water changes

[doobious]

as im sure everyone knows you must change your dragons water daily(or atleast everytime they have deficated in it) which i do but it is easily the biggest downside to owning these crazy creatures. so i am wondering if anyone knows of a way around it.... a special filteration system or chemical maybe
....and by the way it is not that i am too lazy to do it i just would rather not have to cause such a disturbance every day because it scares the crap out of my little guys everytime i do it

[Pooka]

Dragosmom (a forum member here and at repticzone) uses a wetland filtration system for her water. I'm not sure of the specifics but I know she only has to do partial water changes every so often. Others I know plumb drains right into the bottom of a pond which is probably the best bet. Personally I use a cat litter pan partially filled and change it out by hand daily. If I got a larger water area I will plumb it into the cage with either a outlet into a bucket or hook it into a laundry sewage drain or other outlet.

[metacritter]

I upgraded my water dish to a 9x13 pyrex baking pan with a Zoomed 501 canister filter. You can see a pretty good pic of the setup here:
www.metacritter.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=randomstuff&id=Critters_018

It's still an experiment. I've only had it in place for a few days, but so far so good. I'm hoping to get a week or so between water changes.

It does not keep me from having to maintain the water daily, though... I use a small fish net to skim off substrate and poop that is too big to get sucked into the filter. This is still less trouble than hauling the big pan out every day.