Mix it yourself, OR buy pre-made from your LFS?

[gamedawg]

I hate having to go to my LFS to get saltwater, but I do love that I don't have to do anything to it but POUR. On the other hand, I'm trying to figure out what's cheaper. I have never bought salt, so I don't know the price or gallons per container it makes. I pay $1.10 per gallon for seawater, and $.99 per gallon for ro/di saltwater. I have seen salt in buckets, but I think those are like $50. If I bought one of those bags of salt, I would also need to buy tap water conditioner and what else? Would the cost and the "pain in the butt" factor compare to buying premade saltwater?

 

[nereef]

a "55 gallon" bag of salt, meaning it is supposed to be able to make 55 gallons of saltwater, runs me about 15 bucks. If you don't have a RO unit than you either should buy one or buy the RO water. I get Culligan water for 30 cents a gallon at walmart. This means that a 5 gallon water change this way would cost you $1.36 for salt and $1.50 for water equaling $2.86. At LFS, 5 gallons of seawater costs $5.50 and 5 gallons RO/DI saltwater would cost about $5. However, those are just my figures, and the choice is up to you. You save a little money making it yourself (if this wasn't the case, the pet store wouldn't be making a profit selling it to you). Also buying stuff "in bulk" is always cheaper.

 

[bigb]

The larger the quantity of salt mix the bigger the savings.
A decent RO/DI filter can be found for $115.00 and 150 gallons of salt runs me about $33.00. I figure my 1st 150 gallons would cost .99 then .22 after that. Not to mention I don't need to buy RO water for top offs anymore. You can't beat having water whenever you need/want it.

 

[jumpfrog]

According to your profile you have a 55 gallon tank.
Let's say you're doing 5 gallon water changes each week ($265.20) annual cost of LFS saltwater and 3 gallons of top-off r/o each week ($140.40) annual cost for a total of $405.60.
Buy an r/o unit $150 and 2 150 gallon buckets of salt (approx $100). Your first year annual cost is $250.
Your second year annual cost is approx $78.00 [$.30 a gallon for saltwater] (not counting your house water bill change. (it won't be much)
So, is the expense worth the hassle for you? Only you can decide.
The only reason I did this math is because I was curious myself. I went for years with store bought water and the hassle just wasn't worth it. Since going to ro/di I don't even think about water costs as they're so low.
Good luck!

 

[cowfishrule]

i buy my ro/saltwater at the lfs for $1/gallon. the reason that i do this is that this is also where i buy all my livestock from. doing this keeps my tank water the same (or close enough) to where i get my stuff from. this allows me to only temp acclimate my stuff. (dont have to drip).
i have found nothing but success since i have started this.
i know that in the end it costs a bit more, but i'll pay for not having to worry about acclimation problems.

 

[gamedawg]

Since I'm not going to buy any kind of RO setup for my home, I would have to get water from Culligan like you NEreef, and if I have to go get the water, I may as well just buy the saltwater premade from my LFS. Thanks for helping out!