misting deposits

[Mrs Linda Street]

I wonder if there is anyone else out there who finds the same problem regarding lime deposits when regularly misting their T's. We found tap water and boiled water ruined plastic tanks making them virtually impossible to clean without causing excessive scratches. Vinegar helped on glass but we were recommended de-ionised water, the sort that's bought from car accesssory shops, and having used that over the last 4 months find the problem has all but dissappeared. I believe that we are in hard water area. Has anyone tried rain water? we have had enough of it coming down recently.

[Phil Rea]

I use pre boiled water for the spiders. Where I am is a soft water area though, but it did get rid of some of the marks.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Phil, the water marks do ruin glass tanks over a long period, but the plastic tanks are ruined. Also our water from the tap a lot of the time has a strong taste of chlorine/flouride? and we wonder what the water must taste like to the T's, as those are two items they won't come across in their habitat! so is it better to give them boiled water instead?

[James Box]

not sure about the flouride, but i've been told chlorine breaks down pretty fast, so i'd not worry too much about that.
i've been fortunate so far i guess, the water here hasn't done much damage.

[Phil Rea]

I wouldn't think that the chlorine/chloramine in the supply would be harmful, but try and pre-boil, it may well help

[Chris Sainsbury]

Hi
Get a water filter. It does help when it comes to lime scale.
Cheers
Chris

[Peter Lacey]

I've kept tropical fish for over 25 years and there's always been liquids available to remove the majority of these chemicals however most can simply be removed by airing the water overnight.
Boiling the water only removes a small amount of the limescale. You'd need to reboil several times to take enough limescale out to make a difference. Easy to test that - try some boiled water that's cooled on glass and see what happens. Personally I prefer to pour water into enclosures (into water bowls, over web and sphagnum moss) rather than spray them. However, I've just made my first purchase of distilled water so I'm keen to see the results.

[KJ Vezino]

I didn't think that boiling water would remove limescale (and calcium). It's not something that would normally evaporate form water (that's why it leavs the spots). So boiling the water just condenses the limescale and makes it worse, right?

I agree the solution is to use filtered water, that's what I use, or buy treated bottled water. I don't mist, I just overflow the waterdish and I found that helped the glass, but before I switched to filtered I'd still get a white buildup on the top of the substrate from the deposits.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi KJ some good observations. The only problem I have with overflowing the water dish is it makes a haven for mites in and around the water. We have now settled on using de-ionised from the, how do you say it over there, 'the autostore'. Regards

[Rich.Harrington]

If your in a generally wet area then go for rain water all the time. Up in n.ireland we get plenty of it, so I just have a 300 gallon drum out the back under a down pipe. I tend to use it for misting, water bowls, and all the plants.

You can be sure it's chemical free compared to tap water, so no residues or concerns about chlorine etc. Just zap it for a minute in the microwave, allow to cool and you have a chemical/bug free water source for free. Handy when you start using "living" enclosures for anything upwards of 20 T's.

[KJ Vezino]

Hi KJ some good observations. The only problem I have with overflowing the water dish is it makes a haven for mites in and around the water. We have now settled on using de-ionised from the, how do you say it over there, 'the autostore'. Regards

I overflow the waterdish so that approximately 1/4 of the substrate gets wet. It doesn't get overly swampy because part of the enclosure is still dry. Then I let that water dry out completely before I overflow the dish again. I've never had a problem with mites or other pests.

Over here we buy our deionized, distilled, or purified water at the grocery store. I suppose auto parts stores might carry it though.

I've heard that deionized water isn't good for drinking, so maybe you don't want to use that if your Ts are drinking it. Basically deionized water has all the ions (usually salts and minerals) stripped out leaving it unbalanced. Water wants to be balanced and will aggressively take ions back from wherever it can. When we drink it, it basicaaly robs our bodies of those salts and minerals. I've read that if you drink enough it can cause bleeding of the stomach and ozmotic shock. Can't verify that though. Just something to think about though. Distilled water isn't as bad as that though.