What are your opinions on tap water for geckos (leos and cresties in particular as I have one of each)? I've been using tap water for a long time and I haven't had any issues but recently someone told me I should be using dechlorinated water or spring water because the chlorine in tap water is bad for them. Is this true?
Dechlorinating is absolutely vital for some animals, like amphibians and fish. In general, reptiles and mammals can handle low amounts of chlorine, but I dechlorinate my tap water anyway, just in case. I use filtered tap water and Prime to dechlorinate.
Partially it depends on your tap water. Some places have higher levels of chlorine and chloramine. A good instant dechlorinator like Prime also binds heavy metals so that they are less dangerous. In addition, if you are doing bioactive you should definitely dechlorinate because invertebrates are more sensitive to chlorine, and you don’t want beneficial bacteria in the soil to be killed.
Personally, I use dechlorinated water in their water dishes, but I use distilled water to mist with. Distilled and R/O water do not need to be dechlorinated. I use it because distilled water will not cause hard water spots on the walls and plants.
