DIY Dechlorinator - in layman's terms

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Aug 22, 2000
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Greetings All -

I have gone through the aquarium newsgroups to find the proper mix for a homemade dechlorinator to use in my tanks. It appears that there's a convention of chemists inhabiting the newsgroups!

Can anyone offer the recipe - in layman's terms - for using Sodium Thiosulphate to make my own dechlorinator?

Thanks in advance.

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Dechlorinator

Well, Sodium Thiosulphate is the dechlorinator. There is no recipe. Just use one drop of Sodium Thiosulphate per gallon of water. That's usually the recommended dosage for Sodium Thiosulphate. Most dechlorinator products are just watered down Sodium Thiosulphate with other things added. But for pure Sodium Thiosulphate, one drop per gallon is what I use.
 
If you can't find it under the name Sodium Thiosulfate, the chemical formula for which you would look would be Na2S2O3·5H2O (possibly without the 5H2O).
 
For clarity

I'm sorry. I didn't give all the inofrmation necessary...

I have a one pound bottle of Sodium Thiosulphate (Hypo, Penta) crystals. In what portions would I mix the crystals, with water, to create the proper solution for use in my Tanganyikan tanks.

Sorry for the confusion.

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A standard solution/stock solution of sodium thiosulfate is a 1% solution, of which you'd be using about one drop per gallon.

From www.skepticalaquarist.com:

Doc Johnson tells you how to mix up a stock solution at www.koivet.com. Better get together with a few friends, because just 4 oz. of crystals in distilled water makes a gallon of stock solution. At rates of one drop of stock solution to a gallon or two of chlorinated tapwater, that could be a lifetime's supply.
 
If you have very large tanks and/or if you change a large volume of water frequently, it's a good idea to mix the sodium thiosulfate with less water than usually prescribed. I now mix mine at 4 times the recommended concentration. I only have to squirt two eyedropperfuls per aging tank instead of eight.

Jim
 
Actually, 1 drop of 10% (not 1%) Sodium thiosulfate solution per gallon of water will neutralize 1 ppm of chlorine.

Here is how I do this. I dissolve 29 g of Sodium thiosulfate (from a photographic supply store) in 2 liters of water. The solution goes into a 2-liter container with a pump (AquaPlus is sold in those containers). One squirt of the pump (5cc) removes 1 ppm of chlorine from 10 gal of water. And since 1 ppm is the maximum you can ever find in any water supply line, you can safely assume that one squirt of the pump will fully neutralize chlorine in 10 gal of water.
 
Actually, sodium thiosulfate is about as simple as you get in the dechlorinator department (short of offgassing the chlorine thru aging). Buying sodium thiosulfate and preparing your own solution is MUCH cheaper than buying stuff prepared for the aquarium trade. It's not a big deal if you have few gallons per week that need to be treated, but if you do many changes on multiple tanks, it can save some money.

Jim
 
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