Chloramine in tap water

[Sherbet]

The water department has just begun adding chloramine in place of chlorine in our tap water. What is the danger to my snake? Does anyone have any information on chloramine and snakes?

[leia]

No idea, chlorine isn't good to have either.

You can always get a water filter, like Brita, or buy bottled spring water. Personally, I use the brita.

[Sparda]

The same thing happened here this summer. At first I bought the bottled spring water, then I just kept a couple of the jugs, and started "making" my own water. You can go to a pet store in the fish section and buy a bottle of Insto Chlor, ($3) it removes the chlorine and chloramine from the water. You just add 2 drops per gallon, and shake it up. I have been using this for a couple of months and it works great.
Just make sure you read the bottle, because some the stuff adds slime to the water for the fish, and you don't want that.
Good Luck!!!

[leia]

Yeah I had some stuff like that for my betta, I used the same bottle of filtered water but wanted to be extra safe because he actually lived in the water rather than just an occasional visit.
The stuff I had like that stunk pretty badly, and the squirty lid got clogged, so I stopped using it.

Another thing is, I think if you just let tap water stand, the chlorine will evaporate out, I'm not sure about that other stuff though. For our turtles at home, my sister just lets the water stand for a week or two, but I think for our big fishtank my dad adds a chemical and lets it stand.

[5bandit5]

Originally posted by Sherbet
The water department has just begun adding chloramine in place of chlorine in our tap water. What is the danger to my snake? Does anyone have any information on chloramine and snakes?

This is an excellent question. I know that "letting chlorine" sit, dissipates it, any chemist out there, is it the same for chloramine?

[ronlina]

Originally posted by leia
Another thing is, I think if you just let tap water stand, the chlorine will evaporate out, I'm not sure about that other stuff though. For our turtles at home, my sister just lets the water stand for a week or two, but I think for our big fishtank my dad adds a chemical and lets it stand.

Ehh.. tapwater isn't very good for snakes in general - If it's left sitting out, the water is more likely to evaporate with the chlorine, leaving the same amount of chlorine ratios in there. Best to just use spring or buy a filter, I suppose.

[MegF.]

I don't even let my dogs drink the water out of the tap. I have a triple osmosis system at my house and the water is 99% pure that way. Otherwise, I'd use bottled water.

[cornkid]

hi

I have kept fish for about 20 years and have found that if you let water sit for about 1 day 60% of the chlorine will come out... if you let it sit for 2 days almost all of the chlorine will come out. When I change water on the tank, I let it stand for 2 days and aerate it with a small bubbler and it is absolutely fine, there is no chlorine and it is also warmed up which is good....

Just my 2cents...

[EtherRex]

Hahaha,
'Pure' water? That's a giggle.

I use bottled spring water.

[Skye]

I could be wrong here, but I though I had heard that the new methods of putting chlorine into the water these days meant that it wasn't in a form where it could evaporate. Does anyone have any current information on this?

SKye

[MegF.]

Haven't the faintest idea Skye. All I can tell you is that when I had the water out of my faucet tested, it came out to more than 400 ppm of who knows what. Not just chlorine. My reverse osmosis system tested as 99% pure by contrast. The guy that tested the water took some of the city water with him to try to find out what was in it, as even his pufication system showed chemicals or something still in there.

[Magic Kiwi]

We have that in our tap water here in Calgary. Doesn't seem to have caused our snakes any ill effects. However their teeth are very white and strong! (j/k)

[Acradon]

Right guys, take it from a chemist.

Chloramine is definitly not a good thing. Amines in general are quite nasty things. And any stuff that supposingly remove it from the water is not getting rid of it. It may change it into another molecule but that does'nt neccesarily make it better.
The BRITA could be an option to remove it.
Luckily I'm living in an area where nothing is added to the water,....but then again I have copper pipes....!!?

Personaly I do use the BRITA to purify the water from metal contaminants and limestone.

If my water would be treated with anything harsh, such as chloramine I would certainly go over to still mineral water for my snakes.

Hope I could help.

Acradon

[Acradon]

Hey just found that:

http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/CH/chloramine.html

Have a read and decide for yourself.

Acradon

[Skye]

thanks for the link.

I use Brita filters too. I'd like a whole house filtration system but it costs too much,

Skye

[REG]

Hello, I do agree with cornkid. Living in South Florida you have to continuely add chlorine to your swimming pool because of evaporation of the chemical. So what I do is fill up containers of water from my tap that is purified through a filter cartridge and still let it set for a couple of days with the lid open, before using it for my corns and other critters. I believe Chloromine is chemically very similar to chlorine, but more stable. Hence in my spa, they recomend to use bromine instead of chlorine. The main reason is because when you heat the water to 100-104 F. the bromine is less likely to have the high and low spikes. But it still evaporates and thus I have an inline feeder, that when the spa cycles itself or in use it is constantly feeds an adjustable amount of bromine. I hopes this helps a little. REG

[moonshadow]

umm, no chloramine does NOT evaporate, so you can't leave water out for a day or to to evaporate it like you can with chlorine treated water. The question that I have (and everyone else it seems) is whether or not the presence of chloramine in our snakes drinking water will greatly affect their health. When I think about it, I drink the tap water, and my dog drinks the tap water, but I treat the water before I add it to my fishtank. As far as the snake is concerned I haven't a clue how bad it would be. Also, I can't use the same product that I use for my fishtank to treat my snakes water because it contains lots of other chemicals as well. I used to use a brita, and even though I always cleaned it out and changed the filters when I should, the bottom always felt slimy, like there was bacteria growing in there, and I figured there must be bacteria living in the filters when it got close to the time to change them... so which is worse, chemicals or bacteria?

