Love the channel and love using free water. I guess my view is that when it rains directly into the pond naturally, rainwater is not collecting all the crud, crap, bird poo off a large roof volume. So what I do is collect the water in butts but then I use Virkon aquatic tablets in the water butt. It does 2 things 1. Kills any unwanted pathogens and 2. Keeps the water lovely and fresh. I put half a Virkon tablet in my large water butts once a month to keep them fresh. Thank me later! Oh and always test the water butt water regularly too. PH, TDS, KH etc.
Thanks for the comment. If you just use rainwater it may not be a bad idea to buff some of the water. But I really wouldn’t bother with anything else, pond fish are very robust if you treat them like fish, pretty much just leave them to it, rainwater is good, don’t worry about the roof run off etc they will be fine
When I built my 1200 gallon pond 30+ years ago I redirected all my rainwater outlets to the pond & as the roof area of the buildings is around 110 square meters , then for every 10mm of rain I get 1100 litres (1/6 of the pond volume), It goes straight in & not stored, treated or filtered. In that time I have never had any problems that I could attribute to rainwater & certainly no mass deaths, it actually seems to freshen everything up & the water in the pond is crystal clear with all parameters within limits. Based on my experience there is no problem using any amount of rainwater in a koi pond.
Certainly this all depends. Collecting water rain water on its own is not a problem, the way you may want to use it quite a challenge. • How would you keep collected water fresh for any considerable amount of time? The way I see it, you do not need so much of water in the autumn or winter months anyway. You will need this more summer time. This is the time you may not have enough rain anyway. So if you want to keep collected water for a reasonable amount of time some kind of water treatment will be needed. • Using collected water for a garden plants - 100%. Using it for a pond - depends. Depends on your fish tolerances, but I believe unless really tolerant fishes some kind of filtering, mineralisation and ammonia treatment may be needed. Again this all depend on the amount of birds poo on your roof, roof and gutter materials, etc
The Rainpod looks like a great idea for collecting rainwater & would be well suited for gardens etc but the water will tend to stagnate, so for a pond I think it would be best used going straight into the pond while fresh & not needing a lot of aeration.
Hi Charles. Best thing to remember is the type of fish we are looking after, carp, goldfish etc are very hardy/tolerant of certain water parameters and changes. As long as the water quality is good they really don’t mind gradual ph changes compared to some really sensitive fish or invertebrates like discus or corals. I guess if they were that touchy about rainwater we would be keeping them inside.Cheers
@@thep0ndman I really did think that large down pours could mess up ph levels and in some cases kill entire stock levels. I’m sure I have heard of this a few times? And also if the rain water is being collected from a gutter where the rain has run down a roof that pigeons sit and poo on that you could be putting parasites into your pond water. Not hating on the video as I watched all ya videos but I couldn’t do this with my set up as I have heard negative things about doing something like this. But I’m sure ya dads must be ok if your advising it
@@MrCharles2929 but what about all the uncovered ponds in the country many get huge amounts of rain water every year, yes ok i take the point it doesn't run off the roof, but its naturally happening and as long as the PH is swinging massively its unlikely to have an effect, you could also run it though a filter system if you was concerned or even a moss bed or some thing to take and nasties out, id say as long as you don't live in massively polluted area or use water running off asbestos roofing it would be totally fine, ive run my aquariums with rain water changes before and ive had no issues at all, it also means you don't have to dechlorinate or use carbon/chemicals etc to remove chlorine, not to mention the benefits to the environment by not wasting possessed water.
@@UnitedSpotlight yeah like I said mate in some cases the swing in ph can kill entire stock levels. In pond keeping people spend fortunes on fish and to most I don’t think they would risk this. Plus filters don’t take out parasites so that wouldn’t fix that
Hi Charles. When it rains you do not have an instant ph change, it will be gradual. Koi, goldfish do not mind a gradual ph change. Ponds usually hold a large amount of water. So even if with prolonged periods of rain it will be a gradual ph change so they fish will not mind it. Do you mind sharing with us where you get this info from about fish deaths when it rains and that birds do not poo in ponds only in drainpipes?
