General Care Discussion :: using well water

[GOSSIN]

my brother has a well at his yard. i have tested the water and the ph is 7 to 7.5 there is no ammonia or nitrates in the water.
the water does have a high level of limescale which i see in the kettle he use's. does anyone know if water with a high level of limescale could be harmfull to turtle's

[yankeefan]

I'm no expert but I believe that water would be perfectly fine to use for your turtle. I have well water also and my PH runs around 7.5 or so. I like to have the PH around 7.0 so I just treat it chemically.

As far as the limescale that you see in the kettle, that happens in every tea kettle/coffee pot that has well water boiled in it. There are natural minerals in groundwater and they solidify or build-up along the inside of of kettles or pots and pans if not washed regularly. That well water is probably much better to use than any kind of chemically treated "city water".

Just my .02

[GOSSIN]

when i was using tap water i was treating the water with aquasafe to get rid of chlorine and some of the metals that are found in tap water. would you still recomend using aquasafe in well water or do you think the natural minerals in well water would benifit the turtles

[Love of Animals]

Yankeefan, you shouldn't treat your ph chemically. The ph will swing up and down then. It's best to keep your ph where it is naturally and just let it stabilize. Fish, turtles ect. do much better with a stable ph. They will adjust to your normal ph.

[yankeefan]

GOSSIN-
I'm not familiar with AquaSafe. I've lived in the same home for nearly 20 years using well water and never treated my water with anything for aquariums I've had over the years. That is until just recently when I tried using a chemical PH reducer which doesn't seem to be working at all.

Tap water or "city water" as I call it does have chorine, which you know but the chlorine will evaporate after 24 hrs if simply left in a bucket or other container. I'm not sure if the minerals in well water would actually benefit a turtle but I'd tend to believe that quality drinking water straight out of the earth probably isn't going to hurt anything. Again, I'm certainly no expert but I think that good well water will suit you and your turtle just fine.

Love of Animals-
After using this PH reducer and having no luck I'm not impressed one bit. I reluctantly took the advice of the guy at the pet store after deciding to try and drop my PH level a bit. It's at around 7.5 - 7.6 and although I know that is okay for the turtle, I was hoping to drop the level a bit for the guppies in the tank. I hadn't considered the PH "swings", but I think you're right. I'm gonna do a little research and maybe try some peat moss in the filter to treat the PH. Or just let it be, that'll be the cheapest route.
Thank you for the suggestion to avoid the chemical stuff.