Sodium thiosulfate

[Anna94]

I was thinking of making my own dechlorinator by using sodium thiosulfate. However, a guy brought up a good point to me. While sodium thiosulfate will remove chlorine, it won't aid in the protection of a fish's slime coat, which if they lose their slime coat they will be exposed to the nasties in the tank and diseases. Is that something I should be worried about? Should I just stick to dechloribstorsvthst also help with slime coats, or will my fish be ok with just the sodium thiosulfate as a dechlorinator?

 

[Delapool]

I've heard of people doing this successfully before but something like seachem safe is so cheap and covers so much 'just in case' issues.

I don't think you would need to be normally worried on the slime coat.

Have you checked the water supply? Is it just chlorine that you need to remove? Also is there any chance your water source can change over the year or have different treatments applied.

 

[Andy Sager]

S.T. was great in the old days when all that was put in the water was chlorine however, most cities today use chloramine and not straight chlorine and S.T. will not break that chlorine-ammonia bond. It's still great when doing a bleaching of a tank when you know that you only have chlorine bleach in the water tho.
One of the nice things about "dechlorinators" with slime coat additives or protections is that the fish do get less stressed when they have their slime coat in tact. Healthy fish can handle a little loss of their coats during say, a water change but fish under stress, from say, acclimation or transport, are more susceptible to injury and infection without it.
Bottom line, if your source water is treated with chloramine, S.T. is not an option for you anymore.

Hope this helps.