General Care Discussion :: tap water

[myrtle1123]

I heard that tap water has chlorine in it and over time it eats away at the turtles shell. Boil it first then let it cool.

has anyone ever heard of that?

[octpusgirl8]

I've never heard about boiling it, or about the part about eating away the turtle's shell. I've only heard that clorinated water can irritate some turtle's eyes. I used to use water conditioner to remover chlorine and chloramines, but one day i ran out and used untreated water, and nothing bad happened, so i haven't used it since. I hope it's not eating away at Turtley's shell...

[SpotsMama]

I think a lot of people don't treat their water for chlorine or chloramines. In fact, I've heard it said that chlorine helps keep the water clean and healthy by killing bacteria, so it's a good thing.

I wonder if it also kills the good bacteria in a biofilter????

[grey goose]

Chlorine will definitely kill a lot of the good bacteria inside your filter. If you have to use tap water right away, use declorinator. I keep 4-5 1 gallon jugs under the tank with the caps off. After about 24 hours, the chlorine dissipates and you can use it without any treatment.

[octpusgirl8]

I've never had any problems with cloudy water so i'm assuming that my biological filtration is working properly. As long as my tank is clean and my turtle is healthy i'm a happy girl

[pumpkinsherbet]

i condition my water, save for 2 gallons. so that's 50 gallons conditioned, 2 gallons unconditioned water. it's mostly to ensure i don't overcondition the water. mine have had no problems.

[DavidY]

Chlorine is most often used in public water supplies. If you have well water then you don't have to worry about chlorine. Also, chlorine will dissipate from the water as it hits the air. Therefore, even if you add untreated chlorinated water, it will dissipate within 24 hours as Grey Goose mentioned. During that time it probably won't cause any noticeable damage to a turtle but chlorine is toxic and there's a lot of controversy as to its longterm effect on humans, so it could also be just as bad for turtles if it really is that dangerous. It's deadly for fish since they breath through their gills. The other form is chloramines which doesn't evaporate, but I'm not sure what toxicity there is if any with it. So it's probably no more dangerous to the turtle than it would be for us to bathe in it. But the water conditioner will remove the chloramine.

The chlorine will kill most of the bacteria in the water however, including the beneficial kind. You won't see a bloom since there wouldn't be any bacteria present to cause it. The best way to test that theory though is to test the tank water for ammonia before a water change and then for the next 3 or 4 days after the water change. If the beneficial bacteria are being killed by the chlorine, you will see a spike in the ammonia within a day or two after adding the chlorinated water. That would be interesting to see what the results were.

Grey Goose, I wouldn't think the chorine would evaporate that quickly from an open water jug since the opening is so small. When I lived in an apartment building with chlorinated water, I used to fill a couple of 5 gallon buckets with tap water and let them sit for a day or more before doing a water change.

[grey goose]

It's usually a couple-few days before I actually use the water. I just keep rotating out the fresh jugs for the older ones.......