Dowflake

[GaryP]

I'm planning on buying another 50 lb. bag of Dowflake (Calcium Chloride). Please let me know if you are interested in part of the bag. This material is the equivalent to Kent Turbo Calcium (77-80% CaCl2). In the past I had to order this off the net. We have found a local supplier so there is no freight involved.

Price should be arond $.30/lb. as compared to $16/lb. for the Kent product.

http://www.cal-chlor.com/PDF/Dowflake.pdf#search='Dowflake'

[theedprado]

I will take a bag Gary.

[DeAngelove]

Yes, I believe its even been used by Randy Holmes-Farley and was even profiled in a past issue of Advanced Aquarist Online Magazine. I have used this stuff in my tank, never used anything else.

Alot of times the increased price is a result of the advertising mark-up.... i.e. advertising isn't cheap!

Just my $0.02... HTH! :)

[VeeDub]

Gary,

At one time, I had asked for some of the DowFlake. I am going to hold off for now and see how the calcium reactor does.

Chris

[BIGBIRD123]

Gary,
I'd like a bag. Can pick it up at the meeting. LMK.

Steve

[GaryP]

Joshua,

My suspicion is that this is exactly the same thing as Turbo calcium. The only real difference I have noticed is the shape of the the crystals. That is pretty much a matter of how the stuff is milled after manufacturing. I've been using it for about a year and have not noticed any difference except for a lot of extra weight in my wallet. I dilute it to 1 lb. per gallon in RO and use it the same way you would B-ionic "B" solution.

How much do you want?

[BIGBIRD123]

Gary,
Can I possibly get a bag? Or whatever I can get.

Steve

[GaryP]

Alot of times the increased price is a result of the advertising mark-up.... i.e. advertising isn't cheap!

Compare the price of Kent Super Dkh to baking soda at HEB. I think that will give you a good idea of the mark up. Of course you know all those Kent commercials during the super bowl don't come cheap.

What!!!! You didn't see them????

[GaryP]

Yea, I guess I'm going to need a bigger car to go get it.

[BIGBIRD123]

Do you need me to pay you now and can I pay you at the meeting?

Stve

[GaryP]

Pay me later. That'll give me some money to play with at the meeting.

[BIGBIRD123]

Will do and thanks, Gary.

Steve

[btacker]

I would like 1 bag please.

[GaryP]

OK, this is what we have so far:

GaryP - 1 bag
theedprado - 1 bag
bigbird123 - 1 bag
btacker - 1 bag
ryanrichter - 1 bag
Joshua - 1 bag
TechnoMex - 1 bag

7 bags total.

Did I miss anyone?

[brewercm]

How large of bags are you going to be making up? I'd be interested in getting some from you.

[technomex]

Uno mas.

[jaded]

I'll take a quantity, I'm not sure how much I need, but I think when we talked about the buffer that a salt bucket full sounded about right.

[GaryP]

Jade, Why don't you split a bag with Cliff (brewer) if you don't want a full bag. A full bag will last you a long time.

[jaded]

sure thing, the bags are 50lbs?

[GaryP]

I just talked to the distributor. They got 200 bags of Dowflake in today, but the price has changed. The new price is $17.50. We will probably have to pay tax on it. That brings us to 19.00. Everybody still in?

[jaded]

Tax??? that pesky government... Im in, am I still splitting a bag? Do I need to contact anyone or are you co-ordinating that Gary?

[GaryP]

I'll take care of it. I'll have it at the meeting next week at FA. If you can't be there, either contact me or find someone to pick it up for you.

[technomex]

Still in.

[speakerguy]

I will take 3 bags please! My Dad was supposed to take care of a group buy for the Bryan/College Station reef folks, but couldn't find any in the Home Depot's when he went up to Illinois last month.

Where is the next meeting btw so I can pay/pick these up?

[eric]

Any problem with revealing your new found source, Gary?

It may be more convenient for me to get a full bag when I'm next in SA. Not sure I'll make the meeting at FA (although all the talk of FA, it's really tempting)

Otherwise, I'd be interested in splitting some - 10 lbs is gonna more than enough for a long time.
Does everybody realize they're asking for full 50 lb bags?

