whats your thoughts on this

Calogero831

Calogero831

AC Members
Jun 12, 2007
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http://www.petco.com/product/11884/PETCO-Real-Ocean-Water.aspx
buying balanced oceanwater.
iv mixed before but hate doing it. had to buy a big bucket, a couple jugs of distilled water, salt mix, and a new powerhead to mixm plus has to keep it next to my tank and it was an eye sore.
this seems alot easier and seems ot be getting alot of good reviews.
only downfall is its a little pricy 11 bucks for 5gal.
but what the hell... after all the money you spent so far this is pennies haha
 
Yeah...I would rather mix it myself. I do alot of water changes and 11.00 for 5 gallons would kill me!! :)
 
I have a relatively small tank, by way of saltwater (29g) and do 5g a week change.

That would work out to $44 a month or $528 a year for the water you mentioned.

And that's just for the salt water.

I probably add a 1/2 gallon a day for top off (non salted), and figure that's $1 a gallon, or ~$160 a year for even cheap walmart distilled water.

So, now we're at ~$700 a year for buying water.

And that doesn't include the annoyance of having to go get water all the time, store it, and the occasional usage of tap water for top off because you don't have time to go get water that day and you have to keep the salinity constant.

Now, on the flip side, you can get

2x buckets of reef crystals for $100 (and still have some salt left over for the next year)

a NICE RO/DI unit for $100

hydrometer for $6

powerhead for $20

So, $226 for a year worth of water, vs. $700.

Now, a lot of people like to stick heaters in their water when they mix the salt, but I just use the powerhead. It heats the water to a certain extent, and is all I've needed so far.

Anyway, I went the purchased water route for a while, and ended up running into problems and spending more money than I expected.

So...take that info anyway you want. ;)
 
Like Grins said himself, I rather to mix it myself for one other thing is troubling about this water just seating on some store shelf, and that is how long has it been there for I would be worried about if the water in that item holds up if at all and I'm another issue on this and that is I mix my salt either the night before the morning I use it or the same day and I not have a mixer of saltwater just seating around for weeks or months.
 
:iagree:
Personally, I would stick with mixing it yourself...like everyone else seems to feel. I guess for me it's just the peace of mind knowing the chemical balance in my tanks are under control by what I do to alter them.

On a side note OldManOfTheSea...I think Grins is a girl. ;)
 
I think that 11 bucks for 5 gallons of mixed water is insane!!!!! I can go to my LFS and get 11G of premixed OR 22G or regular RO/DI!! I tend to buy my water as I havent invested in an RO/DI unit :duh: :duh: :duh: It a lil cheaper though than buying that kind of water from petco. But I think mixing water or having a water shash comes with having a saltwater aquarium. But well worth it imo.
 
On a side note OldManOfTheSea...I think Grins is a girl
Click to expand...
Yes, Grins is a girl, but a personal note on that is that Grins is a silly knucklehead :duh:

I forget small details such as this, for I forget a good many things due to that I not even remember now and then what day of the week it is. Lets just hope that you not have this problem when you get my age.


But on your personal thoughts on the topic, I still rather mix it 100% myself for I know then in doing this myself, I also know that I know need to worry myself on using some ready mix saltwater product.


SHK_ATK, in the long run of your tank, a RO/DI unit will pay for itself after a while specially if you need to use 40-75 gals a week or better and then you have to transporting it home and at times to do this will interfere with you doing something else that you wanted to do. But then its the amount of time involved on driving out to your lfs and back home. For when I was still doing this, it took me an average 90 minutes if not two hours to drive both ways.


PS. I also forgotten to mention that it cost you gas money and that it adds to the wear and tear to your car>
 
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