Rainwater

[Welsh]

Clark Gable is in QT, which means my water conditioner is dissapearing rapidly and as I live in Wales where the weather is always wet the bucket that I use for my fish tanks is overflowing with rainwater. My question is, is it safe to use for my sick betta?

Thanks :)

[Oldfishlady]

If your area and collecting method are free of pollutants, some rainwater can be great.
A very slow change over to the rain water needs to be done, often the rainwater pH, KH, GH will be much different than source water and a sudden change over can shock and kill the fish.

I test and compare and if you don't have anyway to test the water just make a slow change over by adding small amounts of rain water to the fish over at least 24h until the fish is in 100% rainwater.

[Welsh]

I live in a small village so i'm assuming my water would be fine to use but I could be wrong lol

So to adjust my betta, I should maybe do quarter rainwater and the rest tap?

[KBoone]

Welsh, I think OldFishLady light be refering to the method of collection.

I to have read that rainwater can be an awesom addition to your Betta care routine as it is one of the few methods to "soften" water. However, you do have to be very careful about how it is collected. I'm talking like a full-blown water collection system that is often used by folks on the "green" side. I don't know that just having a bucket left-out to collect rainwater would be sufficient.

I'll try to find the article I read and post it here later.

[Welsh]

Ahhh right I understand now, im such an idiot lol

[Adastra]

Hrm, I would think that rain water would lack essential minerals and tend to be slightly, or much more acidic depending on the air pollution where you live. In a natural setting this rain water has a chance to be filtered through the roots of countless plants and picks up minerals from sedimentary rocks--personally, I would just buy more dechlorinator. There are very cost effective ways to keep up your supply of dechlorinator, for instance, you could buy it in powdered form and make up your own concentration of dechlorinator.