I don't know if this would work for you but what is the PH of melted snow. Here in Vegas we don't have a snow problem, but the water is attrocious. I have a pure water store less than a mile from my house that sells water for 16 cents a gallon. I have a pool, so I have an abundance of empty 5 gallon chlorine buckets. rinsed them out real good and trucked on down to the store. the guy wanted to know if I was going to drink that water, I said no, they were for my aquariums. So, now, every other week I truck on down and fill up the 2 buckets and it lasts for the 2 weeks between changes. I have 4 bubbler stones in my bubbler so the oxygen level is up there. They are growing at an alarming rate. I'll try and post a couple of pics for ya. tomorrow, as it's lights out now.