# Dechlorinated water for WTF



## herper147 (Feb 7, 2009)

Hi all, so I have been keeping all sorts in the reptile and fish world for a fair few years now and the one thing I have never got round to keeping is amphibians, now I have more space im looking into getting either RETF or WTF but since its my first frog it will most likely be WTF since the red eyes seem very very difficult to keep.

Now there is one main thing that is kinda the deciding factor for me, how vital is dechlorinated water? I have never really used it and don't have an RO system setup so it would be very awkward to have to get dechlorinated water every time I spray them or change water bowls. I was hoping I could just use standard tap water and spray them when I have to spray the chameleons but it seems this causes a lot of problems with frogs and is not a good idea?

So if anyone could give me some advice it would be much appreciated 

thanks


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

I use rain water, which i store in a water butt at room temps. You can also use bottled water if you wish, but just another cost i personally can do without.


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## Draconis (Dec 19, 2011)

I personally wouldn't use chlorinated water, and would prefer to dechlorinate it. I do it with my axolotls. You'll probably know from keeping fish that you can buy products which dechlorinate water. Another way to dechlorinate, though, is to just leave the water for a day and all the chlorine will evaporate away. It's not too difficult to fill a dish with tap water every day for use the next day. Hope I helped.


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

I thought about the water situation before getting some frogs again myself. One thing with tap water is not knowing exactly what's in it. As Draconis said chlorine will gas off, but chloramines & any metals won't as you probably know already. Also plants don't do particularly well with tap water in my limited experience keeping them in vivs.


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## herper147 (Feb 7, 2009)

Thanks for the help, so would it be possible to use the same dechlorinate solution that you use for fish for frog water?

I was looking into getting an RO unit for the fish tanks so I might just wait and see if I can get one up and running before getting into keeping frogs.

Also you say rain water, is this filtered before hand in any way or just straight out the water butt from outside? I would have thought thats risky with all the wildlife possibly getting to it?


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

is kent water anything like london ? if it is, dont go anywhere bloody near it, it's likely to melt your frogs and then eat your face.


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## herper147 (Feb 7, 2009)

Meefloaf said:


> is kent water anything like london ? if it is, dont go anywhere bloody near it, it's likely to melt your frogs and then eat your face.


All I know about the water round here is that it's extremely hard? I'm sure thats probably a bad thing


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

hard water has a high mineral content and usually ends up having more chemicals used to 'process' it.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

As mentioned above, the water conditioners sold for fish are perfectly good for 'phibs and relatively cheap. They work perfectly well on Kent water, which is no worse than any other water, despite what some of our rural cousins would like to think! :Na_Na_Na_Na: It is quite hard, but at least lack of calcium isn't a problem! One word of caution on RO water; it's fine to spray with, but not good for water bowls where the frogs actually sit. This is because the reverse osmosis will be reversed *again*- water molecules pass from a low salt concentration (the water) to a higher one (the frog) causing swellng (dropsy) and even kidney failure. Hope that makes sense.


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

herper147 said:


> Also you say rain water, is this filtered before hand in any way or just straight out the water butt from outside? I would have thought thats risky with all the wildlife possibly getting to it?


No not filtered, just collected straight off the roof of my covered koi pond & stored in water butt in fish/frog room.


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

Ron Magpie said:


> As mentioned above, the water conditioners sold for fish are perfectly good for 'phibs and relatively cheap. They work perfectly well on Kent water, which is no worse than any other water, despite what some of our rural cousins would like to think! :Na_Na_Na_Na: .


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## _simon_ (Nov 27, 2007)

I don't keep amphibians but I use a cartridge dechlorinator for my pond and will be using it for water for my anoles. 

I use this one, it connects to a standard hose and runs at full mains pressure. 30,000 Litre Pond Dechlorinator (Removes Chlorine) Koi | eBay
There are cheaper smaller ones.


