RO and distilled are fine to use in enclosures. Some of the old literature on the "Harmfulness" of RO/DI water was shown to be due to metal salts contaminating the distilled water in the original papers due to problems in the distilation process. There is a citation in the new issue of Leaf Litter to that effect.
To get around some of the water quality issues, a number of us take RO or distilled water and add RO right to it to restore the dissolved minerals and salts to the water. This is called reconstituted RO/DI water and is fine to use in the tank provided you are doing water changes. If you just continue to add water with minerals to the tank, you will eventually get salt buildups on the higher points in the tank as water is drawn up to evaporate.Hey Guys, I'm new to this, and am getting ready to get my first tank put together. I've been reading over some of these posts, and am kinda confused. My parents have a distiller, so distilled water would not be an issue to me, but could not afford to get a R.O. system or anything- I'm cheap. lol. But some posts say that distilled does not have any of the minerals the frogs need, so spring would be better, right? From what I understand, I will want to have Spring water resevoir, and Distilled to mist. Hope I'm on the right track.
I'm trying to go through the Beginner Threads, and learn as much as possible.
Any advice- whether replying, email, or IM would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!
There are actually studies out now that indicate that distilled/RO water is not a problem as was once thought. (For those who are interested I suggest the book Ecologican and Enviormental Physiology of Amphibians).
How often are the levels of total dissovled solids tested before replacing the ion absorbtion media?
could'nt say tbh, my work place doesn't make it we just sell it, the brand is carplan tho. i should imagine it goes through stringent quality control tho because any minerals in it would destroy battery cells, an make the product pointless. but i guess it would be better to test it than just assume.
It's because there is no consensus on a lot of the questions that are asked(or as often found on forums, people ride on anecdote). The fact is that we are trying to replicate an environment that is incredibly complex, and for animals that are in themselves complex.
I use deionized water for everything, including for my FF cultures.
This is a problem for new people. There is more than one right answer in the hobby. What works for some doesn't work for others. Most people on here report what works for their 5 or 10 frogs but something else may work for another persons 5 or 10 frogs. Sometimes it is easier to private message someone for a direct answer. Why? Because their way is often not "the gold standard" on the board. This is one of the problems with a public forum where any person can be an expert
Actually there are many discussions that are supported by documented facts and not based on anecdotal or dogmatic answers.... For example, this discussion on water, the dogma, and what the science actually says about it... http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/beginner-discussion/70300-water-discussion.html
They no longer use just chlorine. They use a chlorine compound called a chloramine which is chlorine bound to ammonia. This DOES not evaporate and you HAVE to use a chlorine/ chloramine remover to make tap water safe. frogs, fish, turtles go bye bye if you dont use the remover.
Actually the chlorine smell around a swimming pool is not due to free chlorine but chloramine so we can readily demonstrate that it actually does evaporate from solution particularly when the solution is aerated, it just takes much longer to evaporate than chlorine does by itself.
Right off the bat, I'm throwing the BS flag on turtles. That is a piece of dogma that has been passed around for a long time without any supporting documentation. In extreme levels, it can irritate the eyes of a chelonian, but you need significant levels well above that found in tapwater systems (like that of a public pool).
Ed you are a god on here. You just raped my seemingly good sense right out of my brain and shoved the real info in. And explained in one well written paragraph why the customers who come into the fish store I work at always have high ammonia despite using a commercial chlorine/chloramine remover before the cycle starts...I thought it was high ammonia content in tap water but alas! It could be high concentration as well as the remover product they used.
As a primary fish hobbyist, many of the chemicals you use to remove ammonia and other unwanted things in water will give you a false reading of ammonia. You many actually be around 0 ppm for ammonia but tests will give you a much higher reading. I personally have never used anything other than tap water, both well and city waters, with success in some areas and move 10 miles down the road and can't even keep guppies without major issues. Where I live now, I have a very high levels of phosphates which has turned keeping fish into a serious challenge. I still haven't been able to bring myself to buy a R/O system but one of these days I will. As stated before in a previous post, R/O with trace elements added are probably the best route.
