Welcome home, and I buy instant ocean salt from
Amazon for 39.99 and most of my fish and fish related goods online.
No shame, nothing against local fish stores but it's just one more place that my fish adjust to that statistically is VERY likely to have a myriad of parasites. Fish direct from warehouse have enough issues, I try to source my fish more direct. I also "specialize" in expert to difficult level fish, so this is especially important to me.
For every other business I try to buy local, but I can't lie
Amazon and eBay are my life. I can afford to have MORE stuff as a result of not spending more money locally, and as an MBA graduate holding a bachelors degree in marketing, international business, with an Econ minor, I would say that businesses better just learn to adapt because this is the future. Right wrong or indifferent - globalization and lower cost distribution channels will win out!
I try to pay it forward and help all hobbyists with my free time and sell "used" livestock and equipment locally. I frequently move "inventory" (fish) as I upgrade to nicer, more rare or beautiful stock.
We do what we can!
But 39.99 salt... I've used instant ocean for 12 years. It's great stuff. Other salts may be superior but in the volumes I need (with around 700 gallons total volume in my house) I just buy instant ocean and it works for my needs.
Admittedly I have easy to intermediate corals mostly with some rare zoanthids, frogspawn, hammer, and 4 types of montipora being the "most difficult" coral I keep. Perhaps there is something to say about more expensive salt for the higher end stuff. Wouldn't know.
I just found a ZOA that runs $700!
