Rain water to make saltwater?

[F i s h y]

Im sitting on the porch watching thousands of gallons of water fall from the sky and it got me to wondering,

Does anyone use rainwater to make saltwater?

What would you have to do to make it usable?

Is all rain water the same?

 

[Born2beblack]

Huh run test see what up

 

[F i s h y]

Huh run test see what up

I was thinking that to. But what tests would need to be ran. And would I need to test each batch of rain water separately before using?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Rain water is full of minerals. you would still have to pass it through an RODI to be reef ready.

 

[NashobaTek]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

 

[F i s h y]

Rain water is full of minerals. you would still have to pass it through an RODI to be reef ready.

Are those minerals really truly actually bad for our reefs? Or are we just assuming they are? I mean some people even use tap water. playing devils advocate here... i actually agree with filtering it first.

If we did filter it, could we refilter the waste and get a 2nd run from the same water?

 

[F i s h y]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

That is crazy.... i mean I knew thats true... but i feel like thats a huge overstep in authority... i digress... thats a whole different conversation. Fortunately here in Indiana we can collect rainwater.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Are those minerals really truly actually bad for our reefs? Or are we just assuming they are? I mean some people even use tap water. playing devils advocate here... i actually agree with filtering it first.

If we did filter it, could we refilter the waste and get a 2nd run from the same water?

You'd have to send in an ICP test to be sure. There are some places that you can get away with tap water, but unless you're certain of what's in your water, you're rolling the dice.

Hence the reason why it's so popular to strip everything out with an RODI system and control what get's added. It's the peace of mind knowing that if a problem arises, you can rule out source water as a culprit.

There's dangers in using straight rain water as there is using tap. The only difference is the minerals in rain water has naturally occurred and the water from your tap has been treated.

 

[Billldg]

I would be concerned with everything that would be included with the rain water. As @Sisterlimonpot stated above, making RO/DI water gives us the peace of mind knowing what is, or actually, isn't in the water we introduce into our tanks.

Trust me when I say, it would be awesome to use rain water.

 

[mistuhm]

If I collected rain water here in socal and used it, my tank would be dead. You might not just be getting added minerals but pollutants as well.

 

[|Frank|]

My sister uses it for her freshwater planted tank and keeps telling me to try it. Idk if I’d use it in a reef tank though, I too much money invested into it.

 

[Dan_P]

Im sitting on the porch watching thousands of gallons of water fall from the sky and it got me to wondering,

Does anyone use rainwater to make saltwater?

What would you have to do to make it usable?

Is all rain water the same?

Sounds like a reasonable idea. Here is just one link on the subject matter, focused on human consumption, but a good place to start to discover the parameters that you will need to consider if you want to determine if rain water is right for your system.

6.11 Rainwater harvesting
Water quality and health risk
Rainwater is relatively free from impurities except those picked up by rain from the atmosphere, but the quality of rainwater may deteriorate during harvesting, storage and household use. Wind-blown dirt, leaves, faecal droppings from birds and animals, insects and contaminated litter on the catchment areas can be sources of contamination of rainwater, leading to health risks from the consumption of contaminated water from storage tanks. Poor hygiene in storing water in and abstracting water from tanks or at the point of use can also represent a health concern. However, risks from these hazards can be minimized by good design and practice. Well designed rainwater harvesting systems with clean catchments and storage tanks supported by good hygiene at point of use can offer drinking-water with very low health risk, whereas a poorly designed and managed system can pose high health risks.

 

[blasterman]

Rain water varies considerably from location to location in terms of garbage it carries.

I wouldn't use it for a tank unless I've tested it. Obviously it will work with reverse osmosis.

 

[rwreef]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

See link below for details about collecting rain water in Washington.
Ecology.wa.gov

 

[Casket_Case]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

That’s kinda major bull lol

 

[|Frank|]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

Lol wow

 

[josvanmeer]

not all rainwater is the same no, its makeup is from relatively local sources so if there´s a lot of heavy industry around that usually increases the acidity of the rain. some rainwater is very clean it all depends on the environment. Either way it's completely dependent on the environment, so you don't know what's in it till you do like an ICP test or something like that. Even then, I doubt there will be any consistency in rainwater. If it's legal to collect rainwater where you're located you can just filter it through RODI, if you can pressurize it, which seems like way too much work at that point.

 

[NashobaTek]

See link below for details about collecting rain water in Washington.
Ecology.wa.gov

Thanks, it's been changed because it used to be illegal. Must have been a lot of ticked off people. It's still under their control though, a water rights permit is BS in my opinion, unless it's farm ground that already has water rights

 

[FastandCurious]

A lot of ppl collect rainwater for their own drinking water around the country. Of course they filter it, but l imagine it's possible if filtered. It does come from the ocean right? Lol

 

[Scorpius]

Don't forget in some states ( Washington ) it's very illegal to collect rain water on your property.

The Left Coast.