Misting water temp and bucket color

[broderp]

Fact or Myth - Water temperature is important.

I saw a YouTube video while researching my upcoming Mist King install and one video showed a bucket with some sort of a heater in it. He claimed it heated the water to about 85 F for misting. Does this have any benefit to either the Cham or the plants that make the expense worthwhile?


Fact or Myth - A light color bucket grows algae and bacteria.

The bucket color should be dark because a lighter color bucket would expedite any bacterial or algae growth. The i thought of standing water "fermenting" and growing crap that my baby Cham will drink scares me. I plan on using distilled water 100% of the time, but is there any truth to this and is it worth the cost for a $15-20 bucket?


I am asking the forum for their collective experience and thoughts. I have a few options:

• I can get a 5 Gallon bucket for with lid in bright BLUE from the local Lowe's for under $5.
• My wife is a cake decorator. I can potentially get a similar sized food grade bucket in WHITE for free.
• I can buy a black bucket for about $15 on Amazon.

 

[Chameleon Mike]

I don't know about heating the water up. I've been using my mister, Monsoon, on a timer for about a year now. The water is at room temp. It has a semitransparent water tank with a dark tint on it but I keep it in the box it came with to prevent any light getting in there.
I would say to get any bucket you like and wrap it in black duct tape. This would be the cheapest way to go and you won't have to worry about light.

 

[RcManChild]

Water temperature is important, but perhaps not as important as you think. Everyone I know has been using water at room temperature without issues that we know of. The advantage of adding a heater would be that it would help increase humidity in the terrarium more so than what room temperature water would be. It perhaps would also be natural to the chameleon as they are in humid hot environments where the water is probably not at 70 fahrenheit. However as we know anything can fail, the risk here would be that the heater fails to on and without a temperature gauge in the water you would have no idea until you have potentially harmed your chameleon with burning hot water. This is mainly why I have not gone this route.

A clear bucket will grow algae or bacteria if it is in direct sunlight. If the bucket is out of sunlight, in a basement under a table with little to no light hitting should not be a issue at all.
The white food grade bucket will be fine if kept in conditions stated above.

 

[theintouchable88]

I was gonna put a heat mat under my bucket but the bacteria scared me I opted out. I've read here that either way, by the time the water comes out the mistking nozzle, it's so fine that it goes back to almost room temp and making the heating process useless if u want warm water to come out. Not sure who said it but it was an experienced member so I trusted that. A black bucket u can just wrap it in black clothes or paper and it should work like they also recomended. I use a white one but I clean it biweekly and it's not exposed to light or open. Other experienced members can sure give their opinion as im a n00bie still.

 

[JacksJill]

I believe the food grade bucket is recommend by the mister manufacturer. Grab the free food grade white one and keep it out of the light. I have had no issues with mine that is in a drawer under my cage.
If your water bucket is very far from your cage the trip thru the tubing will have it back to room temp by the time it gets to your cage. As stated above the misting will bring it to your cage temp and evaporative cooling will do the rest.
It's a nice gesture but likely futile.

 

[Bmart]

my rule is this, if you wont drink it....your cham shouldn't either. as far as temperature goes I keep my bucket in a storage container under the tank, and it has been algae free. I use a Mist King misting system.

 

[broderp]

Thank you for the information. I will get the free bucket and keep it out of direct light. I will not be heating it.

 

[Furciferocious]

To add to the above, distilled water doesn't have any nutrients for algae or bacteria to feed on. Just keep a lid on the bucket to keep dust and junk from falling in and becoming bacteria food.

 

[Chameleon Mike]

I use filtered water in the refillable jugs that you use on a water cooler.

 

[Alexander1]

I'd like to add my 2 cents, fiist having your water warmed a little by an aquarium heater or what not may not make a difference all because of how heat transfers, the mist coming out your mist king nozzle is very fine allowing the heat in the water molecules to quickly transfer out making the water almost room temp, I would say using a hand sprayer with a lot larger droplets and very hot water would be the most reasonable way to allow the heat to reach your Cham, Next distilled water is used by many keepers in efforts to keep their nozzles from cloggging, unfortunately using distilled water may not be the healthiest water for your chameleon, water itself in its natural form carries tons of minerals without that would benefit your Cham in the wild, some may even go as far as saying misting your Cham with mineral water once in a while would be beneficial in providing them with trace amounts of minerals that are filtered out, Bill Strand had a guest on recently that explained this very interesting notion. As for the bucket, most commercial grade buckets are opaque enough to block out most light and thus keeping your water clean, I would empty the bucket once in a while and wash it out

 

[broderp]

To add to the above, distilled water doesn't have any nutrients for algae or bacteria to feed on. Just keep a lid on the bucket to keep dust and junk from falling in and becoming bacteria food.

I was not aware, thanks!

I use filtered water in the refillable jugs that you use on a water cooler.

How do you hook up a misting system to this? Sounds efficent, until it comes time to change the water bottle or to fill it.

I'd like to add my 2 cents, fiist having your water warmed a little by an aquarium heater or what not may not make a difference all because of how heat transfers, the mist coming out your mist king nozzle is very fine allowing the heat in the water molecules to quickly transfer out making the water almost room temp, I would say using a hand sprayer with a lot larger droplets and very hot water would be the most reasonable way to allow the heat to reach your Cham, Next distilled water is used by many keepers in efforts to keep their nozzles from cloggging, unfortunately using distilled water may not be the healthiest water for your chameleon, water itself in its natural form carries tons of minerals without that would benefit your Cham in the wild, some may even go as far as saying misting your Cham with mineral water once in a while would be beneficial in providing them with trace amounts of minerals that are filtered out, Bill Strand had a guest on recently that explained this very interesting notion. As for the bucket, most commercial grade buckets are opaque enough to block out most light and thus keeping your water clean, I would empty the bucket once in a while and wash it out

There's always a "but" to every good thing.. That is a very good point. I don't want to have equipment issues, but I want whats best for my Cham. Is there a supplement that can be given to provide the minerals removed from the water? I use a multivitamin every other week, does this not have those vitamins and minerals? This may be a good topic for another thread, rather than buried in a thread about a water bucket.

 

[Chameleon Mike]

How do you hook up a misting system to this? Sounds efficent, until it comes time to change the water bottle or to fill it.

I have a 5 gallon bottle I refill at walmart and transfer it to the mister. If you are using a bucket, get yourself an extra one and you can refill that. I costs under $2 to refill 5 gallons.

 

[ChameleonClem]

I cant say for sure about the chameleon side of this but i can tell you it has no benifit for the plants unless you have some like super exotic fancy plants (lol) Then they may need special care. But is highly unlikely

 

[broderp]

I have a 5 gallon bottle I refill at walmart and transfer it to the mister. If you are using a bucket, get yourself an extra one and you can refill that. I costs under $2 to refill 5 gallons.

Hmm.. that's cheaper than the $0.88 per gallon I currently use. I may need to look into this, or just live with 1 gallon at a time.