All other salts are double the price of Instant Ocean. Is it really worth it?

[bruno3047]

Reef Crystals was having an end-of-the-year clearance event. Ridiculous prices across-the-board. I picked up four boxes of 200-gallon mix at an average price of around $36. I just googled “reef crystals“ and found this;



I guess the clearance is ongoing.

 

[Jedi1199]

I mentioned this in another thread, but I would like to actually create a post dedicated to this age old question of the Battle of the Salts.
This is specifically addressing the huge disparity in price compared to all other competitive brands.


Instant ocean regular purple lid (not Reef Crystals) by the 50 gallon bag equivalence to other salts shows half price or even less than half cost of competing salts. We are talking about 40-50 bucks per bucket. for 4 50 gallon bags, it comes out to $45 or so for 200 gallons. And I always hoard some extra when they do have a promotion once every few months where the price is $9.50 per bag. That makes it like $39 for 200 gallons! Put it on subscribe and save every month and you get another 5% off so I stack bags every month until Amazon restricts my purchases per month. Lol

The question is not just about saving just a few dollars. Are the other salts worth double the price of IO?

Is double the price worth for it for the extra alk, calc and mag? Increasing the levels in IO via supplementation still doesn't justify the cost disparity.

What about the BS marketing: Are "vitamins" "amino acids" . Is all that stuff shown scientifically to have efficacy in our tanks? And still the same question: "Is it worth double the cost?"

There are plenty of Tank of the Months in Reef2Reef and more on Reefcentral, through the years which I have seen use Instant Ocean. They can have successful tanks on this salt and still save money.

I think Dr. Randy Holmes Farley even uses Instant Ocean salt. (I'm not sure lately, but that's what he was using many years ago.)
Anyone care to chime in your opinions? Make me switch salt. I'm bored and you know what that means...add a gadget or change something in the tank. I'm actually considering to get a protein skimmer after all these years! I'm testing out a Tunze 9004 on my frag tank to see if I'm not missing anything. Haven't used a skimmer in 20 years.

I use the IORC. I buy the bucket over the box of bags simply because the price is identical and I get a free bucket out of the deal. Plus, the buckets keep the salt from clumping as easily as it does in a bag if you do not use it all at once.

I have never tried any other brand, and have no desire to. I see my own tank. See how beautiful it looks. See how my corals and fish look happy and healthy, and that is all that matters to me.

With all of the other avenues this hobby has for separating you from your hard earned money, I see no reason to add to it by using more expensive salt.

 

[bruno3047]

I bought 2 200 gal boxes of io last month from chewy delivered for $34.00 each, no way anything else comes close on price.
The trade off is I have to bump the alk down which adds steps to the water changes.

I bought a couple too.

 

[gbroadbridge]

But it's really not twice the cost. BRS did a whole cost comparison video. It works out to be about a $5 a month difference for a 100g tank.

A retailer doing a cost comparison is a waste of viewing time

 

[CK00020]

The amount of empty buckets I have around the house is starting to get a little ridiculous.

 

[ReeferSamster]

Reef Crystals was having an end-of-the-year clearance event. Ridiculous prices across-the-board. I picked up four boxes of 200-gallon mix at an average price of around $36. I googled “reef crystals“ and found this;



I guess the clearance is ongoing.

I usually use IO, but heck I'll get one of those and get a spare bucket for free. I'm a salt bucket hoarder. You never know when you need an emergency water bucket!

 

[ReeferSamster]

I really don't feel that salt choices make or break your aquarium. There are alot of things to stress about in this hobby, salt should not be one of them.

If it doesn't make or break your aquarium why spend double the money for salt?

 

[Jedi1199]

I usually use IO, but heck I'll get one of those and get a spare bucket for free. I'm a salt bucket hoarder. You never know when you need an emergency water bucket!

Last time I checked... about a month and a half ago, the $/g price was identical for either the 200g box or the 160g bucket.

 

[ReeferSamster]

The trade off is I have to bump the alk down which adds steps to the water changes.

Thats interesting, whats your ALK? Mine is good at 8 right after the mix.
Or is my Hanna ALK checker out of calibration...

