General Care Discussion :: Using town water for the first time, need help.

[jpres]

I just moved into an area of town that uses town water. It's loaded with chlorine and what every else they put in town water. I went to my local pet shop to buy some reptisafe to treat the water but they don't carry it. So instead I purchased Sera aquatan does anyone know if this is safe for use with res. Thanks

[geekyturtle]

Sounds ok, but get a water test kit, and since this is a new area if you're really concerned, send some water to a lab for real testing. I think either petco or petsmart does some water testing for free, but I'm not sure what they actually test.

From what others have said on the board, turtles are more tolerant of not-perfect water than fish, so you could also get some fish and see how they tolerate it, kind of as guinea pigs.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Okay, fish will die with regular chlorinated water, so don't buy them as guinea pigs. ANY dechlorinator will make your water fine. I've been using city water with my turtle for his whole life with just a basic dechlorinator, then I found ReptiSafe, which is a dechlorinator with a little bit of extra stuff. And I've been drinking and using city water for myself and pets for my whole life, 26 years, no one has died under my care.

If you are really worried, you can add the dechlorinator and let the water sit for 24 hours. That will remove any additional chlorine and the dechlorinator will remove the chloramines and that's all you really have to do.

[jpres]

Thanks, I'll add it tonight and put them in tommorrow night. I think I'm gonna do a water test also just because the water smells so funny to me. I'm use to well water and now it smells like chemicals to me.

[steve]

Just to be clear, I think TheComputerGremlin means that any aquarium dechlorinator is fine. I only mention it because I've seen them for other uses.

[Bascomb]

Chlorinated water is not bad for your turtle if it is just normal city water. What you have to consider is that it will harm the bacteria that are good for the bacteriological process that is critical for clean water. You need to get is it de-chlorinated before you get started as you know. Good Luck -- b.

[untsmurf]

Isn't it true that you can let the water stand for 24 hours and the chlorine will evaporate?

[steve]

Yes, it's true. However, chloramines don't evaporate and will need a water conditioner to neutralize it.

[jpres]

Great info, thank you all.

[TheComputerGremlin]

jpres - Yeah, city water smells like chemicals. Wait until they put in a new tablet of chlorine, it happens here every 6 months or so, for about two weeks, it's like chlorine overload. We have to let our drinking water set for those weeks and I have trouble showering because it burns my eyes. I never noticed it in my last city, but I definitely notice it here.

On a side note, if you buy one of those Pur or Brita filters for your faucet, it will remove a lot of the smell. I don't recommend getting turtle water out of there, you'll got through the filters pretty fast, but for drinking, my husband prefers it, he grew up on well water too. I like city water, call me weird!

And I did mean any aquarium dechlorinator, from the fishy section!

[samson]

hi jpres,
i was wondering the same thing.
i bought tetra pond aquasafe (10 mil for 200 liters of water.) guy in the shop say's it's fine for tanks.
what do other members think of this as it is for ponds and not tanks ?
WILL IT BE SAFE ?

[Fuzzy Hamster]

The difference is marketing (aka branding), container size (along with price) and location (i.e. which stores sell which label).

Regardless of which brand/type you get, ignore all the sales hype. The important function for turtle tanks (as Steve said) is that it neutralizes chloramines and heavy metals.