Chlorinated Tap Water Users - Sodium Thiosulfate, why not?

[ericatdallas]

Just out of curiosity... in the past year, I've recommended to several hobbyists to use sodium thiosulfate as a dechlorinator. No one ever seems to deny or contradict my claims (as it's fairly well known and recognized dechlor) but no matter what, people still recommend Seachem Prime/Safe.

Not criticizing it. It works for me and I use it now too. I especially like it since it neutralizes ammonia and if I'm really busy, I can do a smaller WC, throw in some SAFE and know (hope) that my fish are better off than if I just did a small WC (or none at all) w/o an ammonia neutralizer.

Anyway, just curious why those of you who have chlorine in tap (with no chloramine/ammonia) choose to use SAFE instead of the much cheaper alternative?

[Sean Buehrle]

I agree with you.

I miss the days of zip drops, the good ole days when my community only used chlorine, and that was only if you didn't age your water :)

The only thing I would be worried about using the sodium thio would be for some unknown reason the water dept decided to use chloramines to solve some unexpected problem, they ain't gonna announce it before they do it.
What are the chances?

Yeah you have it good in that dept. I'd use it too if I could.


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- Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lipadj46]

yeah sodium thiosulfate is perfect for just chlorine. My tapwater is only chlorine but I still use safe even though I have kilos of sodium thiosulfate at work that we will never use. Safe is cheap enough and will take care of the unforseen mini cycles and possible seasonal chloramine additions

[ericatdallas]

Why do you have Sodium Thiosulfate at work that you won't use?

[lipadj46]

Why do you have Sodium Thiosulfate at work that you won't use?

I teach chemistry in high school and we have a bunch of the stuff that we don't use in labs any longer.

[Jhhnn]

I use Prime because Denver tap water definitely has chloramines.

Some years ago, local aquarists had huge problems when they switched from chlorine, because the event wasn't widely publicized. Only after the fact did the Water Board go to the trouble to ask the local newspapers & media to put the word out, and even then I'm sure some people didn't get the message in time.

More & more providers make the switch all the time, in large part to meet EPA guidelines & make their water safer for people. They won't necessarily make a big deal out of the switch, either, so it's smart for all aquarists on municipal water to use prime, safe, cloram-x or a similar product that's known to be effective with chloramines.

Better safe than sorry. I knew this wouldn't be cheap when I returned to discus keeping after many years absence, and believe that the price of Prime is just part of the deal. I get a nice price from Kensfish on the big jugs, great service, & they last a long, long while, even treating & changing 150gals almost every day. I may switch to Safe when this jug runs low... dunno. I have the dosing all worked out for Denver water- I actually use the stuff at 2/3 strength on the basis of Denver Water reports. They have a great website-

http://www.denverwater.org/

I also use the Seachem ammonia test kits, if not nearly as frequently as I did at first, and recommend them highly to anybody who uses Prime, Safe, or similar-

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/MT_Ammonia.html