Rain barrel water

[pugle1]

I know a lot of people use collected rain water for their ponds. I was just wondering how safe it is for fish if the collected rain water is off of an asphalt shingle roof. The shingles are only 3 years old, but I was wondering about possible oils / chemical leaching from them. Any ideas? Aluminum eaves troughs and downspouts too.

Thanks

Paul

 

[ZmanArt007]

I would assume that is a bad idea. Simply collecting the water from the sky would be ok, but everything on your roof and in your gutters would end up in your pond. No a good plan in my opinion.

 

[Dave 54]

We think its a bad idea pugle1 our pond water normally gets cloudy after a good rain yes ?
Well most of this cloudy water is caused by dust, pollen, dirt, debris, and other detritus getting washed into the pond. and as all this material floats and circulates in the pond it gives a cloudy look to the pond,
Then it is just a matter of a day or so for the pond water to be filtered clear again. After your pond water has filtered clean, it is a good time to clean your pond filter too, as all those s need now to be removed from your pond filtration system.
However its then a good move to test your water to see if the perameters are ok and if not set about correcting them asap .

Dave

 

[addy1]

I know a lot of people use collected rain water for their ponds. I was just wondering how safe it is for fish if the collected rain water is off of an asphalt shingle roof. The shingles are only 3 years old, but I was wondering about possible oils / chemical leaching from them. Any ideas? Aluminum eaves troughs and downspouts too.

Thanks

Paul

I go against the grain here,I use gutter water to help keep the pond full and great water changes. The gutters feed directly into the pond, no collection system. I have been doing this for five years now without any fish deaths or disease. So far the pond appears healthy full of tads, frogs, fish, bugs etc. I never see an oil slick after rains. Yep the pond gets cloudy, but my gutter feed is set up to hit the bottom of the pond and stir up all and any debris that is sitting on the bottom, it clears up in about 1/2 a day back to normal clear water.
One of our roofs is five year old asphalt, one is metal. We are rural, we have no koi.

 

[dieselplower]

I would just be aware that it could cause a ph change depending on pond size and amount of rain added.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

The possibility of ph change is a good enough reason for me to not use rain water for water changes in my pond.

 

[Troutredds]

I looked up the ph of modern rain water and it averages 5.5 to 6, or a bit on the acidic side. It's conceivable that heavy rainfall could lower the ph of a small pond. A larger system like addy's, with thousands a gallons involved, would be somewhat buffered by sheer size.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Good point Troutredds

 

[addy1]

Our well is 5.4 our rain around 5.6-5.8 plus minus, even after massive rains, the ph has not changed in the pond. It sits around 7.6 or so.

 

[dieselplower]

That's why I said pond size and amount of rain. Also Addy did not post the question.

 

[dieselplower]

Can't post the link from my phone right now but the ph in Ontario where the OP is from is closer to 4.

 

[Troutredds]

Can't post the link from my phone right now but the ph in Ontario where the OP is from is closer to 4.

You're certainly correct, diesel. Eastern Canada does have some acid rain issues. Good call.

 

[pugle1]

Our well is 5.4 our rain around 5.6-5.8 plus minus, even after massive rains, the ph has not changed in the pond. It sits around 7.6 or so.

My pH sits a little high... consistently high 7's to mid 8's. The fish seem fine and over-winter in the pond. They're just pet store feeder goldfish, but they're now quite huge. This is their 4th summer, and I've had no losses due to health problems. Lost a few to raccoons though. I'm in the great lakes area, so it's conceivable that the rain pH will be much lower. With the bog, I think I'll be close to 1800 to 2000 gal. With rain water maybe I could get to mid 7's. Acid rain has been an issue here in the past, but with all the Ontario coal plants now out of service, the pH number may be a little higher. I've never thought to check the pH of our rain water. Maybe I should check it over several months to get a good average pH reading. I was just worried about possible chemical leaching from the shingles and didn't even consider the rainfall pH. Thanks for that heads-up dieselplower.

Gives me more reason to do some research... thanks for your opinions

 

[Dave 54]

7.0 to 8.5 are the recomended Ph levels for fish in ponds , you could always buffer your pond water by using either Lythaqua (calcified seaweed) or crushed oystershell however noone has mentioned that Ph levels can differ at different times in the day so when doing Ph readings do them once in the morning and once at evening time .

Dave

 

[pugle1]

7.0 to 8.5 are the recomended Ph levels for fish in ponds , you could always buffer your pond water by using either Lythaqua (calcified seaweed) or crushed oystershell however noone has mentioned that Ph levels can differ at different times in the day so when doing Ph readings do them once in the morning and once at evening time .

Dave

That's what I do. In the AM it's usually 7.8 to 7.9, and as high as 8.6 in the PM. The big swings are what are harmful I know, but I have a lot of limestone in my pond which could be part of the high pH readings I'm getting. Another thing I just found out about rain water is it can be very very high in nitrogen. I guess that could mean algae blooms?