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I/O Salt Buy

So I heard a lot of guys buy I/O at LFS cause they get a discount in bulk. Just wondering if anyone has done that and what they might have paid? I've been buying 2 buckets at a time over at petco and they have a sale for 30/each right now. So am thinking about grabbing 4 buckets.
 
Or if you’re close to the hidden reef I think they are selling them for 30 or maybe a little cheaper. That’s where I get my salt. Need to get some stuff for my QTs tomorrow and can check if I end up there.
 
Or if you’re close to the hidden reef I think they are selling them for 30 or maybe a little cheaper. That’s where I get my salt. Need to get some stuff for my QTs tomorrow and can check if I end up there.


thanks but it's a bit of a hike for me. called around and nobody is doing a good price.

I'll just grab some buckets from Petco before the sale ends. maybe 6
 
Curious to inow what raw materials could Instant Ocean be putting in their Reef Crystals to warrant $80 a bucket compared to $30 for IO? It seems to me that a bucket of RC starts out as a bucket of IO. Then something must be taken out of the IO bucket to make room for what ever it is they use to make RC. Could it really cost more than double to produce RC? What am I missing?
 

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
RC has higher alk and calc....and vitamins, not to mention that it leaves that brown/gray deposit in your mixing bucket. No idea what "vitamins" do for your tank. And if you shop at Sea Level Aquarium, there's only a ten dollar difference between the 200 gallon boxes of IO versus RC....$35 versus $45, respectively.
 

amado

Dal
Staff member
Board of Directors
NJRC Member
I was finally able to pick up two buckets of reef
Crystals. Thank you this was a good sale
 
D

Deleted member 27248

Guest
RC bucket is 45 shipped on Amazon.I stopped using it, too much junk floating around in it.
 

25% off orders of $50+ when you buy online & pick up in-store! Discount applied in cart.​

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amado

Dal
Staff member
Board of Directors
NJRC Member
So I am adding about 200 gallons of salt water.
To my system today. Two tanks 120 and 50 frag tank.
So I need a lot of salt cheap. This is my take.
Instant ocean and reef crystals have been working for people for years. Everyone was ok with using that salt.
Then BRS does a video saying there is no difference in price
Between the top most expensive salt and the cheap reef crystals. The messed up the numbers because they didn’t put the actual price of the I/o.
As soon as they released that video people started to complain about dirty mixing barrels. People started using German lab made salt. They pushed tropic Marin salt that cost twice as much as reef crystals. They pushed this product so much that reefers couldn’t get their hands on this salt. It was in back order because the company was not able to keep up with orders.
All salts will work and all salts will maintain your reef.

BRS shouldn’t dictate what salt you buy. Their marketing is very strong. I like to use fritz at the moment BRS doesn’t sell fritz so they didn’t add it to the salt challenge.
Fritz is also cheaper than tropic Marin so they didn’t add it. It also mixes clean. Jason fox has been using instant ocean for years and he is able to grow everything.
 
Last edited:
200,gallon boxes of IO are 27.99 at The Hidden Reef. Hard to beet that price if you’re making a lot of saltwater. Now the 200 gallons that IO claims is at a lower salinity than we run our reef tanks but stilll hard to beat. When mixing larger volumes it’s not much of a hassle to adjust the parameters to where you want them.
 
200,gallon boxes of IO are 27.99 at The Hidden Reef. Hard to beet that price if you’re making a lot of saltwater. Now the 200 gallons that IO claims is at a lower salinity than we run our reef tanks but stilll hard to beat. When mixing larger volumes it’s not much of a hassle to adjust the parameters to where you want them.
worth the trip if i buy at least 4? 52 miles from me and 80 minute travel time each direction. petco is 20 miles and 27 minutes each direction.
$17 v $7 in gas (not including tolls etc)

800g for ~130 v 800g for ~150 (applied the 5% reward)
so drive 100 extra minutes for 20. maybe after the sale is over
anyway i wouldnt be able to get away like that. wife and kids will try to tag along and by the time i add dunkin donuts and mcdonalds into the mix, now im losing LOL
 
So I am adding about 200 gallons of salt water.
To my system today. Two tanks 120 and 50 frag tank.
So I need a lot of salt cheap. This is my take.
Instant ocean and reef crystals have been working for people for years. Everyone was ok with using that salt.
Then BRS does a video saying there is no difference in price
Between the top most expensive salt and the cheap reef crystals. The messed up the numbers because they didn’t put the actual price of the I/o.
As soon as they released that video people started to complain about dirty mixing barrels. People started using German lab made salt. They pushed tropic Marin salt that cost twice as much as reef crystals. They pushed this product so much that reefers couldn’t get their hands on this salt. It was in back order because the company was not able to keep up with orders.
All salts will work and all salts will maintain your reef.

BRS shouldn’t dictate what salt you buy. Their marketing is very strong. I like to use fritz at the moment BRS doesn’t sell fritz so they didn’t add it to the salt challenge.
Fritz is also cheaper than tropic Marin so they didn’t add it. It also mixes clean. Jason fox has been using instant ocean for years and he is able to grow everything.
BRS is one of the greatest marketing operations I have ever seen in my life. I love to watch them but have never bought anything from them and go out of my way not to. I never buy from anyone who is selling hard. Even recently I spoke to the guy from lifereef skimmers and his hard sell drove me far away to the point where I don't even want to hear about his product. Funny thing is after he called me several times I did call him back but I was already dead set not to buy anything from him. That being said, I'm sure his skimmers are good and I'm sure BRS carries great products but my personality will not allow me to buy from them. Possibly if they had an exclusive, but even then it would be a regretful purchase.
 
BRS is one of the greatest marketing operations I have ever seen in my life. I love to watch them but have never bought anything from them and go out of my way not to. I never buy from anyone who is selling hard. Even recently I spoke to the guy from lifereef skimmers and his hard sell drove me far away to the point where I don't even want to hear about his product. Funny thing is after he called me several times I did call him back but I was already dead set not to buy anything from him. That being said, I'm sure his skimmers are good and I'm sure BRS carries great products but my personality will not allow me to buy from them. Possibly if they had an exclusive, but even then it would be a regretful purchase.
I'm the same way. The way they market their things is genius but sometimes you can tell they're pushing a certain product because it makes them more money. People forget sometimes that their channel is based on their business and their business side wants to make as much money as possible. I've never bought anything from them. Doubt i ever will unless i absolutely cannot find it in any lfs (which I've yet to run into that) and even then I'd probably turn to something like amazon
 
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