[brewercm]

I'll still split with you Jaded.

Joshua. I don't think I'll even need the 25 pounds if you want part of it. Heck I don't need any at the moment since I don't even have the aquarium up yet. Just jumping on for the ride getting things ready.

[brewercm]

I can see it now, tonight on the news a large what was thought to be drug bust going down at Reef Adict on 22 May. All from mistaken large quantities of white powder being distributed and split up. Gang leader "GARYP". :lol

[jaded]

hey gary... I'll take 3 grams of "the Flake"

yikes that does sound bad!!!

I'm in for half a bag... that doesn't sound any better, but its true

[GaryP]

It actually does look more like crack crystals. The supplier is Univar (formerly Van Waters & Rogers) in San Antonio. If ya'll want to go pick it up yourself, that's fine with me. I work near there and thought I'd help ya'll out.

[brewercm]

I'll pick mine up from you at the meeting, and thanks for getting it for us.

[GaryP]

Those of you that are splitting bags, bring some 1 gal. ziplocks if you want to split it up.

[brewercm]

Just curious since you've been there done that. About how big is the 50lb bag and how many ziplocks (rough estimate) to split it up 50/50.

Thanks

[GaryP]

50 lbs. is about a 5 gal. bucket. I guess we can weigh it into buckets too. A 1 gal. ziplock will hold about 5 lb.

Jade and Cliff - Do you want to do a 3-way split with Joshua on one bag? That would be about 17 lb. each.

[brewercm]

That would be fine with me, either that or Joshua can have part of mine ( 10 or 15lbs) since I won't even be ready to use it until at least July or August and even that much will last me quite a while.

[jaded]

sure... I think that would last me for quite some time... I'll probably bring a tupperwear bucket instead of bags... I'm rough on stuff like that!!!

[BIGBIRD123]

Gary,
I'm still in. I'll go ahead and get the 50# and if anyone in Austin wants to split it with me, that's alright, too.

Steve

[speakerguy]

Cancel my 3 bags, it would be easier for me to pick up on my own. Thanks!

[theedprado]

I still want a bag. they wont give you a deal for quantity? we can say they are for resale. i dont see much of a market for dowflake in san antonio.

[eric]

How does Gary know it looks like crack crystals? He sure knows a lot about chemistry.

[GaryP]

I plead the fifth on my knowledge of underground chemistry.

I checked on a volume discount. Who wants to take 50 bags? You have to get a full pallet to get a discount. Univar is the kind of company that handles truckloads of product. One of their competitors was my distributor when I worked in the chemical industry. This is not really a volume deal for them. This is the equivalent of you going to an LFS and buying one hermit. I would guess that Dowflake is probably used in some sort of food application here since it is food grade.

[theedprado]

about how much do you dose on your 125?

[GaryP]

Ed,

There is no set answer on that. All I can say is that you will have to determine what the daily or weekly calcium demand is for your system and dose accordingly. That means a lot of test to see how much calcium is used in a certain period of time and then determining what volume of Dowflake solution is necessary to meet that demand. When my corals are in high gear on my 125 I go through about 1/4-1/2 lb. per week. I'm having a hard time keeping my level up right now. The acros are using it so fast that the coraline doesn't even get any leftovers. I'm dripping both Kalk and Dowflake solution. The Kalk doesn't even come close to meeting the demand.

[DeAngelove]

Gary -
Please put me down to split some! :)

Thanks!
DAB

[jim1000]

I would like to have about 15 lbs. will pay at meeting if ok.
Jim

[GaryP]

OK, after I sort through who is in and who was in and then got out, I'll get an extra bag for anyone who just want a few lbs.

[falcondob]

I will take a few pounds.
John

[speakerguy]

I went and bought my bags today. They still had most of a pallet left. I told him to expect a big order from the local fish society in the near future and he seemed happy about that :)

[speakerguy]

Also, they had 80lb bags of magnesium chloride for 40 a bag or so, but they didn't have any purity information on it.

[jaded]

hows the DOW flake order coming along? I'm using the DIY alk buffer and its really working well. I've been going very slowly and making lots of notes. I think I'm only going to need about 60cc's a week to maintain the level. Now I'm ready to start adding calcium too!