[tyretosmom]

If i leave my water sitting out it gets gross. Things start to float in it. But then again I do live in So. cal. and I think they have some of the worse water. Not to mention I live on camp pendleton and every three months they fush the pipes and the water turns brown "but its okay to drink" according to the goverment.

needless to say I have one of those water towers in my house.

Jaimee

[Skye]

yuk!!!

another reason not to move to So CA I guess.

Skye

[Acradon]

Well as far as i'm concerned I make up fresh water every day with the Brita. I just drink a lot. So I don't really get the bacteria making up a slimy ground. Of course there might be a coouple of bacteria in the water. But hey why not. It's good for the immune system to keep it working a bit. Otherwise you start getting allergies and all that sh**.

While chloramine (as shown in the MSDS sheet I linked earlier) can act as a mutagen. Means in can mutate cell DNA. In other words it can cause cancer and other nasty things like infertility and so on...

I rather go for the bacteria.

Acradon

P.S.: I really don't know whats going on in the states. On the one hand the government bans medication, pestizides and food supplements cause of a suspected threat to human health on the other side it uses chemicals that should only be used short term wise as EMERGENCY DESINFECTANTS as an everyday water additive. But I suppose the hippocracy is all over the world.

[REG]

Stability
"Unstable. Solvent-free material decomposes violently. Light, air and heat sensitive. Reacts with oxidizing agents." Moonshadow if it does not evaporate what does this mean? REG

[moonshadow]

Hi REG. To be honest I don't know exactly what that means, but it sounds like its very reactive. But then again pure sodium will explode when exposed to air and we add sodium chloride to our food on a daily basis. And being highly reactive is different from having a low boiling point. The only reason I am sure that chloramine does not evaporate is because when the city of San Francisco started adding chloramine instead of chlorine to our tap water they sent out tons of flyers with a special warning to all fish, amphibian and reptile keepers saying that we would have to treat our water because chloramine does not evaporate like chlorine does. Anyway, I would have liked them to provide a little more info than that but at least they warned us before they switched.

[Acradon]

instable doesn't mean it evaporates. It can break down into different compounds. But these are stil present then. here are some links to chlormaine treated water:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_chlorine.htm

this one is contradictory and to be read with care:

http://sfwater.org/main.cfm/MC_ID/7/MSC_ID/67

http://www.wqa.org/sitelogic.cfm?ID=348

http://pubgis.co.pinellas.fl.us/pcuweb_live/chloramines02.cfm

I've posted this one before:

http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/CH/chloramine.html

Watch out for the toxicology
CAN ACT AS MUTAGEN!!!

I don't know but the way the councils present the stuff there has never been anythingbetter and safer. Me as a chemist i'm supicious.

Acradon

[REG]

Hey guys, Because of all the info everybody supplied I will be more careful in my water usage. I do have to say, reading some of those links, was like reading an attorneys contract. Half the time I did not know what I was reading. Hence the crossed eye's. Thanks REG

[tyretosmom]

Oh My Gosh!!!! I never even though about all of that chemical stuff! I can't believe iI could be drinking ammonia. I also read that it can be used for emergancy water disinfectant. So then why are they using it as the primary sorce?

Also I wonder what they have in the water I drink from my water company. (the tower kind that sits in my kitchen) or even just bottled water. I watched a show on Showtime with (i think) penn and teller. Its called Bulls**t. And they did a show on the Bottled water companies showing they get there water from the tap. I am sure they ran it through a perifier or something but can you ever really get out the chemicals in the water? If you can im going to have to make sure that i only use bottled water for everything.
I just can't stop thinking about what my water could be doing to my kids! They dont drink it but I cook with it.

All these chemicals in our food and water are making me want to move to a farm and grow my own stuff!

jaimee

[MegF.]

As I wrote before, my triple osmosis unit under the sink cleans out 99% of the contaminants in the water. I had it tested. I had some bottled water tested, and it came out to 100ppm. The only water that tastes really pure to me is Sparkletts, and Dasani. It's amazing how bad water from the tap tastes when you're used to pure stuff. I only give purified water to my snake, my dogs/cat, and myself.

[Acradon]

Yeah the difference in taste is amazing.

I think that tyretosmom had a valid point why use the amine as a primary source?

Anyhow: my snakes wouldn't get that stuff. But I'm lucky. The only stuf thats in my water is limescale. Our Area doen't treat the water at all. *relief*

Acradon

[Just A Beginner]

I thought it was so funny when Dasani turned out to be Sidcup tapwater put through a little extra filtration! Truth is, the general public dont seem to be too bothered on the whole by whats added to their mains water. If either of the words "Pure" and "Safe" are used (which can be used in misleading contexts), people dont seem to care.