Tropic Marin Pro Substitutes

Koigula

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Not on website and no email was sent for waiting list. Maybe it will show up today. It is not on Facebook or email distribution. I would hate to find out it is reserved for important customers.
 
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tricky_tran

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LAX Aquariums


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Duffer

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I wish we had more control of retail pricing. But we don't. I want to be very clear about this, though, Tropic Marin has not had any recent price increases. If you are seeing elevated prices, it is a result of either distributors or retailers pricing decisions. Not originating with us, the manufacturer.
@Lou Ekus I just saw on a major retailer/vendor that alot of us here use, a price increase in your salt. They are stating it's MAP increase. This is very disappointing. Not only could you not get the salt for months on end, but now with the salt supposedly becoming more available in short time there is a price increase...

How do you justify this?
If this is how Tropic does business, as i was a strong supporter of the brand, i feel this is a bad business move...
 

GillMeister

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@Lou Ekus I just saw on a major retailer/vendor that alot of us here use, a price increase in your salt. They are stating it's MAP increase. This is very disappointing. Not only could you not get the salt for months on end, but now with the salt supposedly becoming more available in short time there is a price increase...

How do you justify this?
If this is how Tropic does business, as i was a strong supporter of the brand, i feel this is a bad business move...
Ooh, ooh ooh! Who saw this coming? This guy did. I said they weren't going to meet demand and raise prices and it looks like I was right. There's also a thread that says they'll be able to meet demand by the middle of 2021. Well, we're at the middle of 2021 and you still can't find a reliable supply.
 

Lou Ekus

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@Lou Ekus I just saw on a major retailer/vendor that alot of us here use, a price increase in your salt. They are stating it's MAP increase. This is very disappointing. Not only could you not get the salt for months on end, but now with the salt supposedly becoming more available in short time there is a price increase...

How do you justify this?
If this is how Tropic does business, as i was a strong supporter of the brand, i feel this is a bad business move...
This will be something that the home hobbyist will most likely not understand. But I am going to try my best to be honest, candid and transparent in my response, as I always do.

This MAP increase has NOTHING to do with the increase in demand that we have seen over the past year. The true and actual reason the MAP pricing is increasing is because, at the current time, there are increases in shipping costs from overseas of more than 200% in many cases. Tropic Marin has done a very good job of not passing increased shipping costs on to our customers up to now. However, it is just not possible for us to keep that up now that the increases are getting even larger. For that reason, all of our distributor customers are seeing shipping surcharges added onto their orders. We anticipate that they will, in turn, pass those shipping charges onto their customers, the retailers. We cannot expect retailers to have increased costs from their distributors without passing those costs on to their customers, the hobbyists. In order to support the retailers in our industry, we saw no other course to take other than to increase MAP so that the playing field would be equal for everyone.

This is not a good situation. And I totally agree that this is the worst possible time for this to happen. But NO ONE is making any more money with these MAP increases but the shipping companies. There is no alternative other than stopping shipping to the US altogether. I definitely don't want to do that.

I encourage you to look into the current international container shipping crisis. You will see that everything I am saying is 100% true. The increased supply that we have been talking about for the past year is finally starting to come over. We have not yet hit the middle of this year. But this shipping situation is a horrible crisis that is effecting all imports at the current time.

It is very easy to point fingers and complain. It is so easy to criticize, even when people are working their hardest to make things right. But if you have any concrete solutions to these costs and the current shipping crisis, I encourage you to contact me directly. I would love to know what can be done.

I'm sure I will have to give the information I have given in this post many times before this is over. But this is the real story and the real reason behind these increases. And I stand by everything I have said here. I hope, that when this pandemic is over, things will return to normal and we can stop dealing with these outrageous charges. But for now, we are backed into a corner if we are to continue in this market. My sincere hope is that telling the truth of the situation, that people will understand and continue to believe in the integrity of the Tropic Marin brand.
 
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Cjeippert

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Hi Lou,

I'm happy to provide you with the distributor's name via a PM. I love your products and what you do for the community, I'm truly thankful. I appreciate your response.

