BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hey, I was just wondering what kind of water everyone uses for their skink to drink. I'm also curious on peoples views on skink drinking water.

Also, I found this Reptisun 10.0 compact fluorescent....

http://www.bigappleherp.com/Zoo-Med-Reptisun-Ten-10-0-Fluorescent-Bulbs?sc=2&category=19

Is this good for UV If I mount it horizontal about 16 inches away from my skink?

Lastly, yesterday my skink Zaphod that was born on May 24th 2007 laid a sperm plug! Isn't this uncommon for a skink of this age to do that?

Thats a good bulb, keep it at 16 inches for about a month to give it a break in period.

I just use tap water, sometimes I will dechlorinate it.

you give an animal you care about chlorine? ... i use filtered water

I drink the tap water, my fish and amphibians get dechlorinated water, my reptiles get tap water. Sometimes I will dechlorinate theirs too, but I don't stress much over it.

I use well-water that goes through our filtration system and I don't use UV bulbs, just supplement.

Chlorination isn't necessarily a bad thing for reptiles. In fact, not changing the water frequently is worse due to bacterial growth by far over tap water concerns. Personally, letting water bowls soak in chlorinated tap water, I find it keeps bacterial growth down. Water dechlorinates itself in about 8-24 hours depending on the surface area.

KW

most of the time i use bottles water but when i am out i use tap.

I use bottled water and a reptisun 5.0 at 12 inches.

I use both bottled and tap. Just depends if i have bottled water lol.

NomadOfTheHills wrote:Thats a good bulb, keep it at 16 inches for about a month to give it a break in period.

I just use tap water, sometimes I will dechlorinate it.

Um... no that's not a good bulb, that's one of the 10.0 CFL bulbs that was causing problems

I hope you guys know that tap wate and bottled water are the same thing. watch this if you don't belive me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

kman1247 wrote:I hope you guys know that tap wate and bottled water are the same thing. watch this if you don't belive me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

thats a huge generalization.

I use filtered water and the reptisun 5.0

I just use tap water.

i give mine tap water, sometimes i give them water that has been dechlorinated, but i think they can do with some chlorine

Steve wrote:

NomadOfTheHills wrote:Thats a good bulb, keep it at 16 inches for about a month to give it a break in period.

I just use tap water, sometimes I will dechlorinate it.

Um... no that's not a good bulb, that's one of the 10.0 CFL bulbs that was causing problems

UV wise, it is a good bulb. All you have to do is read the instructions, and break it in for a month or so.

I would disagree... For one thing, why would you want to buy a bulb where you need to let UV production decay before it became useful?

I don't find any CFL to be an optimum solution, though.

I still abide by the tubes with a reflector, for tank long UVB coverage.I have a 2litre bottle full of tap water in the room I use, so its not completely de-chlorinated but I think the remnants get used up killing any left over germs in the bowl, I also give it a swirl with my finger to help airiate and displace it.

I use the 60 watt external ballast Mercury Vapor Bulb from reptileuv.com for the UVB. And I have a well water reverse osmosis system so she gets filtered water from that.

Compact fluorescents aren't bad overall, there might be better or worse models though. Just take your skink outside frequently and you'll not have a problem with UV absorbtion, you could possibly get away with simply having a good basking light.

Personally I rely on it for spectrum and maybe "mood" to keep sleep and seasonal cycles as normal as possible. That's it's main role for me.

KW