SShikora

hey guys. we live in ma and as many of you have heard, there is a terrible snow storm. can snow be used as water?

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!

what would you want to use it for? your fish tanks, id say no unless a diar emergency..id go stock up on bottled water...

goodluck with the storm!! capekate is down there also and bracing for it

EDIT: you have SW tanks and im only able to recommend on FW as I have no sw experience...Im sure a salty person will be along

Oil_Fan

My gut says no to using snow for top offs. I know rain can contain contaminants from factories and such. I would think snow would too since it does start out as moisture though the levels may not be as high.

I would try to and get some purified water from your local store if you can. Now if you're snowed in and have no choice, then that's a different story. What I would do is melt the snow and then boil it. I'm not sure if boiling will kill anything since it started out as snow but why take a chance? Bring the temp down to the tank temp and then add.

But would I use snow over tap water? Yes as you won't have to deal with chlorine. Or anything else that pipes can leach into the water.

nemo addict

using snow would lower your pH as snow has a ph of around 5-5.5 and this would cause ph to become unstable plus it would contain pollutants like rian does ,, i would rather put tap water in tank and deal with the phosphates and chlorine which could be resolved by a large water change when you can get RO/di water if your water pipes are frozen you can as oil_fan said boil the water for human consumption but wouldnt reccomend putting in a tank

Welcome to fishlore

SShikora

Thanks everyone for your advice