Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

I think that the water at my parent's place is softened. Does that mean that I can't use it for darts?

Thanks,

Ken

If I remember right NO it is not good for the frogs or the plants. Someone correct me if I am wrong please.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

I believe it's softened with salt.

Soft water or black water is good for tropical plants and fish from the Amazon basin or east Africa. Soft water occurs naturally as the water makes it way through the ground to the bogs which it is found in nature. Softer water can appear to be yellow or tea colored. Use peat or drift wood to soften water. Hard water which is more alkaline is used for fish from the two rift lakes Tanganyika and Malawi. Treating water with crushed coral or banking soda will cause it to harden up.

The pH for the Amazon is typically 5.5 – 6.5. 7.0 is neutral. The other extreme is Lake Tanganyika where the pH approaches 9.0

All that fish talk aside, for frogs I pretty sure softer water would be more preferable.

-Richard
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1.1.4 D. auratus

sodium is added to soften water. Depending on how hard the water was to begin with the more sodium is used. If you water was very hard, I would use R/O or distilled water. If the water is only being soften slightly, it shouldn't matter.

Sorry about that.
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1.1.4 D. auratus

I am pretty sure soft water and black water are not the same thing. Black water reffers to water containing a large quantity of tannins. While soft water generally describes water originating from a often igneous non-soluble bedrock like granite, which doesn't contain large quantities of dissolved calcium or lime. I can think of several areas that have black water originating on limestone, meaning the water is both black and hard.

Yes, you are 100% correct.

My thought process originally lead me to believe he was referring to soft water as in black water in the aquarium/terrarium environment. Often people do this and it was my mistake. My second post addressed the actual issue. “Softened” water is hard water with its minerals removed, it put it most simple. IMO, the more softener which is used the worse it is for the plants. The more negatively charged ions remain (sodium) and using resin can bring the water back. I say find out how hard the water was to begin with to see how much of a difference there really is.

Richard
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1.1.4 D. auratus

im not positive about darts, but when i moved across town and started using softened water, half my fish died, and so did one of my dwarf frogs. dunno if this helps, but i hope so.
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*Victoria*

Softened water from your tap is different from naturaly soft water. To soften tap water it is passed across an ion exchange resion where hard water ions like calcium are exchanged for a more soluble ion, I belive sodium. What you end up with is water that will not leave the mineral deposites associated calcium and lime in hardwater, but you have water containing various highly soluble salts. This will probably kill any frog expossed to it.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, one of my tanks was set up with moss wetted with softened water. Fortunately, no frogs have been put in yet. I'll just flush it several times with spring water I supose.

Thanks again for the informative discussion!

Ken

A water softener simply takes calcium and magnesium out of the water. To do this it uses a brine that is made up of tap water and sodium. Salt is actually Sodium Chloride not Sodium. So it does not add salt to the water. With that said I would not use tap water or softened water on my frogs. We use only distilled water in our tanks. The number one reason for this is that the minerals in the water leave a film on the moss that keeps light from penetrating and therefore the moss dies. Distilled water has fewer impurities so we don’t have that problem. We do use aged tap water with a tadpole tea (similar to black water but we make it ourselves) and stress coat for our tadpoles and have great success with it.

I would NEVER use reverse osmosis water with any of my animals. I not only sold water softeners before but I also have extensive sales background with appliances and filtration systems. Did you know if you hook up a reverse osmosis system to a refrigerator’s icemaker you void the refrigerator’s manufacturer’s warranty? The water tries to equalize itself and pulls minerals from the piping in the fridge causing corrosion. If it does that to metal and plastics what is it doing to your frog? I have heard people added minerals back into the R.O. water before using it on the frogs with some success. However I would never recommend it.

Hope this helps,

Sarah
Quality Captives