It's salt NOT gold. Lower the prices.

[Jamesurq]

wow is that the rare and beautiful Acorpora Crapiosis? I hear the brown ones are the rarest..

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Yeah.

You should see how dang hard it is to get it to maintain it's natural color, even in a modern tank with high powered lighting.

[mike4271]

Originally posted by AJP
Looks pretty brown. What did that cost? Also those are the funniest looking zoo's I have ever seen.

I don't know a ton about SPS, but that is what it looks like to me.

It is actually very rare Adam, and it has been known to host the famous Yellow Elephantis Tang

[AJP]

Originally posted by der_wille_zur_macht
Yeah.

You should see how dang hard it is to get it to maintain it's natural color, even in a modern tank with high powered lighting.

Does it keep trying to turn blue or green? I have a problem with my acros they keep turning blue.

[Sierra]

preparing a budget for tank maintnance and monthly needs - I see that salt is one of the top ones on the money scale.

I think the prices are ridiculous as well.

the companies selling the salt sell such a high volume of the stuff they should be able to reduce their prices and still make a killing.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I pay $0,000,000.00 for my salt

NSW all the way baby.


I needed the extra money to help pay for the house.

[dc]

Originally posted by blown63chevy
I pay $0,000,000.00 for my salt

NSW all the way baby.

I like that price! Considering it was expensive when everyone started, why did everyone (who's whining) bother to get into the hobby?

[AJP]

How ibg of water changes do you plan to do Sierra? If you did 10 gallons a week that is 40 a month, so a bucket would last 4 months if you get I/O. 5 if you get a 200 gallon bucket of somethign else. So lets say you paid 40 for a bucket of IO. That would be $10 a month. For me I know my lights cost far more than that. I think I spend more than that in additives and food a month.

[Reef Addict II]

Well i dont think salt prices are that bad, big al's has 200g tropic marin bucket for 43.99. Its 58 Lbs so thats about .75 a pound or about 90 cent with shipping.

So if I do a 25% water change a month on my 180g AGA(260 system) its about 65g of new water a month or about $18 a month.

Now obviously some people do more % wise WC, but I think 25% is the norm.

So is that really a huge price to pay $18??

Steve

[Sierra]

I'm not figuring long term - I'm budgeting for the next 2 to 3 months as I establish my tank. I'll be doing a fair amount of Water changes during the first month or so with my TBS package.

if the monthly cost goes down after the intial set up great! But I have to start out my budget to allow for the extra water changes I will likely be performing.

Not to mention It's my goal to always have enough salt on hand to do a large water change if I have a tank emergency.

I havent even factored my electric bill into the equation. I pay that anyway and have always over budgeted on that monthly bill anyway. My bill ussually comes in at about 125 I always budget 200 - I believe that is enough to absorb the increased electricity use from my lights and other equipment.

[iSpeakWhale]

Forget the salt! I'm more worried about the gas price right now!

=O(

[Gawain1974]

Originally posted by iSpeakWhale
Forget the salt! I'm more worried about the gas price right now!

=O(

LOL, yeah, I hear you. I'm can't afford to put the gas in my car to drive to the LFS to pick up the salt!

[Reef Addict II]

Yes this hobby is not for the light in the wallet people.(can be but DIY everything and no MH's )

With electricity/maintanence/food/upgrades/bulbs/etc/etc/etc.

From a nano 2.5g to the 500g+ tank you can spend between $20-$400 a month in this hobby.

WHen I had my 300g tank (500g system) the electricity and salt alone were about $200 a month.

Steve

[FunkieReefJunkie]

Well, for the money conscious folks I'll let you in on what I've discovered. Reed Mariculture has OceanPure 200 gallon. 34.99 + FedEx 10.81 = 48.69. Compare to IO 160 (the downgrade from 200 to 160 still irks me). If your not familiar with OP do a search, some hardcore reefers are using it with satisfactory results. It's a hour something drive for me but at that shipping who needs cost of gas with wear and tear?

[MR clown]

at that pet place i can get a 160 gallon bucket of instant ocean for only 32$. The cheapest salt is "red Sea Salt" at only 35$ for a 200 gallon bucket.

[MarkS]

This is just a guess, but I can safely assume that it would be cheaper and easier to turn lead into gold than to mix trace elements, some of which measure less than a teaspoon per million gallons of seawater, with salt and get it to be anything like the ocean. Synthetic sea salt manufacturers are doing something that is increadibly complex. This isn't someone blindly mixing Morton's with a few sprinkles of chemicals in a large vat and calling sea salt.

I feel lucky to be able to buy a 200 gallon bucket of salt for $40.

[FunkieReefJunkie]

MR clown: You've got it good down in PA! I'm always jealous of the folks who live in/near Lancaster. To get a 160 of IO shipped from TFP out here it comes to around $70 something dollars.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Well I'll put things into a little perspective for you. Yes I use NSW and as a matter of fact, drove up yesterday to get about 100 gallons. Water was free but it took me about 30 dollars in gas to get it. Plus whatever wear and tear on the old truck to go get it along with my time.
On the other hand, I would have had to pay about 15 bucks for the salt and 25 bucks for the RO/DI water. I don't have a big RO unit and so I buy mine at .25 cents a gallon when I need big quanties of it.
On the plus side, I'm getting NSW, my fish and corals respond better to using it than Synthetic and I don't wory about adding in anything "extra" to the water. All of the trace elements are in it at the proper amount as well as the proper salinity.

[FunkieReefJunkie]

Many a discussion on reef forums about salt processing. The components are not rare commodities. I remain non empathetic toward the industry. It's to their advantage to make it sound like and incredibly arduous process, else how can they justify the prices?

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Honestly, you think there are people out there getting rich off selling supplies for this hobby?

(Besides the ones that convince us a given coral is worth 8 billion dollars.)

[Scuba_Dave]

I'm going to start using NSW now that the snow has melted, and the basement has been pumped out....

[AJP]

Originally posted by FunkieReefJunkie
Many a discussion on reef forums about salt processing. The components are not rare commodities. I remain non empathetic toward the industry. It's to their advantage to make it sound like and incredibly arduous process, else how can they justify the prices?

So why not make your own? If you think it can be done cheaper then do it. Just let me know what you find out.

[mike4271]

Originally posted by der_wille_zur_macht


(Besides the ones that convince us a given coral is worth 8 billion dollars.)

Wow, they could buy a house for that

[FunkieReefJunkie]

If it's not profitable to produce marine salt then why bother? Why so many brands of salt? Two new salt brands, Oceanic and Ocean Pure were recently introduced on the market. Old brands have expanded their products to lab grade or reef grade salts. Why is ProLine and the sodium chloride (which can be found at food wholesalers) less than common knowledge? Pretty much the same reason why a certain aragonite play sand is not readily available in many areas. The same people who bring you the hobby sand bring you kiddie play sand. But hey it's a business and we all have to make a living. At the same time a lot of rich folks go shopping at Walmart and this shows why they remain rich.

[alphaferret]

so you go to the ocean and fill up buckets for nsw?is that how it works-