The funny thing is I just got a call telling me they got some this afternoon. I purchased 9 200 gallon buckets, I hate to buy that kind of volume but I don't plan on running out of salt again anytime soon. I'll pick it up tomorrow, can't wait until I have to hear the wife complain about this one. Either way, I'm happy now and my reef thanks you.
People are hoarding the salt like TOilet paper during covid. Is there really that many new reefers in US . In AZ there are only a handful of marine aquarium stores. None carry tropic marin. Only brs it seems. Noticed brs has it back in stock with a price increase and sold in boxes now.
 

Cjeippert

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Used to use IO, since decades ago, when that was all that was available. Not certain why I switched... looking for something better, I suppose.

When BRS started doing their salt testing, I was using Red Sea. Red Sea left a tremendous amount of guck in my mixing barrel, so I watched BRS's testing results, and switched to HW Marine Mix. Shortly thereafter, it went out of stock. Not having what I need available is simply unacceptable... so I switched to TM Classic. Until it too went unavailable.

So... I'm evaluating my options...

From BRS's clear mixing tests, Tropic Marin, HW Reefer, and Regular IO are all, to my eye, equivalent.

From BRS's Calc/Alk/Mag testing, Tropic Marin Regular was 375/10/1230. TM Pro was 450/8.5/1380. Regular IO was 400/11/1350.

From a cost standpoint, IO is by far the least expensive. Chewy has it for $40.72 for the 200g box, delivered.

From an availability standpoint, IO is everywhere, and you get your pick of packaging.

Why was it most of us moved away from IO? Chasing something better? Not sure we ever found it.

Oh, Shedd's Aquarium uses IO, as does Georgia Aquarium, Bass Pro's aquarium... Works for them.

I went back to IO, and unless something dramatic changes, I'm done worrying about salt mix.
The alk in my TM pro reef is 7.4. It allows reefers to boost it up to the exact match of the DT. I use to run a ulns at 8 to 8.3 dkh. I accidentally let the dkh fall to 7 with coral tissue necrosis. So now I keep it at 9.0 dkh. I just add like 20 ml of soda ash to brute trash can and my water is about perfect where I like to run. 440 calcium, 1400 mag, 1.025salinity, 9.0 dkh alk. Btw. I have never seen yellow salt
 

PeterC99

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This will be something that the home hobbyist will most likely not understand. But I am going to try my best to be honest, candid and transparent in my response, as I always do.

This MAP increase has NOTHING to do with the increase in demand that we have seen over the past year. The true and actual reason the MAP pricing is increasing is because, at the current time, there are increases in shipping costs from overseas of more than 200% in many cases. Tropic Marin has done a very good job of not passing increased shipping costs on to our customers up to now. However, it is just not possible for us to keep that up now that the increases are getting even larger. For that reason, all of our distributor customers are seeing shipping surcharges added onto their orders. We anticipate that they will, in turn, pass those shipping charges onto their customers, the retailers. We cannot expect retailers to have increased costs from their distributors without passing those costs on to their customers, the hobbyists. In order to support the retailers in our industry, we saw no other course to take other than to increase MAP so that the playing field would be equal for everyone.

This is not a good situation. And I totally agree that this is the worst possible time for this to happen. But NO ONE is making any more money with these MAP increases but the shipping companies. There is no alternative other than stopping shipping to the US altogether. I definitely don't want to do that.

I encourage you to look into the current international container shipping crisis. You will see that everything I am saying is 100% true. The increased supply that we have been talking about for the past year is finally starting to come over. We have not yet hit the middle of this year. But this shipping situation is a horrible crisis that is effecting all imports at the current time.

It is very easy to point fingers and complain. It is so easy to criticize, even when people are working their hardest to make things right. But if you have any concrete solutions to these costs and the current shipping crisis, I encourage you to contact me directly. I would love to know what can be done.

I'm sure I will have to give the information I have given in this post many times before this is over. But this is the real story and the real reason behind these increases. And I stand by everything I have said here. I hope, that when this pandemic is over, things will return to normal and we can stop dealing with these outrageous charges. But for now, we are backed into a corner if we are to continue in this market. My sincere hope is that telling the truth of the situation, that people will understand and continue to believe in the integrity of the Tropic Marin brand.
Appreciate the honest reply. Seeing major price increases on everything from lumber, copper, food, etc.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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