Water safe to drink?

[Viv]

Looking at the water quality report for my area and I can't see anything that could harm my chams. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for?

Chlorine is extremely low (<1mg/litre) and Calcium is actually fairly high, which I would think would benefit my cham as opposed to distilled water which has little to no nutrients in it.

 

[johncjb]

The problem is the mineral build up in your dripper, mister, etc... Since distilled water has far less minerals than tap water, mineral build up is highly reduced.

 

[Lathis]

A high calcium and magnesium content will tell you that mineral build up will indeed be an issue for you. This means that you may have to clean your mister nozzles more often.

Free chlorine content and/or chloramine content is good to know. You do have a low content, but be aware that certain times of the year, especially spring, they may do shock treatments (short term higher doses) to combat algae growth.

Another category to look out for is heavy metals. These can accumulate within the body and be slow to flush or never flush out (like lead, which binds to the bones). Heavy metals to look for include lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium. Also, look for fluoride - some places fluoridate the water. The US EPA has set limits on allowable contaminate content for hundreds of items (not sure what the UK limits would be, but they are probably even stricter):

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/index.cfm#llink

In my opinion, it's not any one thing that by itself is necessarily a concern (unless you have levels outside EPA regulations). It's the combination of things. If you are in the upper range for several contaminants plus high mineral content plus fluoride plus high chlorine, for example, it may be time to consider distilled water or looking into an RO system. I don't know that anyone has done any definitive studies on water quality and chameleon health, and I know that many (if not most) keepers do use tap water. It's a judgement call that you will have to make.

If you want to post a link to the water quality report, we might be able to help you decipher the info.

 

[Viv]

A high calcium and magnesium content will tell you that mineral build up will indeed be an issue for you. This means that you may have to clean your mister nozzles more often.

Free chlorine content and/or chloramine content is good to know. You do have a low content, but be aware that certain times of the year, especially spring, they may do shock treatments (short term higher doses) to combat algae growth.

Another category to look out for is heavy metals. These can accumulate within the body and be slow to flush or never flush out (like lead, which binds to the bones). Heavy metals to look for include lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium. Also, look for fluoride - some places fluoridate the water. The US EPA has set limits on allowable contaminate content for hundreds of items (not sure what the UK limits would be, but they are probably even stricter):

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/index.cfm#llink

In my opinion, it's not any one thing that by itself is necessarily a concern (unless you have levels outside EPA regulations). It's the combination of things. If you are in the upper range for several contaminants plus high mineral content plus fluoride plus high chlorine, for example, it may be time to consider distilled water or looking into an RO system. I don't know that anyone has done any definitive studies on water quality and chameleon health, and I know that many (if not most) keepers do use tap water. It's a judgement call that you will have to make.

If you want to post a link to the water quality report, we might be able to help you decipher the info.

I can't find a way to link directly to it, but if you go to this site - http://waterquality.anglianwater.com/map.aspx , type my postcode in the search box (NR3 1PE) and then clink the link for a full water report to the right of the map it will bring it up in a seperate window.

Would really appreciate it