Let's talk about $alt

[WarDaddy]

As many of you have seen I am working on a small farm setup. The biggest monthly expense that I have to face is SALT.

How are you guys dealing with salt costs?

I am looking at a product that is all the trace elements in sea water, 400 gallons worth in a 5 gallon bucket. Add that plus SALT bought locally to water and mix well... It works out to maybe $0.20 a gallon of salt water... Where the commercial premix stuff works out to be about $0.28 to $0.30 or more per gallon.

that 8 to 10+ cents a gallon works out to be a lot after a 50% water cycle.

What do you guys think?

here is the product I am looking at:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/1559

[Ding2daDong]

I dont know how big your system is but if I were you Id buy a pallet of reef crystals. We did that were I work and it came out to be really cheap.

-Matt

[WarDaddy]

Who sells pallets?

[RCS]

At F&S right now, a 160g bucket of Reef Crystals is $31.99. Shipping at $260.01= is $17.99.

Even at the minimum, 9 buckets would make that a total of $0.212 per gallon of mix. I would imagine a pallet is cheaper...

[Ding2daDong]

Oh im sorry I meant instant ocean. I work at a LFS and since we also do custom installs and sell salt to the public we have a pallet in our back bay. I would call instant ocean and see how much it would be. It has a few hundred boxes and each box has 3 bags in it soo thats alot.

-Matt

[redox]

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w1/ghgrown/salt.jpg

[WarDaddy]

That there is some salt... eesh.

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, mind if I ask who you purchased it through?

[Stoney Mahony]

The super salt works really good, just be sure to use a good pure sodium chloride when mixing it up. I believe you can buy pallets of reefcrystals and IO from aquatic if you cant get them directly from IO.

[WarDaddy]

Stoney,
The super salt... is the 99.5% pure Morton Salt stuff they sell all the place here good enough? Or is there a better source of pure salt.

[krustofsky]

sorry this is off topic, but Stoney Mahoney great choice on quotes. two of the greatest bands in the world. As for salt i'm sure if you were willing to buy a lot you could get a major discount at a lfs. IO is cheap but many se it for their reefs.

[Stoney Mahony]

Yeah, the mortons should be fine. They sell it in 80 pound bags and it's a little cheaper that way. I am sure you could google "Mortons salt bulk order" or something like that it and find a great deal.

Krustofsky- Welcome to Reef Central and thanks! Your out there in Cali where it's all goin down man. I would love to see some old school SOAD in cali..seen some old shows on you tube and Serj goes psycho! :smokin:

[DrBDC]

Even buying IO at petsmart at 31.99 a 160 bucket is less than 20cents/gallon. I'll bet buying a pallet will get it down to 13 or 14 cents/gallon.

[AIMFish]

Redox, you must have a good pump in your salt mixing vat, the Crystal Sea that I used took forever to dilute and still left residue in the bottom of the drum.

[raaden]

Bryan,

I looked at using the super salt, and almost decided to go with it. The main reasons I chose against it were the following:
[list=1] The warning on the mix. **Contains low levels of caustic materials present in other salts that cause "metal plating," which ruins impellers, pumps and filters**
The MSDS sheet for even the Mortons salt lists some pretty nasty stuff as possibly being in the bag. Granted it is a small amount but...
Mixing imperfections. Being able to get a consistent mix is pretty important for corals, much moreso than other types of marine aquaculture (for which I think this product is intended). and I think a consistent mix would be much more difficult using that stuff
The cost is not that much different when you look at buying salt in bulk. [/list=1] If you are going to be using alot you can definitely get a good deal going to the manufacturers. You will probably need to buy atleast 2 pallets to make it worth it, but the price will be well worth it and you will save a ton on shipping.

If you decide to use the Super Salt I am very interested in how it works out as the big thing I like is that you can just run down to the HD and pick up salt whenever you need it instead of having to find a place to store pallets of mixed salt.

[WarDaddy]

I am torn... I am thinking of going the PetSmart route, they match the web price at the brick and mortar store, but they usually do not have more than a couple 5 gallon buckets in stock. When I am at full operation I will be going through almost 2 buckets a week. I would imagine that the PertSmart would get sick of selling me their whole stock at the website price. I should go talk to a manager.

I also need to call the manufactures and see what pricing I may be able to secure. Storage is a big problem for me, I do not have a whole lot of space, but I may have a spot I can stack 10 - 15 buckets or so.

[lgoins]

I understand that you will have a large system, but 2 buckets a week? Why change out so much water?

[WarDaddy]

Suggested by Calfo. The system will be pretty "dirty" with heaving feeding to maximize growth rates. Weekly 50% changes will allow me to keep the water quality high. I hope to get away with 25% weekly changes, but I am planning on 50% and going from there.

Only time will tell as I get my brood stock up in numbers and fine tune my procedures.

[WarDaddy]

So I just made a little lunch time research run, stopped by my local PetSmart. I spoke with the Product Manager and she said they would price match the website, and she said that she would order me any amount that I would need. Order by Wednesday morning and receive the salt 10 days later on Friday. Sweet!

With that being said, looks like PetSmart may be my best bet for now. The price comes ot to under $0.20 per gallon and I can tailor fit my orders as my production increases. Sounds pretty good me :-)

[Indermark]

When I worked for Petsmart if they had a customer that needed a product in large amounts we would permanetly up the order count so we would get more in. We would then call the customer and tell them the product is in. Try asking them to do that for you if you are going to be a regular. Petsmart did this with Royal canin dog food "large breed german shepard formula" for someone at a store that is about 20minutes from the one I worked at we would get in maybe if we were lucky 2 or 3 bags a week and the other store would get a pallet full of this formula every 3weeks.

Ryan

[WarDaddy]

Sounds like PetSmart is a pretty good outfit. They are making sure the customers are happy, and as a result, I keep ending up there

[Stoney Mahony]

Sounds good to me :) I never really thought of pet smart as a place I would buy supplies but they sound like they are doing good buisness. Thats the way to go is right to the manager, good call.

[Philip Root]

I buy salt by the pallet I get it for $ .135 per gallon. Free delivey too....

[printitonup]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9420888#post9420888 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philip Root
I buy salt by the pallet I get it for $ .135 per gallon. Free delivey too....

from where philip what kinda salt?

[WarDaddy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9420888#post9420888 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philip Root
I buy salt by the pallet I get it for $ .135 per gallon. Free delivey too....

you are such a tease!