Salt Prices

[ultrinn]

I just ran out of salt and called mc for prices. The guy there told me that I should switch my salt every other time. He said it is good for the water.

Has anybody ever heard this before?

[Lunchbucket]

umm...i wouldn't!!! your corals and fish get used to one why would you change up all your levels? BS IMO

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

ultrinn, that is EXACTLY what you are NOT supposed to do.:lol: Find one salt that you like and stick with it. Personally, I really like Reef Crystals. It has NSW levels of the 3 parameters that I find are the most important for me, which are Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium. With a lot of other salts you have to add supplements to them to boost deficient parameters before doing a water change. For alkalinity that isn't too big of a deal because you can use cheap baking soda. Calcium isn't that big of a deal either as calcium chloride is also cheap. But magnesium is very expensive when you use supplements for our tanks. There is only 1 other salt that I know of that has NSW levels of mangnesium and that is Oceanic. The problem with Oceanic is that the calcium content is too high. You can always raise a level but you can't lower one.

[ultrinn]

That is exactly the information I had heard before. I usually just let them tell me the bad information and ignore it.

[Lunchbucket]

oceanic and IO blend gets some nice levels but after the phosphat trouble w/ Oceanic i'm not sure if i want to use it again.

the bad thing is both IO and Oceanic are easily bough locally :( RC needs to be bought online

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

Easily bought locally? Yes. But it is always cheaper to get it online so I get it online anyways. I guess if the LFS would be willing to match the price then I would give them support but they don't ever carry the salt I use.

[Lunchbucket]

maybe we should talk to mark and have him order us some RC and see if he'll give us a fair price on it. since we both know him well i wouldn't doubt if we could do it.

maybe a group buy from the club could get us salt chea too??

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

That is worth a try. I told Grant that if he could get RC and price match what I pay online + shipping, I would go through him but he never really gave me an answer. Just said that he gets Oceanic.

Remember when we talked to Scott a while back. I guess I should say "remember when YOU talked to Scott a while back".:lol: I think the price he quoted us for RC was only about $5 more than what we pay online. Maybe we could just go that route. I don't mind paying an extra $5 a bucket to support the local guy and help keep him in business. It is when they charge double what we can get it for online that I say "screw ya".

[Lunchbucket]

called out local guy and he is checking on what he can get RC for. he can't get it from his WI seller but his KC seller might have it.

Lunchbucket

[Dakota Reef]

Just noticed this thread. I actually needed salt last week and got the same sterling advice from one of the MC staffers. Something about how his fish loved the suprise when he used a different variety of salt. It just sad that such bad advice always seems to be delivered with great confidence.

Don't know what you'all are paying for salt but I ordered 160 G of RC from Dr Foster & Smith for $50 delivered to my door. That even saves me the gas to SF!! The Fed Ex guy didn't seem to share my enthusiasm for the price.

If you start putting together a group buy let me know I can always stock up if you get a good price.

Phil

[Lunchbucket]

i'm ordering from Dr F&S as they have 9.99 shipping w/ orders over 60bucks. well i'm emailing premiumaquatics.com to see if they'll price match w/ shipping...i love those guys at PA.

well if we get 6 buckets from MC then they are 49bucks on special right now. otherwise they woudl be 59 i think :(

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

I would be more than happy to get a group buy of RC going if the rest of the club is interested. I usually order about 8 buckets at a time anyways so that is 1/2 a pallet right there. Let me know if you are all seriously interested and I will look into it and see what a pallet price would run.

[ultrinn]

I am interested.

[Lunchbucket]

i'm interested

when you want to order?? i can talk to MC or Safari for sure

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

I need to know how much everyone is wanting. I "think" a pallet is around 16 buckets but not sure. I'll have to check on that. We do need to have enough to cover a full pallet. I will check a few different places for prices. I will check Aquarium Systems, Mini Critters, Safari Land, Petco, Grant, and maybe a couple online places. I'm guessing that the LFS's and online stores are going to want to make money off of it so I think our best bet is going to be getting it directly through Aqaurium Systems or Grant. I'm not sure if we will be able to order a full pallet direct from Aquarium Systems without a retailers license, however. I will have to check on that. Grant may be our best bet because he is part of the club and may do it as a favor to the club and not need to make money off of it.

But I do need to know how much salt everyone will want. I will call and find out how much is in a pallet. We may have to wait until after the next meeting to make the order. Some of the people in the club don't come here to see this so we can give them a heads up at the meeting. I will try to have the details worked out by then.

[Dakota Reef]

Travis - 8 buckets!?! Dude you are hardcore.

Lets see my RODI is in the basement.......both tanks are upstairs......on a good day I can lug 10 gallons of water up the steps at a time.....thats like 1300 trips!!! I'd spend more on the first doctor bill than the salt cost me.

I've gotta get a better system.

Okay, seriously since I just got a bucket last week I'm not desperate, but I am hoping to set up a nice 240ish cube system by this summer so I could do 2 more buckets of RC through a group buy.

Phil

[ultrinn]

I was thinking one but i could do two.

[Travis]

I did some calling around today. First, we cannot get it direct from Aquarium Systems, it has to be through a distributor. I called a couple distrubutors that were the closest to us but none of them returned my calls today. I also found out that there are 36 buckets in a pallet, not 16 like I previously thought. So we have a ways to go before we fill a pallet. I will still check around and get some prices.

[Lunchbucket]

thanks Travis!!

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

Well, I'm giving up on the pallet order. I checked a few places and even if we did get enough people to fill a pallet, we will still be paying more than if we just order from F&S. It doesn't look like we would be anywhere near filling a pallet anyways.

I did read through a bunch of threads in other club forums to see what they do for group buys. I noticed that some have done group buys at F&S. I think F&S will give a discount for larger quantity orders. So that could be another option.

[Lunchbucket]

Travis - thanks for the update

i think F&S sounds like a great option. and heck if they give a distount that would ROCK!

Lunchbucket

[ultrinn]

Sounds good to me.

[Travis]

Sorry I've been kinda slow on this guys. I just called F&S to see if they will give us a quantity discount for our reef club. The lady told me they don't do that. I then proceeded to ask why, and I told her I know other reef clubs have recieved quantity discounts on salt from them in the past. She then told me she didn't have the authority to do it. I asked if I could talk to someone that did. She said no, you have to send a letter in writing.:lol:

So now I need to search some threads in other club forums and find the one I had read where they had recieved a discount from F&S on a bulk order of salt. Then I'll pm the person that organized it and find out how they got the price quote.

FWIW, F&S has 10% off Reef Crystals right now. $37.99 a bucket. That's a pretty good deal as is.:) They no longer charge an extra $15 per bucket for shipping You pay shipping based on how much you spend. I usually have to pay about $10 shipping.

[Lunchbucket]

Travis - thanks i almost forgot about this. see if you can find out who ordered and see if we can get that discount

i just ordered 2 buckets right before x-mas and got free shipping. i only paid i think 41.95 or something...no shipping...not other charges

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

I did some searching around and did talk to another person at F&S that knows more about what is going on and they can't give us a quantity discount at this time. Sorry to keep you all waiting. I am just going to continue getting my Reef Crystals from F&S unless Grant decides to start carrying it.... HINT...HINT;)

[Lunchbucket]

i'll do the same until Grant starts carrying it ;)

Lunchbucket