper liter cloride 130 milgramsper liter sulfide 6 milgramsper liter TDGH 400-500 milagramsper liter Calcium Carbonate 500-600 milgramsper liter Bicarbonate .11milgramsper liter nitrate the TDS is 453 my water comes out of the ground from 4 wells in our little municipality they add the cloride supposedly nothing else. When I use a test strip 5in1 (Mardel) heres what I get PH 8.4+ TKH 300+ppm( both are maxed out PH and KH) GH between 25-50 ppm nitrite 0-0.5ppm nitrate 0-20ppm so what I am guessing is my water is very soft yet very alkaline. When I use RO water it takes a 2to1 ratio to bring it to 6.5 to 7.0 thats useing strait RO. I have some RO-vital to reconstitute the RO yet haven't tryied it yet was wondering if I should use it on the rain water also. Sorry if this is a little long post. I guess what I am asking is how to get my water for my apistos right .

Sincerely Curtis

[Mike Wise]

Rain water works great, but it needs some preparation. First it needs to be collected off of a clean surface (only after it has been raining for 10 - 15 minutes). Then aerate the water. It doesn't hurt to run it through activated carbon to remove any polutants captured while it falls through the air. Check the pH; it should be now between pH 5.5 - 7.0. Then treat it as you would R/O water.