Instant ocean salinity?

[Dom]

Link to Amazon I always use this stuff

This is what I've always used too. Priced right and convenient to get.

The quality of their mix these days is shoddy. I've personally experienced two of these 200 gallon mix boxes with super low ALK and super high MAG. There are other threads regarding IO quality as well.

 

[Homebrewer]

I just go into petsmart. Mine matchs chewy and i get either the bags for the 11.87$ or the bucket for 34.84$.

Because 3 bags of 150 gallons for 35.61$. So you get 10 gallons more in the bucket for 34.84 so less money. And you dont have to wait for shipping. Two buckets would be 320 gallons worth for $69.68. Or 300 gallons worth of 6 bags for $71.22. So 20 gallons more with two buckets for 2$ less.

Plus you get more buckets !!! Lol

That’s a sweet deal! I don’t need any more buckets so I try and stick with the bags. I started buying the 200 gallon box then I found the 50 gallon Chewy thing as a way to save on that.

But you’re totally right, that deal so far seems the best. Math is cool!

 

[Lenett]

Lordjosh, I don't use the directions. Just mix until I get the right salinity. Never seem to have an issue that way, but mix 35 gal at a time.

 

[SaltISlife]

This is what I've always used too. Priced right and convenient to get.

The quality of their mix these days is shoddy. I've personally experienced two of these 200 gallon mix boxes with super low ALK and super high MAG. There are other threads regarding IO quality as well.

Never had low alk.. ever lol in fact its always like 13 for me.

But i have had low magnesium. In the 1250 range at 1.026. I had to go to 1.027 to get it up to 1300.

But they are really good at fixing this. I called them.. gave em my receipts and pics of the bucket and bags serial numbers so they can track the batch down. And they mailed me 5 50 gallon bags for free no questions asked. Which had magnesium at 1370.

If a company is willing to do this without any fight or arguments then that is a company i will stick with..

 

[SaltISlife]

Lordjosh, I don't use the directions. Just mix until I get the right salinity. Never seem to have an issue that way, but mix 35 gal at a time.

Yea its easy with my cup in the bucket. Since its exact for 1 5g bucket.. but eveb eithout my cup. I can eye ball it fairly easy now.

You get like that overtime.

Kinda like water temps. I can just touch the water coming outa the sink or ina tank and i know its temperature

 

[SDguy]

I just mixed some IO last night. I do 40g trash cans, so I take one bag (50g mix) from the 200g box mix, remove ~5 cups of salt, and use the remainder. I got 1.022-1.023 this morning in each can..

 

[Dom]

If a company is willing to do this without any fight or arguments then that is a company i will stick with..

ON both occasions, BRS sent me a new box, no questions asked. And when a company replaces a product, no questions asked, I interpret it as an acknowledgement they know something is wrong.

 

[SDguy]

Just a tip to check out Chewy. Buy 5x50-gallon bags @ $11.87 each. With free shipping at $49, you get 250 gallons-worth for the same price as the 200 gallon box from Amazon.

Also, BRS has an entire series of videos on salt mixing, one of them addresses the amount the directions say vs the amount you actually need to hit 35ppt. Very interesting stuff. They then normalize the data based on cost - but the prices are BRS prices. As I just pointed out there are ways to beat that. Lastly, price isn’t the only consideration (before someone jumps all over me about quality). My comments here are only about IORC.

Great tip about Chewy, thanks!