Love the channel and love using free water. I guess my view is that when it rains directly into the pond naturally, rainwater is not collecting all the crud, crap, bird poo off a large roof volume. So what I do is collect the water in butts but then I use Virkon aquatic tablets in the water butt. It does 2 things 1. Kills any unwanted pathogens and 2. Keeps the water lovely and fresh. I put half a Virkon tablet in my large water butts once a month to keep them fresh. Thank me later! Oh and always test the water butt water regularly too. PH, TDS, KH etc.
Thanks for the comment. If you just use rainwater it may not be a bad idea to buff some of the water. But I really wouldn’t bother with anything else, pond fish are very robust if you treat them like fish, pretty much just leave them to it, rainwater is good, don’t worry about the roof run off etc they will be fine
Thanks for the video, that Rainpod it excellent.
Thanks for the comment Chris!
When I built my 1200 gallon pond 30+ years ago I redirected all my rainwater outlets to the pond & as the roof area of the buildings is around 110 square meters , then for every 10mm of rain I get 1100 litres (1/6 of the pond volume), It goes straight in & not stored, treated or filtered. In that time I have never had any problems that I could attribute to rainwater & certainly no mass deaths, it actually seems to freshen everything up & the water in the pond is crystal clear with all parameters within limits. Based on my experience there is no problem using any amount of rainwater in a koi pond.
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Certainly this all depends.
Collecting water rain water on its own is not a problem, the way you may want to use it quite a challenge.
• How would you keep collected water fresh for any considerable amount of time? The way I see it, you do not need so much of water in the autumn or winter months anyway. You will need this more summer time. This is the time you may not have enough rain anyway. So if you want to keep collected water for a reasonable amount of time some kind of water treatment will be needed.
• Using collected water for a garden plants - 100%. Using it for a pond - depends. Depends on your fish tolerances, but I believe unless really tolerant fishes some kind of filtering, mineralisation and ammonia treatment may be needed. Again this all depend on the amount of birds poo on your roof, roof and gutter materials, etc
If you plumbed it directly to your pond you couldn’t get any fresher than that I guess. Thanks for the comment
The Rainpod looks like a great idea for collecting rainwater & would be well suited for gardens etc but the water will tend to stagnate, so for a pond I think it would be best used going straight into the pond while fresh & not needing a lot of aeration.
Yes best not to leave it too long like you say butts can go stagnant cheers for the comment
I thought rain water was dangerous for ponds as it’s acidic and messes with your kh?
Hi Charles. Best thing to remember is the type of fish we are looking after, carp, goldfish etc are very hardy/tolerant of certain water parameters and changes. As long as the water quality is good they really don’t mind gradual ph changes compared to some really sensitive fish or invertebrates like discus or corals. I guess if they were that touchy about rainwater we would be keeping them inside.Cheers
@@thep0ndman I really did think that large down pours could mess up ph levels and in some cases kill entire stock levels. I’m sure I have heard of this a few times? And also if the rain water is being collected from a gutter where the rain has run down a roof that pigeons sit and poo on that you could be putting parasites into your pond water. Not hating on the video as I watched all ya videos but I couldn’t do this with my set up as I have heard negative things about doing something like this. But I’m sure ya dads must be ok if your advising it
@@MrCharles2929 but what about all the uncovered ponds in the country many get huge amounts of rain water every year, yes ok i take the point it doesn't run off the roof, but its naturally happening and as long as the PH is swinging massively its unlikely to have an effect, you could also run it though a filter system if you was concerned or even a moss bed or some thing to take and nasties out, id say as long as you don't live in massively polluted area or use water running off asbestos roofing it would be totally fine, ive run my aquariums with rain water changes before and ive had no issues at all, it also means you don't have to dechlorinate or use carbon/chemicals etc to remove chlorine, not to mention the benefits to the environment by not wasting possessed water.
@@UnitedSpotlight yeah like I said mate in some cases the swing in ph can kill entire stock levels. In pond keeping people spend fortunes on fish and to most I don’t think they would risk this. Plus filters don’t take out parasites so that wouldn’t fix that
Hi Charles. When it rains you do not have an instant ph change, it will be gradual. Koi, goldfish do not mind a gradual ph change. Ponds usually hold a large amount of water. So even if with prolonged periods of rain it will be a gradual ph change so they fish will not mind it. Do you mind sharing with us where you get this info from about fish deaths when it rains and that birds do not poo in ponds only in drainpipes?