Ways to make water safe for geckos

[animeavatar]

Right now I mostly use bottled water but I don't think it is very eco-friendly so I was wondering if there is any way to make the water safe for my
gecko. I am also planning to get 1 or 2 cresties so I want an easy way for safe water. Can I let the water age for 24-48 hours? I know another option is to buy de-chlorinator. If this is helpful, this is how the water is cleaned in my area http://www.peelregion.ca/pw/water/water-trtmt/water-treatment-process.htm

 

[Fencer04]

I just use filtered tap water.

 

[LeopardShade]

There's usually nothing wrong with bottled water, heck, many people use tap water and their geckos are fine.
But if you want to make the water safer, I'd recommend Reptisafe Water Conditioner. You can find it at most pet stores and I use it for both my geckos. It removes chloramines, chlorine, and ammonia while providing ions and electrolytes.

Hope that helps.

 

[5HiddenLizards]

I am currently using gallons of spring water with the Repti Safe water conditioner. I was using tap water w/ the ReptiSafe when we were at our old apartment but this new apartment's tap wateris full of white particles, so now I'm using bottled.



{Sent from Samsung Epic via Tapatalk}

 

[Kat&Rin]

hmmm, I was wondering this the other day so I'll ask for curiosity's sake. I used to have fish tanks so they obviously had dechlorinators and my question is: What is the difference between fish tank dechlorinators and "reptile" dechlorinators? I use filtered water (the same stuff I drink) without problems for Rin so this is just out of curiosity.

 

[fuzzylogix]

i have been using tap water for all my reptiles for years with no issues. if you are worried about dechlorinating, just let your water sit in an open container for about 24 hours. i use one of those 3 gallon water dispensers and just leave the lid off. i fill it up in the bathtub.

 

[M_surinamensis]

providing ions

Does it actually say that anywhere on the bottle? Because that is hilarious.

What is the difference between fish tank dechlorinators and "reptile" dechlorinators?

Concentration and price are the only meaningful differences between most of them. Although some of the aquarium dechlorinators also include a lot of unnecessary ingredients, some of which should be avoided (aloe, for example).

if you are worried about dechlorinating, just let your water sit in an open container for about 24 hours.

That works if it was treated with chlorine, but won't work if it was treated with chloramine, chlorine bonded with ammonia, which will not evaporate.

Although as you said, tap water for years, no issues... unless there's something seriously wrong with the local tap water... or unless someone is keeping an especially sensitive species, it's not much of an issue. Anyone who is keeping one of the species where it matters (few reptiles, a decent number of amphibians) should understand water chemistry to the point where they don't need to ask the question.

 

[LeopardShade]

Does it actually say that anywhere on the bottle? Because that is hilarious.

Yes, I wouldn't make something like that up. Just going what with the label said. But I do agree, it sounds ridiculous.

 

[Kat&Rin]

Concentration and price are the only meaningful differences between most of them. Although some of the aquarium dechlorinators also include a lot of unnecessary ingredients, some of which should be avoided (aloe, for example).

Ahhh ok that makes a lot of sense. Thats quite interesting actually, so (technically) if you can find a cheap fish tank dechlorinator without aloe or any other harmful substances its just as good as the high priced "reptile safe" dechlorinators?

 

[M_surinamensis]

For the function of dechlorination, yes.

Long before reptile specific dechlorination agents were being packaged and sold that way, I was using aquarium products for what was, at the time, a pretty extensive collection of comparatively rare and sometimes delicate amphibians. For a few of them, the water preparation steps got a bit more involved and complex, but many of them were provided with tap water that had been treated with MARS or Mardel Labs products. One or two drops per gallon, give it a few seconds to diffuse through and it tests clean. Perfectly safe and effective, generally substantially less expensive than some of the other products and the concentration is substantially higher- making a small bottle go much further.

Many of the other... features... of some of the more diluted products are a bit sketchy. Not outright lies, but also not necessarily as useful as they sound. Added electrolytes, really only necessary if the animal is dehydrated and then it is better to use gatorade or pedialyte anyway, in order to gain the potassium, sodium and other trace mineral content as well. Ions actually got me laughing, since in this case and given that the ingredients are all suspended in water, it just means that the product has a pH lower than 7.0, it's acidic and contains hydrogen ions. Blue dye makes it visually appealing... and it's been diluted so that it often uses anything from a teaspoon to a few tablespoons per gallon, resulting in a much higher rate of use and making it necessary to repurchase the product far more frequently.

Many of the aquarium products are similar. Stress-Zyme is infamously pushed by the big chain stores as a result of corporate agreements about product promotion, employees are encouraged to sell it, it gets used in-store to promote the brand. It is a diluted dechlorination agent, a diluted dose of nitrifying bacteria and aloe... which is great for human skin that's been cut or burned but doesn't benefit aquarium fish in the least, and wouldn't do much even if it was beneficial after it's been diluted into the tank in the recommended concentrations... it just looks nice and thick and oozy and slightly green tinted. Green plant goo is healthy, you know.

The bigger bottles with the labels that list lots of ingredients (ions! hilarious!) are effective. They're just not the most effective or the most economical choices for the primary function- dechlorination.

 

[UnicornSpirit]

On a side note, used internally, aloe is a laxative!

 

[Designer Geckos]

I think tap water is fine, but we do an annual analysis (Yes I am anal!) of our tap water where we are in Colorado, which has very good water quality, and it is somewhat disconcerting to see what is in it, albeit in very miniscule amounts.

You can buy bottled water so cheaply that personally I just think it is the way to go. I don't drink tap water, so why should my geckos?

Does it really matter that our tap water contains pesticide traces of decachlorobiphenyl or tetrachloro-m-xylene? Likely not since it is in extremely small amounts, however.......guess you get my drift.

The downside to using bottled spring water is that it "doesn't" have any chlorine! That requires a lot more work on our part because the water dishes will build up a biofilm much more quickly than if we used tap water.
So, we change out dishes daily, which is very time consuming and labor intensive when you are doing hundreds of geckos!

 

[Rosalie Spot]

I've used tap water with all my geckos, and they never got sick from it. As long as you clean the dish out every day or every other day, it should be fine.

 

[geckogirl3]

2nd best water in the usa, colorado barely beats our water in louisiana
Tap taste like bottled for me

 

[fl_orchidslave]

As Ray pointed out, the water you drink should be fine for your geckos. Bottled water isn't very costly and a good alternative. Our well water isn't very good, I don't drink it, nor do my geckos. I use the same bottled water to wet incubation material.