Dechlorinating substrate water

[ambertastic]

Should the water used to soak coco fiber be dechlorinated? For that matter should misting water be dechlorinated as well? To me it makes sense to dechlorinate them but the thought didn't occur until after I soaked the substrate, plus I don't remember reading anything about it in the past (but this is my first terrarium).

 

[Quack]

I do dechlorinate the water just to be safe. You need to dechlorinate the water for misting though.

 

[benw]

I only use rain water for my phibs, although many on here use bottled water.

Ben

 

[Jan]

I do dechlorinate/dechloraminate the tap water I use to reconstitute coco-fiber bricks. I change substrate every 6 weeks or so, thus I want to eliminate higher chlorine/chloramine exposure. This is not based on published science or anything I have read - I have not seen this addressed in written information either pro or con. Removing chlorine/chloramine is required for fish and aquatic sals/newts so, I prefer to err on the side of caution with terrestrial sals.

For misting and water bowls, I use Poland Spring water...because it is convenient and at hand. Distilled or r/o water should not be used with aquatic sals, so I wouldn't use it in water bowls either if your sals are prone to soaking in the water bowl.

I think all of the above could be debated - is it necessary or not? Until we have better science, I'll follow suit for what we know is required for fish and aquatic caudates.