Equipment Review and Discussion :: water conditioner...is it necesary?

[compas]

hi, i currently use packaged drinking water for my aquarium
(brand : aqua, company: danone)

do i need to use water conditioner? what is the use of water conditioner?

how to test water hardeness anyway? is there any particular kit or something?


will hard water affect turtle's health?

[Vtolds]

You dont need to use water conditioner, if you have chlorine in your water you would want too use a dechlorinator. Hard water usually only affects the shell and it can leave a white residue on it which can easily be removed by White Vinegar and a Q-tip.

[compas]

oh...i see...thank you for the answer hehehe

i think i worry too much

[Tenodera]

Wow! You buy commercial drinking water for your turtle? If you use that kind of water you don't need dechlorinator/water conditioner.

But when you upgrade your turtle's tank bigger, you'll need to buy dechlorinator to fill/refill the gallons of water you'e gonna use in the turtle's tank.

Unless you're going to go buy 90 gallons of commerical drinking water.

[TheComputerGremlin]

I believe there are tests to determine hardness/softness of water. Hard water just means there are lots of dissolved minerals in the water (so, even if you start off with the softest water, just putting your turtle in it will slowly make it harder from his waste). You can tell how hard your water is by seeing if there are iron deposits around your bathtub drain, crusty calcium and lime deposits around your shower head, and if your laundry doesn't always look wonderful or your dishes have spots on them. But as long as you can drink your tap water, it's fine for your turtle. Eventually commercial water will get too expensive!

[compas]

i do use commercial drinking water and i use it for my new upgraded tank can you imagine me doing it?

maybe i'm just too paranoid

but from the answer above, it is possible that tap water in my place is hard water

maybe a strong one because i often see iron deposits, crusty calcium and lime deposits all over my bathroom...no matter how i clean it, it appears again less than 3 days

that's why we avoid drinking tap water here...we always drink commercial drinking water

then if i want to use tap water here, i might need conditioner, declorinator, and and other stuff??

will it really work to soften the water?

[marisa]

Tap water should be fine to use. If it's treated with chlorine or chloramine, use a dechlorinator.

I have well water that's been put through a water softener. I've been using it in my turtle's tanks and have had no problems.

[Cramer]

I'm a believer in the benefits of mineral heavy water-too a point. I've seen fish lose color, then scales and eventually life because of the mineral depleted water they were getting (mainly bottled and distilled).
Turtles are hardy and do get minerals from commercial pellets and veggies, but it's something I keep in mind none the less.

I use RO water and softened well water, so I only use conditioner in my koi pond.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Yeah, you may want to look into a water conditioning system, I mean, if you are going to spend the money for commercial drinking water, you might as well spend it on a system that would benefit you in the long run anyways. I don't know what's available in your country, though.

[Vtolds]

Distilled water is bad for fish so it is probably bad for a Turtle, Drinking water is probably fine. You could probably fill the tank with tap water and if gets bad, when you clean it you can replace it with bottled water.

[compas]

now i'm confused

from the aquarium forum in which i joined, they said drinking water is fine for aquatic animals...

my vet said, it's ok to use commercial drinking water and i don't have to change it too soon...

in here, i was told that distilled water is bad for aquatic animals, so i was recomended to use water conditioner for tap water...

(i'm not sure that commercial drinking water that i use is distilled water, because my tetras seem doing fine up to now. they have bright colour and perfect health...but, who knows )

so, here is my own solution : i'll just try to use tap water with water conditoner only for my fishes for a period of time and we'll see what happen...
if the fishes just doing fine, then i'll use it for my turtle

thank you for your respons guys...thank you very much

[marisa]

Fish are more sensitive than turtles to variations in the water. If you use regular tap water with a dechlorinator (if the water is from a public source and has been treated), they should be fine.

[Cramer]

It sounds like you got the answer you wanted (I hope) but I'll add to the discussion that I've been doing some research on the 'protective coating' in aquarium water conditioners to find out how much use they serve non-scaled, non-gilled, aquatic animals.
I have some early theories, but until I get more information (right down to the chemistry) I'm using it now as a well-it-can't-hurt application while treating some plastron scrapes from the previous basking area.