# Tad water...



## Gumby (May 27, 2010)

I was just doing some searching and I came across this post...


gluedl said:


> Hi,
> 
> you use RO (reverse osmosis) water. The creation process of such water includes pressing it at high pressure through various membranes that only let pass small particules, as water but no salts or impurities (which makes it very pure but also very aggressive, it's not natural anymore and will try to "suck" everything up it can to regain initial state - makes it work nearly like an acid). The better the filter, the better RO with extremely low electroconductivity you can get. RO water can be mixed again with normal tap water to reduce aggressivity. I know there are people around here who praise RO water and that would explain why, they must have gotten the softer one.
> 
> ...


I use distilled water treated with blackwater extract 5ml of extract per gallon. I just need to know if I should switch to spring water instead. I am very concerned that the distilled water will harm my tads because I believe it has similar properties as RO water. So should I switch them into spring water treated with the extract or will I be okay keeping them in the distilled water...?

Thanks,
Chris


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

I do not have much experience with this personally, but I have researched quite a bit and even larger breeders use straight up RO water...


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## qiksilver5 (Jan 9, 2007)

Have you had any issues? If not you're fine.

Basically osmosis is water moving to try and put the levels of ions in solution into equilibrium. Google hypotonic and hypertonic and imagine it as your tadpole in solution.

The very purified waters can just cause imbalances in electrolytes across a membrane... in this case tadpole skin.

Again, if you've successfully raised tads with your method i wouldn't worry.


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## tclipse (Sep 19, 2009)

I personally use RO with a piece of almond leaf, as well as one leaf from the leaf litter of the parents' tank, preferably with just a little bit of dirt on it.. also a very small pinch of Turface (probably not needed, but if it ain't broke..). Then I throw in some salvinia and some duckweed and that's it. I don't do any water changes, just top-off with RO when the water level gets low.

This method has had a 100% healthy hatch rate with intermedius and Santa Isabel anthonyi for me, hope that helps.


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## D3monic (Feb 8, 2010)

If I won't drink it or let my kids drink it I won't put my tads in it. I use RO water with duckweed and a piece of almond leaf.


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## Gumby (May 27, 2010)

qiksilver5 said:


> Have you had any issues? If not you're fine.
> 
> Basically osmosis is water moving to try and put the levels of ions in solution into equilibrium. Google hypotonic and hypertonic and imagine it as your tadpole in solution.
> 
> ...


Ahh yes the hypertonic and hypotonic... I remember this from high school biology haha. I would not say I am having issues just yet, but I have yet to morph out a dart frog successfully. BTW I have been in the hobby only for a short time. I morphed out a vent tad with sls. I had a two month old tad grow, never morph and just die. He was a lone survivor from a clutch of 9 eggs though. This was also the first tad I got in the water from my Azureus pair so his death doesn't present much of an issue. I have only used distilled water with extract to raise the tads...(plus java moss, indian almond leaf, and tadpole bites) Now I have about 9 tads in the water and about 16 more coming soon. I don't want this to be an issue where all my tads die because the distilled water was the problem. Just trying to be proactive and avoid a mass tad die out. As of now there are 2 tads that have been in the water for about 2 weeks and they seem fine and are growing. Just want to know if distilled water raises any red flags.

-Thanks,
Chris


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The original theory behind the idea that RO/DI water could be an issue was due to a study on tiger salamander larva that showed the larva lost ions to the surrounding water as they osmoregulated. What that study didn't show (but later studies did show) was that the larva (and tadpoles) are able to actively scavenge those ions from the water. Basically this means that all it does is cost them some energy.. Now this ignores that fact that most people add things to thier tadpole water ranging from blackwater extract to assorted types of leaves to salt mixtures like RO right.. all of which results in ions ending up in solution which changes the osmotic potential of the water... (keep in mind that regular tap water is also hypotonic to the tadpoles..) and this is before we consider the addition of food items which are also going to lose soluble items into solution, the effects of biofilms etc.... So we are not really placing tadpoles into pure RO/DI water for very long if at all and if we are looking at hypotonic solutions.. we should consider that the same holds for reconstituted RO/DI or even tapwater..... 

Some comments,

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Gumby said:


> Ahh yes the hypertonic and hypotonic... I remember this from high school biology haha. I would not say I am having issues just yet, but I have yet to morph out a dart frog successfully. BTW I have been in the hobby only for a short time. I morphed out a vent tad with sls. I had a two month old tad grow, never morph and just die. He was a lone survivor from a clutch of 9 eggs though. This was also the first tad I got in the water from my Azureus pair so his death doesn't present much of an issue. I have only used distilled water with extract to raise the tads...(plus java moss, indian almond leaf, and tadpole bites) Now I have about 9 tads in the water and about 16 more coming soon. I don't want this to be an issue where all my tads die because the distilled water was the problem. Just trying to be proactive and avoid a mass tad die out. As of now there are 2 tads that have been in the water for about 2 weeks and they seem fine and are growing. Just want to know if distilled water raises any red flags.
> 
> -Thanks,
> Chris


If you are having problems with SLS then I would suggest adding vitamin A (in the form of retinyl palmitate) to the dusting routine.. 

Ed


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## Gumby (May 27, 2010)

Ed said:


> The original theory behind the idea that RO/DI water could be an issue was due to a study on tiger salamander larva that showed the larva lost ions to the surrounding water as they osmoregulated. What that study didn't show (but later studies did show) was that the larva (and tadpoles) are able to actively scavenge those ions from the water. Basically this means that all it does is cost them some energy.. Now this ignores that fact that most people add things to thier tadpole water ranging from blackwater extract to assorted types of leaves to salt mixtures like RO right.. all of which results in ions ending up in solution which changes the osmotic potential of the water... (keep in mind that regular tap water is also hypotonic to the tadpoles..) and this is before we consider the addition of food items which are also going to lose soluble items into solution, the effects of biofilms etc.... So we are not really placing tadpoles into pure RO/DI water for very long if at all and if we are looking at hypotonic solutions.. we should consider that the same holds for reconstituted RO/DI or even tapwater.....
> 
> Some comments,
> 
> Ed


Thanks Ed! This is very helpful. The only issue with SLS came from a tad I acquired with a group deal so I do not know what the parents were supplemented with. I use repashy supervit and rep-cal. I recently bought some Repashy calcium plus ICB and i'll throw that into the mix shortly. I dust the flies everyday so these tads came from well supplemented parents. 

-Chris


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