I was gonna buy Prime but the LFS said they have alot of complains from customers about Prime and they suspect that the way it was stored in the distributor's warehouse, so they don't stock Prime anymore.
So I just bought a bucket of salt-like crystals which the LFS use to de-chlorinate all their tanks. It's waaaaay cheaper than any other water conditioners (treats 8000 litres and only 15 aussie dollars!) and seems to have several other attributes other than just de-chlorinate, such as:

- stabilises ph so it stays around 7.0
- increases slime coat
- salted the water to a very very mild level
- somehow (according to the LFS guy) hardens the skin of the fish and made it less susceptible to ich & other parasites

Anyone got any experience with this type of de-chlorinator?

I am surprised that the store stopped stocking Prime. It has a distinctive smell that some people might mistake as it having spoiled, although the smell is normal.

I have never seen the product you are mentioning, but hopefully some of the others can help you on that.

Me either, but the complaints from the customers were dying fish, so I guess the way the distibutors store the bottles really did have an effect & turned the contents toxic

I would be curious to know what happened. The Prime bottle doesn't say anything on it about storage temperatures, although it does say that if the temperature is 30 C. and the chlorine or ammonia levels are low, to dose at half dose.

I've finally used the crystal-conditioner to QT my new ranchu. So far so good, no ill effects visible for now

Wow Riz - I wonder if Prime was just the scape goat for the dying fish?

I've never heard of these crystals Who are they made by?

Not sure about that, Jen. But the store's pretty honest, so I guess what they said was true.

I dunno who the maker is. No brand whatsoever in the tub.

Perhaps they manufacture it themselves? Hmmmm

Ok, did some searching at RG, and I think what I got is sodium thiosulphate, with some trace materials added in to make it have more good attributes. Said to be the most economical way of de-chlor (compared to other dechlorinators). Anybody heard of it?

bump
just wanna know if anyone's got experience with sodium thiosulphate

hmm.. isn't sodium thiosulphate the dechlorinator stuff commonly used for pools? it sounds very familiar... i think we talked about it in my analytical chemistry class... haha alas i cannot remember. (shows how much i actually retain from my classes... haha i took that class just last semester!)