Freshwater

Never use soap or other chemicals to clean out containers for aquarium
water! The soap leaves a residue that can be deadly to your fish.
After rinsing, fill the plastic containers with tap water, allow them to sit with
the lids off for 48 hours, and voilá, chlorine-free water!
You can add an airstone (a small stone that splits an air supply from your
pump into smaller bubbles) to each jug to cut your waiting time in half (to 24
hours). See Chapter 6 for more on airstones. Attach the airstone to a spare
aquarium pump by tubing. If you keep three or four jugs like this sitting
around, you always have a supply of safe water. Simply use a gang valve
(again, Chapter 6) so that you can use one pump to power several airstones
at once. When company is on the way, grab a jug and start filling your tanks.
Floating dust particles, paint sprays, and so on can get into these water jugs.
Keep the jugs in an area that doesn’t have a lot of air-borne debris. Placing a
small cloth over the top of each jug can help keep out unwanted particles.
Guarding against metals
It’s not just chlorine you have to worry about. Depending on your area, your
tap water may also contain metal deposits, such as copper. Too much metal
can be deadly for your fish. To be safe, buy water treatments from your pet
dealer that safely remove the metals from water.
As mentioned previously, let the water from your tap run down the sink for a
minute before you start filling containers with water for your aquariums, just
as you did when you rinsed them. This precaution allows water that’s been in
constant contact with metal sink pipes (and is slightly contaminated as a
result) to flow through.
Rainwater
Chapter 12: All Water Is Not Created Equal
A few hobbyists collect rainwater for use in their aquariums. If you have an
extremely large tank, this is not a very practical method. The process is really
more trouble than it is worth, unless you have a lot of spare time, small
tanks, energy on your hands, or live in a region of the country that receives a
tremendous amount of annual rainfall. If you live in the desert southwest,
your fish will probably die from old age before you collect enough water to
top off your tank, and it may not always rain when you need it to.
Another problem with rainwater is that it may contain contaminants from factory
emissions, smog, and other pollutants. To be honest, you may end up
spending twice as much for chemicals to treat your rainwater than if you had
just used your trusty old kitchen faucet.
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