Tap water?
- Thread starter cla2806
- Start date
Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
Are you on municipal (city) treated water? If you can drink it so can your cham technically. The exceptions would be if your local water utility adds chlorine/chloramines or fluoride. I would not use the tap water straight if these chemicals are added, but you can get rid of them. First find out what is in your water by calling your municipality or asking them to test the water. Chlorine can be removed by letting the tap water sit in an open bucket overnight (the chlorine will outgas and dissipate). Chloramine won't do this so you'd need to remove it with something like ReptiSafe or a water additive for fish aquariums that inactivates the chemical. There may be some "natural" things in your local water that will cause residue buildups on your cage, leaves, or clog mister nozzles such as calcium, iron, etc. They are more of a nuisance than a hazard.
cigdoll
New Member
Tap water can be bad for your mist system(if you have one) due to calcium and lime build up, but I'm not certain if its okay or safe for your cham to drink. To make 101% for the sake of your cham's health I would recommend some water conditioner for any water your cham may drink, I'm currently using Retisafe water conditioner for both my dripper and mist system. Anybody might know if tap water is healthy for your cham to drink?
Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
What you really want to find out is whether the water is treated with chlorine, chloramine (these kill microorganisms) or is fluoridated. This should be pretty easy to get to because the water utility has to monitor it.
Boiling will kill microorganisms (but so does the chlorine anyway) and will vaporize the chlorine, but I don't think it will do anything else chemically. It will be a hassle to do. Probably the easiest thing to do once you find out whether you have any of the chemical additives listed above is to filter them out with a Brita, Pur, or some other filter that targets the stuff you want to remove. There are different filters for different needs.
Calypso
Member
All city water is treated, and thus comes to your house with all kinds of good stuff like chlorine and other hard minerals. You can get a neutral pH by sitting the water out for 24 hours, but then you will still have to worry about reservoir build up and cleaning problems. At about 88 cents a gallon, distilled water is definitely worth the change.