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## creg (Jun 10, 2012)

Buy yourself a 25l container and see if you can find a local fish shop that sells ro water, you can get 25 litres for just £2.50 at most place and this lasts ages if just for one viv. Also RO water won't stain glass so will save you time cleaning.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

creg said:


> Buy yourself a 25l container and see if you can find a local fish shop that sells ro water, you can get 25 litres for just £2.50 at most place and this lasts ages if just for one viv. *Also RO water won't stain glass so will save you time cleaning*.


 That's one of the reasons it's good for spraying, but it is *not* for standing water, as stated above.


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## creg (Jun 10, 2012)

Ron Magpie said:


> That's one of the reasons it's good for spraying, but it is *not* for standing water, as stated above.


:gasp: I've never heard that before, i've been using ro water in my reps water bowls for at least a year.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

creg said:


> :gasp: I've never heard that before, i've been using ro water in my reps water bowls for at least a year.


It's a cumulative thing, and it depends partly on how much time the frog spends actually sitting in the water, but it can be nasty. A lot of people compromise my mixing RO half and half with rainwater or tapwater.


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## creg (Jun 10, 2012)

Yeah thinking about it nothing i have actually soaks in the water bowls :lol2: that's a relief

i might be getting from fbt's next month so will definitely use dechlorinated tap water now.


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

creg said:


> Also RO water won't stain glass so will save you time cleaning.


Another reason i use rainwater :2thumb:


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## AubreyGecko (Nov 11, 2013)

I bottle tap water and buy natural spring water and mix the two evenly for spraying and use plain bottled water for the water bowls. Never had a problem


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

AubreyGecko said:


> I bottle tap water and buy natural spring water and mix the two evenly for spraying and use plain bottled water for the water bowls. Never had a problem


Yeah, a lot of people use bottled water- it does vary a lot in quality, though.


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## Draconis (Dec 19, 2011)

I know somebody who just uses standard Tesco's own mineral water for things like false tomato frogs, leucs, horned frogs and american green tree frogs and they've never had any issues. 

Personally, though, I think it'd be cheaper to just buy some dechlorinator as about 5ml treats 10 litres or so, so it'd probably work out cheaper in the long run. Having said that, I'm just splitting hairs and the difference in price will be negligible really.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Draconis said:


> I know somebody who just uses standard Tesco's own mineral water for things like false tomato frogs, leucs, horned frogs and american green tree frogs and they've never had any issues.
> 
> Personally, though, I think it'd be cheaper to just buy some dechlorinator as about 5ml treats 10 litres or so, so it'd probably work out cheaper in the long run. Having said that, I'm just splitting hairs and the difference in price will be negligible really.


 I think it's mostly down to preference- but I have a fair number of tanks and a fair number of frogs- I'd get through a lot of bottles, I think! I've mentioned elsewhere, back in prehistory I, like a lot of keepers at the time just used tapwater, with no obvious bad effect on individual animals, but like the leaps forward in the knowledge of light requirements, an understanding of basic water chemistry is bound to be beneficial, especially in terms of breeding success. Of course, most fish keepers have known this stuff for years- just nobody thought to apply it to frogs...:whistling2:


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## Draconis (Dec 19, 2011)

I've just thought of something. For my axolotls I use API Stress Coat+ because it helps with their slime coat. I don't have any frogs/toads myself, but do you reckon that'd be beneficial for misting?


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

Exo Terra : Aquatize / Terrarium Water Conditioner


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## Draconis (Dec 19, 2011)

Fair does. :lol2:


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Draconis said:


> I've just thought of something. For my axolotls I use API Stress Coat+ because it helps with their slime coat. I don't have any frogs/toads myself, but do you reckon that'd be beneficial for misting?





Meefloaf said:


> Exo Terra : Aquatize / Terrarium Water Conditioner


I should think either will do, although the Exo Terra one may be more designed to use in air.


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

oh yah, i didnt understand api stress coat etc, but sounded similar in essence to exo stuff


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