Neptune Aquatics

What salt would you actually buy at High Tide?

Darkxerox

Darkxerox

Facilities, Events, LFS Partnership
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I was chatting with Kenny aka @under_water_ninja last weekend and didn't realize how hard it was to stock salt! He mentioned that there's a huge variety of brands and to make it economically viable for the store, it's better if one larger order of certain salts was made. Since I want to support my LFS...what brand/version would you actually go buy at High Tide?

(Also I'm not seeing a poll option below so just reply and I'll edit)

  • Tropic Marin Pro (9)
  • Red Sea Blue (3)
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
 
Last edited:
JVU said:
Tropic Marin Pro

(edit: To be fair, the price would have to be in the same ballpark as buying online to make sense. I think this is hard to do and nothing against Kenny if it doesn’t work.)
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Ditto this. It's hard to beat the prices, especially delivering right to our door. But if the prices are pretty close, it's a good excuse to get out to a LFS.
 
JVU said:
Tropic Marin Pro

(edit: To be fair, the price would have to be in the same ballpark as buying online to make sense. I think this is hard to do and nothing against Kenny if it doesn’t work.)
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Most online places like BRS buys TM salt by containers, direct from TM so they didn’t have to add much shipping cost to the cost per bucket.

LFS generally can’t/won’t do that. If they’re lucky enough, they can afford to buy it by the pallet. Shipping on a pallet of TM salt from SoCal to NorCal cost about $400/pallet because that salt are extremely heavy. For this exact reason, I can never match BRS prices without losing money. And because TM brand of salt already have very very slim margin (about 30%), most LFS don’t like to carry it. Spending $3K on a pallet a salt to make nothing doesn’t exactly make great business sense, unless you do it for a different reason. I do it because I have too many customers bitching and groaning about carrying it so I gave in and considered it a lost leader.
 
B the Nano Reefer said:
Not to hijack the thread, but why the switch? I currently use coral pro as well
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Alk is too high so it swings my parameters when I do a water change. I used to keep mine at coral pro levels but found it hard to acclimate some corals I got. Easier to just run at the 8-9 imo. Also since it's on the high side it's too easy for it to climb to danger levels if you don't test often or have automation.
 
robert4025 said:
Most online places like BRS buys TM salt by containers, direct from TM so they didn’t have to add much shipping cost to the cost per bucket.

LFS generally can’t/won’t do that. If they’re lucky enough, they can afford to buy it by the pallet. Shipping on a pallet of TM salt from SoCal to NorCal cost about $400/pallet because that salt are extremely heavy. For this exact reason, I can never match BRS prices without losing money. And because TM brand of salt already have very very slim margin (about 30%), most LFS don’t like to carry it. Spending $3K on a pallet a salt to make nothing doesn’t exactly make great business sense, unless you do it for a different reason. I do it because I have too many customers bitching and groaning about carrying it so I gave in and considered it a lost leader.
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Yeah I realize that, which is why I went back and put my edit. And I remember a few years ago when you did this for us at cost when there was a TMP shortage Robert, that was cool.

I just would hate for this poll thread to make it look like there are tons of people who want to buy TMP or other premium salt locally, only to find that very few want to spend $20 more per bucket locally, after a pallet comes in.

People sometimes misjudge and don’t have enough salt on hand when they really need it, and in those panic times they are happy to pay more to be able to get it locally, today. So it is still super useful to the community to support an LFS willing to stock good salt.
 
JVU said:
Yeah I realize that, which is why I went back and put my edit. And I remember a few years ago when you did this for us at cost when there was a TMP shortage Robert, that was cool.

I just would hate for this poll thread to make it look like there are tons of people who want to buy TMP or other premium salt locally, only to find that very few want to spend $20 more per bucket locally, after a pallet comes in.

People sometimes misjudge and don’t have enough salt on hand when they really need it, and in those panic times they are happy to pay more to be able to get it locally, today. So it is still super useful to the community to support an LFS willing to stock good salt.
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Yeah, after doing that several times, I realize that the steady demand wasn’t going to go away so I made it a permanent staple in the shop. Don’t get me wrong, TM is the Ferrari of salt and it’s what I use on all my service clients now but man, it’s a terribly slow mover because of its price point.
 
Thanks for the knowledge and experience @robert4025 ! If pricing improves by having more local stores get in on combined buying, then I think folks here would be more than willing to put an preorder in for their next salt needs too. Way more buying power etc.

I figure salt is something you have to have on hand kind for your own store needs and when someone is starting up, even if it is a loss leader. I know you have NSW too, but the cost on that has to be pretty high for you as well.
 
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