Water Quality

[MCroll]

I never use soap to clean my tank or toad accessories (ceramic cave and bridge) but a few days ago I noticed a lot of little bubbles/foam gathering on object in the water, including my toad. I have a waterfall-style filter and I just added some new rocks to the tank so I thought that maybe that combination was churning up foam so I moved the rocks away from the waterfall and changed out the water with distilled water from the supermarket just in case. The next day I bought some water test strips to test the new water and, to my surprise, it was acidic, not neutral. I've tested it a few times, even pouring some of the water straight from the jug onto a test strip. My toad seems perfectly happy to swim in this water and I can't understand why distilled water would be acidic right out of the bottle. Is it going to harm him?

Tl; dr: What to toads need for good water?

[tgampper]

Hi and welcome to Frog Forum!

Water quality is critical to the health and well being of your frogs. It must be cleaned and conditioned properly. Contrary to popular belief, bottled water (spring, distilled, or otherwise) is not the best, simply because they do not have the proper chemistry that frogs require. The best water to use is from the tap. I have been keeping a variety of aquatic frog for years and use only tap water. The key is proper water conditioning - I recommend a product called Stress-Coat (available at any store selling tropical fish supplies). Use a strength of 1ml per gallon of water. I use a syringe to measure. The water can be used immediately. Make regular water changes, the temperature of the new water matches the tank water. The bubbles are probably created by your filtration system.