 

[Jedi1199]

Just checked on Amazon right now.

The 160g bucket: $39.99

The 200g box: $86.41

 

[ReeferSamster]

Just checked on Amazon right now.

The 160g bucket: $39.99

The 200g box: $86.41

Check out the 50 gallon bags of IO. Its 11.99 It makes no sense. The 50 gallon bags are cheaper than the higher volume ones. Shouldn't it be less in cost as you go higher in volume?

So the 200 gallon box is $51.85 right now for IO regular (not reef crystals)
but if you buy 4 50 gallon bags, it ends up being $47.96 and thats before the 5% subscribe and save monthly deliveries.

I think someone in Amazon screwed up. Thats why I'm hoarding IO now. I bought so much during their promo ($9.50 per 50 gallon bag: $36 for 200 gallons) they restricted my IO purchases last month.
They thought I was going to resell them.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

The 50 gallon bags of reef crystals are only $7.63 each on Amazon now with free prime shipping. I bought 3 yesterday (the limit) and had my brother buy me another 3 today using his prime account. Normally I buy Reef Crystals through Petsmart. Their website price is usually $39.99, and then my wife gets 15% off as an associate, and then she picks up in store.

I've used reef crystals and instant ocean for years, wouldn't switch to anything else. Normally use reef crystals though, only because we get it cheaper than instant ocean

 

[Hugster78]

If it doesn't make or break your aquarium why spend double the money for salt?

When I mix my TMP it’s clear in an hour. RC takes a day. My buckets are clean after years of mixing. Not the case with RC. I have high end sps. Why would I want that nasty brown caking agent with expensive coral. Yes I am sure lots of sps keepers use all different kinds of salt. But I don’t. Just one reefers opinion.

 

[DopamineKata]

A retailer doing a cost comparison is a waste of viewing time

So, a comparison with published methodology and easily verifiable results is a waste of time? That seems silly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just about every salt representative I've talked over 15yrs has pretty much said

"You're not paying extra for what's in the salt but what's NOT in the salt.... contaminates"

I believe IO comes from evaporation pools, evaporated down to minerals



Who knows what's in that salt mix and how well they refined-out contaminates (?)


.

All salt everywhere comes ultimately from dried ocean water (or other salty bodies of water), either dried long ago and mined from the ground, or more recently from evaporation ponds.

Pharma grade sodium chloride is not some sort of lab creation.

 

[gbroadbridge]

So, a comparison with published methodology and easily verifiable results is a waste of time? That seems silly.

The retailer can adjust pricing of any product at any time to suit their own agenda. Believing a sales video is silly.

 

[sawdonkey]

I’m too fat dumb and happy using reef crystals for decades to know any better. I’ve never tried another salt because reef crystals works….and like op said, it’s about half price. I have a hookup where I get it for less that $40 per box too, so that helps.

 

[bruno3047]

A retailer doing a cost comparison is a waste of viewing time

Check out the 50 gallon bags of IO. Its 11.99 It makes no sense. The 50 gallon bags are cheaper than the higher volume ones. Shouldn't it be less in cost as you go higher in volume?

So the 200 gallon box is $51.85 right now for IO regular (not reef crystals)
but if you buy 4 50 gallon bags, it ends up being $47.96 and thats before the 5% subscribe and save monthly deliveries.

When they’re running clearance events, which is what they’re doing, you get these price discrepancies simply because of product availability and inventory levels.

 

[DopamineKata]

The retailer can adjust pricing of any product at any time to suit their own agenda.

Oh my. You realize there's an equation involved right? Where cost is a variable? Like you can plug in whatever price you can buy the salts at and get a cost per gallon? And then compare that cost across retailers?

 

[bruno3047]

When liveaquaria was still solid, they introduced their professional used-on-site salt. 40 bucks for 200 gallon box. Stuff was great. No residue. Clear immediately. Outstanding ALK & CA levels. Now it’s 70 bucks for the same thing, and if they ever go on sale it’s only for 60 bucks. I’m now using reef crystals and waiting for the clearance events. I’ll deal with the precipitation and spend the extra money on something else.

BTW I read someplace where this is the exact same mix as Fritz.