Well water

[Greenlove]

I live on a large farm in the country and we have well water. I have read that your only supposed to use reverse osmosis (RO) or bottled spring water for the misting and water that the frogs soak in. I have been using well water ever since I brought my little guys home as tadpoles (they are Gray tree frogs). They seem to be fine in it. I do have reverse osmosis(RO) or filtered water, whatever you want to call it, at my kitchen sink but, I also have a water softner tank that is used to take the iron and hardness out of the water, and that runs through the whole house as well as the reverse osmosis tank, (I get the frogs water from the outside hose--no water softner there) So, my thinking is, wouldn't it be better for my frogs to have water that comes from 80 feet underground, than to have water that has salt in it from the water softner(it does run through the RO tank, but I'm not sure how much salt gets through)? I've read, so I'm not sure if it's true, that bottled water is not checked by any agency and that the companies can just bottle it from anywhere and sell it. How does one know if they are getting good water or not? Ever heard of EVIAN water? Say it backwards-- NAIVE. Hhmm, makes ya wonder, doesn't it. Anyways, what do you think? Do you think the well water is too harsh for them? Should I use my Culligan RO water? Or should I buy bottled?

[SethD]

The main reason you don't want to use hard water for misting is because of the deposits left on glass. As long as the water is not ridiculously hard it is unlikely to cause a health issue with the frogs. My well water is fairly hard too and it has never caused my frogs a problem that I am aware of.

[Paul Rust]

The main reason you don't want to use hard water for misting is because of the deposits left on glass. As long as the water is not ridiculously hard it is unlikely to cause a health issue with the frogs. My well water is fairly hard too and it has never caused my frogs a problem that I am aware of.

Same here.
The only difference with me is I use distilled or R/O water in my auto misters because the tiny nozzles create 10 micron droplets that Ca and Mg will clog. Otherwise I hand mist with well water and use it in my water features with no problems.

[Greenlove]

Seth---How would I know if the water was "ridiculously hard"? Should I have it tested?

[SethD]

Seth---How would I know if the water was "ridiculously hard"? Should I have it tested?

You would know, for one thing it would cause lots of problems with mineral build up in you pipes, your dishes would have mineral deposits on them after washing, etc.