Chlorine

Anybody happen to know how sensitive caudates are to chlorine?

I wonder this because I was just reading an article in the magazine Reptile Hobbyist ("Acclimate Your Adult Tiger Salamander to Life in Captivity" by Ellen Chernoff) in which the author mentions keeping moss clean by washing it in dechlorinated water weekly. When I do water changes, I tend to add dechlorinator to the water as its being hosed into the tank, and sometimes a minute or two after. Also, when I wash items, including moss, I use chlorinated tap water. I know people who never bother to dechlorinate water for their caudates and say they have never experienced any problems. I take this with a big grain of salt, but I still wonder about the degree of the sensitivity to the chemical and how careful I should be. Better safe than sorry, sure, but where do I draw the line?

(Message edited by TJ on August 17, 2004)

Tim,
At work on systems that have an efficient canister filter I do not dechlorinate as the carbon will rapidly strip it from the water.
For terrestrial animals I am not totally convinced that there is a risk in situation such as in that article.
I am concerned that there may be some risk in aquatic caudates that respire through their gills (to quote amphibian medicine and husbandry page 41 "Although most adult amphibians are tolerant of fairly high levels of chlorine, eggs and larva may be extremely sensitive." Which parallels my experience). I would not normally suggest the use of chlorinated tap water as the chlorine may be irritating to the skin of the amphibian provoding additional stress. The addition of the dechlorinator as you indicate should be fine as the rapid movement of the water will aid in the dechlorinating process.
For sensitive animals at work I used water that is kept is 55 gallon rubbermaid buckets which is allowed to adjust to the temperature and outgas any excessive dissolved gasses.

Ed

i have had serious problems with tap water just lately as i have moved to a hard water area i have had my newts very ill and have lost a few i would leave the water to stand for at least 24 hrs if not 48 hrs otherwise in the long run you will get alot of ill newts at the moment im using decholrinator as well as an air stone to get rid of heavy metals and other toxins in the water i leave for 48 hrs at least just to be safe my newts are alot better cheers justin

It is not possible to definitively answer this question because water treatment authorities vary the amount (and possibly chemical composition) of chlorine they add to water supplies. If coliform contamination is suspected, they may chlorinate heavily for a few days to eliminate harmful organisms. Although this is regulated by legislation in most countries, in the event of worries, water companies tend to act first and answer questions later. The fact is that with any municipal water supply, when you turn the tap on, you can never be entirely sure what is going to come out!

That said, I use tapwater in my area for fish and adult newts, and also small percentage waterchanges for eggs/larvae, without treatment and I have never had any problems. Our water supply is quite good, but sooner or later there *will* be a problem.

Justin - do you think your problems were from chlorine or from hard water? Or maybe just from the move and setting up new tanks? If your water supply uses chloramine (an alternative to plain old chlorine used by many water suppliers) then letting it sit for 2 days will NOT get rid of the chlorine. It's good that you are using the dechlorinator.

One year ago, I moved from a soft water area to a place with VERY hard water. All my Notophthalmus died in the first 9 months, but all my other species have done very well.

hi jennifer i think it is a bit of all those things i got a daily account of what the water company puts in it but as alan said it does vary .so i took the read out too a few shops they could,nt believe the levels of nitrates ,heavy metals ,and chlorine they said no wonder your newts are doing strange things . then i spoke to a another expert a he said it may be due to my house being brand new build and that the copper pipes are the cause but i don,t no ,the newts are alot better do you think a water softener will help cheers justin
p.s most of the workmen will not drink the water because it tastes foul,i agreed it is horrible

Don't use a water softener - this just dumps loads of sodium ions into the water (bad). Either collect rainwater or buy an RO unit.

Also, I'm not sure if it has happened already, but I've heard plans of switching to chloramines, which do not dissipate naturally. You need water conditioner to remove those. Since I keep mainly fish(duh?) I dechlorinate the water and the newts also use water from the same bucket.

For the outdoor pond we don't bother with dechlorinator, but that is probably due to the large volume of water and the small amount of chlorine entering. Running the hose overnight on accident killed 2 of the 3 goldfish. Oddly enough, the 2 white ones died, the orange one was the one that survived-praps the genes or more pigment made it more tolerant? The pond is estimated 1800 gallons.

I agree with Alan - a water softener is not a good idea. An RO unit would be nice, but probably isn't necessary. I would not worry about the hardness, but I would worry about metals and chlorine/chloramine. As added assurance against the metals, use filter carbon.

hi all i already have an ro unit that a friend gave to me but i have,nt installed it yet as i was told it takes all the goodness out of the water ie minerals , i do collect rain water but no were near enough to do all my tanks what is filter carbon i do use a declorinator as well but could any tell me the best one in the uk as you can,t tell how affective they are cheers justin

Activated filter carbon absorbs metals, chlorine compounds, etc. You can get it in any pet store:
http://petsolutions.com/product.asp?pn=47490137

You can't use pure RO water. You either have to mix it with treated tap water, or use a mineral solution (sold in pet shops) to add back the trace elements.