[GaryP]

I'm planning on getting it tomorrow. I have a meeting with the folks at the zoo tomorrow and I'll pick it up on the way back to work.

[theedprado]

I'm planning on getting it tomorrow. I have a meeting with the folks at the zoo tomorrow and I'll pick it up on the way back to work.
looking for a new home no doubt :D
jk let me know and i will swing by and pick it up.

[GaryP]

We're going to talk about some possible cooperative projects.

[jaded]

cool... and thanks for putting this together!!! also thanks for the buffer recipe! It seems to be working great!!!

60cc's is about a .6 jump in dkH. After I get the level slowly back up to 8.5 I'll be adding around that per week

[GaryP]

You may want to consider adding 10 cc per day so that your DkH stays constant, instead of bouncing up and down.

[jaded]

I havent done enough graphing yet to find out how much it loses during the course of a week. I'm only guess at the outcome.

what would you consider a significant drop?
How much does a heavily loaded tank drop (dkH) in a day?
I've dropped from 8.0 to <6.0 since our past discussion. Is it wise to raise it back up over a matter of just 2 or 3 days? Should I slow down?

should I just PM this to you? I dont want to hyjack another thread

[GaryP]

OK, here is what I came up with. With all the split bags it made it a little confusing so let me know if I screwed up somewhere.

GaryP - 1
theedprado - 1
Brewercm/Jaded/ Joshua - 1
DeAngelove/Bigbird - 1
btacker - 1
technomex - 1

That's a total of 6 bags. Should I pick up a spare bag?

[msuengin]

Hi Gary,

Is it too late to get in on this? I'd like to get 5-10 lbs but I'm in Austin and unfortunately will be out of town this weekend so I can't make the meeting.

Is anyone from Austin getting some and would be willing to pick me up some at the meeting?

[GaryP]

Tim,

Try dropping a note to Bigbird and see if he is willing to split some with you. He's already splitting with DeAngelove.

[btacker]

Can anyone bring mine back? I'm not going to make the meeting.

[GaryP]

I'm sure i can get one of the Austin reef mafia to bring it to you.

[btacker]

Sounds good as long as no one breaks my arm.

[Shark_Bait]

I would like some too, but not much maybe just 1 Ziploc. but if it's all counted for no problem I'll make do.

[GaryP]

Rob,

Are you going to be at meeting? If so I'm sure so one will split some with you. I'll try to remember to bring my scale so we can weigh it up.

[CD]

i can get one of the Austin reef mafia to bring it to you.


:skeezy


Bryan & Tim - Chris and I will be going to the meeting, and can bring the flake back to Austin...you'd just need to pay Gary (Gary - do you have PayPal?) and pick it up from our house. Sound like a plan?

Oh, and if we get picked up by the police for transporting bags of mysterious white powder, will somebody come and bail us out? LOL :lol

Wendy

[jaded]

if we get picked up by the police for transporting bags of mysterious white powder

cop: "sir, its turning blue" Sgt Stedinco: "It must be some high grade stuff"

this is going to turn into a cheech and chong movie anytime now

my favorite
cop: "sir I need to see your license" Cheech: "what... it's not bad there on the bumper?"

[btacker]

Thanks Wendy! I really appreciate it. Maybe I can hook you up with something in return.

Maybe I can get a look at your new setup. The pics I've seen sure are impressive.

[CD]

Thanks Wendy! I really appreciate it.


No Problem! ;) We always like to help when we can :D



Maybe I can get a look at your new setup.


SURE! There should even be SW, sand and LR in there by this weekend! Right now, the RO/DI is still going in, the salt should go in tomorrow...this sure is getting exciting! :w00t

Wendy

[msuengin]

Thanks Wendy! That would be great! Gary, let me know how I should arrange payment.

[Shark_Bait]

Rob,

Are you going to be at meeting? If so I'm sure so one will split some with you. I'll try to remember to bring my scale so we can weigh it up.

I hope so. I am trying to make it happen but if I don't make it don't hold it.

hopefully i won't wreck the car this time :sick

[GaryP]

We have a bunch of calcium! I'll bring it to the meeting. If anyone wants their's before the meeting, please contact me.