also I dont know if this will sway any opinion or if it even matters but there are plenty of living plants as well as live moss in their enclosure 

Use water that you would use for setting up a fish tank. It has to be clean and free of toxic chemicals or it will kill the fish, it will do the same to reptiles and amphibians but usually much slower. But it also has to have nutrients in it... which RO does not... that is what kills about distilled. It has had all of the micro nutrients removed so that it is just water and this ironically dehydrates the cells. 

Usually tap water treated with a high quality water conditioner will just be fine. RO can be used but you would still need to condition the water to put the right trace elements back into it and in that case if there was something specifically for reptiles that would be a better way to go and most fish water conditioners focus on removing chlorine and nitrates and such....  

bottled waters though I am not sure about, would have to do more research....

Interesting, for a while I was trying to get myself into Saltwater fish tanks and this is where I first heard about RO filters. They have such high praise for them and put them second to none almost making them your only option. 

I would like to see what anyone else has to say about spring water. a lot of the things I have read pretty much suggest it but to me something doesnt seem right. Frogs have that sensitive skin and they absorb their water, after using spring water to mist my setups and whatever the deposits left on the glass doesnt seem like it would be the best choice for the frogs but maybe thats just me being crazy 

I literally just googled this "what is the best water to use for dart frogs" and without clicking on too many links and just reading the brief things listed below each link there is such a difference in opinion 

I was wondering the same thing. I too heard distilled water may not be the best, but I've been using it for my tree frogs and geckos with no obvious side effects. My tap water has some mysterious fish killing quality, even with water conditioner, so I don't want to use that. I hope both of us find some answers.

We used to use water from the "Glacier" water dispensing machines outside most grocery stores in our freshwater tanks. Might want to consider going that route here too, since it's mostly cheap, and you don't have to install your own RO system.

see josh's frogs uses RO water ive heard most places use distilled water and black jungle (where i got the frogs from) suggest good spring water some people even say rain water is the best but i dont even know how good that could actually be. in doing a but more research ive even seen filtered dechlorinated tap water 

I've been an avid aquarium hobbyist for about 30 years now, so water options are something I've had to learn a bit about...

"Spring water" is not all the same- as it literally comes from springs, all over the US (usually), and therefore actual water composition and parameters (pH, hardness, actual mineral content, etc) can differ GREATLY from brand to brand and sometimes even bottle to bottle as some companies have multiple bottling plants and/or pull water from different spring locations.

RO (reverse osmosis) water is produced by filtering water through specific membranes.  Its composition can differ somewhat depending on original water composition versus exactly which filters are used and how old they are, but for the most part, RO water is what most aquarium/aquatic hobbyists consider the "ideal" and best water.

I personally am not a big fan of distilled water, though it's definitely preferable to deionized water.  The main issue to me is ALL of the mineral content has been removed, and for most organisms, over time, this can lead to various trace deficiencies in their systems.

Personally, I stick with treated tap water.  (I use Seachem's Prime to remove chlorine and chloramines.)  If I were concerned with my tap water, or were using a misting system and needed to worry about it clogging from mineral deposits, I'd go the RO route.

I agree with lauraleellbp.

First off - I don't keep frogs.  I know very little about frogs.  But I know wild frogs don't get distilled water delivered.  They get rainwater primarily I think.  Maybe some creek water, or pond water, or puddle water.  But it's not distilled - which means it hasn't had the minerals and electrolytes removed from it.  So even though it would make cleaning the glass way easier, I'd skip the distilled water.  I am of the school of thought that animals can become dehydrated if they only drink distilled water because they won't be getting enough electrolytes. 

Spring water and other filtered bottled waters are too variable in composition.  You never know what source they're going to be from, so you don't know what the mineral content is going to be.  I think it's better to have a more consistent less variable water source, especially for something as delicate as a frog.  We might not be able to tell the difference, but they might - and if big changes are made too often, it could stress them out.  Maybe. 

This is where RO and tap water comes in.  Either of these would be acceptable to me.  Your municipal water source is probably pretty stable in its parameters, I'd think.  You could set up an RO system, and use your tap water, or personally, what I'd do, is just buy a Brita or a Pur filter to remove the chlorine and use tap water poured through that. 

Good luck with your froggies!  Hopefully you'll figure out something that will work well.

interesting CreepyCrawly you said that frogs do not get distilled water delivered but you believe RO water and Tap water is readily available to them. at thiat point spring water seems to be the most natural, since most tap water is treated to some degree. I dont exactly know the answer I am seeking since there seems to be a ton of opinion flying around. my biggest problem with tap water is that even though it can be treated tap water varies from location to location. Being from NYC i cant imagine that the tap water is anything close to what it would be across the country. therefore the chemicals used to treat it are broad i assume.. Maybe I'm too much of a skeptic and do not have faith in many things. I appreciate all the feedback and I thought i would have had more answers with some solid arguement . all of the answers were good but for some reason I cant wrap my head around why so many respectable companies have such different opinions. its nothing personal to anyone im just not convinced by any answer so far enough to change what I have been doing. 

Just use steam distiled water  its pure  and it's cheap  about $1 a gallon .. Thats what I use when I spray  No hard water spots ..

the thing with NYC tap water is that it has a lot of flouride in it i cant imagine that its great to use and that only thing I know that removes the flouride is RO filters 

Tap water almost everywhere is heavily chlorinated.  It will certainly kill fish, so I have my doubts that it is good for amphibians.  Just my opinion.  I have never kept amphibians.

I always treat my tap water with a water conditioner before I put it in my fish tanks. Recently it's been killing them though (I'm experienced with fish keeping and have been able to rule out everything else). I definetly don't want to try that with my frogs. I know bottled spring water can differ in levels of everything, but what is bad about it? Would it make sense to treat that with water conditioner?

hey GeckoGeek when it comes to your fish have you ever heard of/ tried drip acclimation?

I've heard of it, but doesn't that just apply to adding new fish?

you know what thats my fault I misunderstood you for some reason I assumed it was for adding fish when I reread what you wrote I realized my mistake 

Glacier water from the vending machine at your local grocery store. $2 gets you 5 gallons of Quality reverse osmosis water.

A good filtered water pitcher will work good.I use tap water for all my snakes lizards geckos etc and they do fine with tap water ran threw a filtered pitcher.

Louie like a brita filter? 

At the aquarium I work at, we keep several different types of amphibians. We use water with an Amquel supplement. For awhile, our Malayan Leaf Frogs were in bad shape, but we switched them to this water and they've been doing much better. We mist all of our amphibians with it daily. You should be able to find it in a pet store - probably in the aquarist section. It doesn't leave much/any residue either. I would highly recommend this as a lot of zoos and aquariums are switching to it!

Gallon bottles of drinking water from the store is R/O water just more expensive (about 2x more)

To clarify the lable for the drinking water will say "purified by reverse osmosis"

Hey I just met you. And this is crazy. But award some points. Close this question, maybe?

This question has had no activity for 14 days and will be closed by an administrator unless the original poster takes action.

Recommended Action: Points awarded

An administrator will select responses and assign points at their discretion.

Original poster, please close this question out and assign points. If you have any further information in the resolution of your problem, please post it here so that others may learn from it.