Is rainwater runoff collected from an asphalt shingled roof safe for use with killies. Anyone have any experience doing this? Thanks, Richard

I don't think the shingles themselves are a problem. I would advise not collecting the first run-off. In other words, allow the first period of rain to wash off any contaminants that might have accumulated. There are even automated set-ups that do this, which you should find if you do a web search. The quality of water might depend on whether you are in a large city or a more rural area too. I suspect that might be more important than the shingles.

In the end, test any water collected on a small number of fish before using it more generally.

Barry

Thank you Barry.

Rainwater was my source of soft water for several years in my old house. I tested it regularly and was able to breed a lot of killies and dwarf cichlids in it. In the short term, there never was a problem, as long as I respected the "wait for the roof to roof to be cleaned off" rule Barry suggested. In the longer term, the unpredictability of rain was a problem, as I consider a key to breeding killies to be environmental stability. I could control temperature and lighting periods in my fishroom, but droughts or periods where we had lots of short showers and no sustained rain affected my water changing regime. Plus I once got to hear my daughter refer to the weather as a "good forty gallon rainstorm."...

I regularly collect rain water from my roof and use it for my soft water killies, in particular for Maratecoara lacortei. I also use it for hatching South American annual eggs. In periods of drought, I use RO water and I believe that the fish do better in rain water. In all cases the low TDS water is blended with tap water to get a TDS that measures about 80-100 ppm. The first run off is stained brown from leaves that collect on the gutter screen. After an hour or so of a good rain, it is nearly colorless. I strain out any leaves before using. I store it in five gallon pails in the fishroom.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate the information.

Richard