Xsilver368 Posted September 24, 2012 Report Share Posted September 24, 2012 Hello there, I am going to be moving in a couple of months and the house is on rain water, is there anything I should do with my fish when we move there? Do I need to introduce it slowly? Is there anything I need to add to the water I am hoping to get a sample of it before I move and test it to see if its soft/hard and what kind of PH, is shell grit something you can add to change PH? Can bore water be used in fish tanks? Hope that makes sense. Kind regards Jess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieBell Posted September 25, 2012 Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 Hi Jess! Don't know about bore water... That's a good question. I know bore water is weird. This is kind of unrelated but a girl I know had a keratin straightening treatment at the hairdressers and they used bore water and all of her hair melted off because the product had a reaction with the bore water. Weird huh? I moved from a house with rainwater into a house with regular town water and didn't have a problem. I'm pretty lucky though that my water here at the new house is soft and acidic like the rainwater at the old house. I always just put a little pinch of coral sand in the tank to bump up the PH and hardness a little bit to try and keep it more stable. When I moved the fish I just floated the containers they were in for the move in my new tank, add some tank water slowly and then tipped them in, same as you would when bring a new fish home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhong89 Posted September 25, 2012 Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 I changed from tap water to rainwater end of last year. It was simple just try to keep as much water as you can from the move (original tap water) then when you water change you add rainwater instead. Just make sure you do small regular water changes. I was doing 10% weekly water changes instead of my normal 50% - 100% every few months water changes. Steph is right about the hardness content though, there's no or very few hardness in rainwater. I now add shell grit to my filter or bottom of the tanks and also add epsom salt to my water changes a pinch per 20L. But this depends on the fish you keep and their requirements, my fishes are soft water so my approach to increase hardness long-term is slow release shell grit and small amount of epsom salt. I believe bore water may be too hard but it depends which aquifer you're getting the water from you may need to do some research on the geological properties and history of where you're getting your water from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6ftaquaman Posted September 25, 2012 Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 I agree with joan, I would not use bore water unless I knew what was in it. Could be all sorts of nasties harmful to fish (and apparently human heads ) in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumofthehoarde Posted September 28, 2012 Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 I use to live in the country. Bore water was the bain of my existance!! It would come out of the tap at a beautiful pH7 but within 2 days it had swung to 8.8. Took me a while to figure that out and lost a couple of guys in the process. Then I had no bubble nests. Once I changed over to rain water (even tho it was full of coal dust) all was good. When I moved I took 150Lt of old water with me and slowly introduced new place's water. I MISS MY TANK WATER ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 (edited) Hi Jess First things to consider with rain water are. What is the roof made out of: (Some places in WA still have asbestos as roofing material espesialy in older buildings in the country) ( Has lead been used as flashing) ( Bird faeces build up as birds can carry parasites) Airial polutants. Not a main concern in the country but on the edge of suberbia it can be Ie Rockingham, Kwinana have some fall out from the cemant factory nearby. If all of these points get a tick in the box for being clear then its fine. I personaly wouldnt add anything to it. As far as bore water goes I use it and I am North of Perth. My water is classed as potable so it is fit for human consumtion but becouse of being in suberbia they dont recomend it for humans but livestock is ok. If you contact the water board and tell them what area you are in they should be able to let you know whats in it. If you have no joy from them contact your local shire and they should be able to help. If you have any probs with it just drop me a line and I will find the info out for you I hope this halp Jess Cheers Les Edited September 30, 2012 by les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xsilver368 Posted October 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 Awesome, thanks heaps for that! Will be doing some research and ringing around tomorrow :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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