I know hey!!

Lots of group buys happening lately. Though I would also be willing to bet that prices will be directed buy the population of hobbiest

I read some reviews online and have decided to give Aquaforest Phosphate minus a try. It supposedly looks and performs similar to Rowaphos, but is less than half the price. I'll let everyone know how it goes! Only about $30 on Amazon for 1 L, vs. $68 for Rowaphos for the same amount.

For those of you who either tried out the AF or switched complete, what are your thoughts?

Also, where do you buy AF Amino Mix and AF Build in Canada? I can't see them on Amazon.ca

I only use the salt and one thing that is of extreme convenience is that I don't have to plan a day ahead to mix the water. Whenever I feel like changing water, I mix the salt for 15mins and all ready for the tank.

I just started the NP Pro Bio S today (only bottle I have so far). Yesterday I did a water change wih the last of my H2Ocean so it was 50/50 H2Ocean and Aquaforest Probiotic Reef Salt. We'll see how it goes...

On the other hand, the bucket arrived broken and was leaking some salt. Hopefully that doesn't affect the probiotic properties. I think i read that the probiotics aren't activated until they hit water though.

Hi5! Mine arrived broken too. And got 10% discount from Amazon for that. If you bought it from Amazon, you should chat with them, easy discount :)

Yah the bacteria are in dormant state so shouldn't have any effect.

Did anyone get the little bottle of NP Pro in their bucket of salt? If you're not using it, I'd like to buy it from you! It's not available for sale on Amazon.ca yet. Please PM me!

I have one sitting and I can ship it off to you for free :)

Sweet! You got mail. :)

But Amazon's ecommerce platform is closing, supposedly in July 2016. They've been transitioning to Shopify, which if I understand it, works entirely differently. Anyone know if this is still happening? Here is one of the articles about it:

http:/http://smallbiztrends.com/2015...ll-close.html/

Interested in trying this brand of salt, so i bit the bullet and ordered the mid range reef salt from Amazon. $78 all in. Im going to be very upset if the bucket is broken.

Well you better buy yourself beer, chocolate or whatever that will help you to overcome that :mrgreen:

Warren, prepare to be upset! ;)

Yup
Mine came broken too. The bottom was split open.
Fortunately they use a relatively sturdy bag to contain the salt so there was nothing lost.

Good luck

Oh man.

When it comes broken, just let amazon know and they will refund 10% :mrgreen:

WOOHOO! 10 days and delivered to my door! UNBROKEN!!! Looking forward to my next w/c.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1502/...8c49dc83_c.jpg

Lucky you! Now have fun opening that lid :biggrin:

Haha wow!

is it me, or did prices go up?

reef salt is now $76 for 25kg box, and 69 for 22kg bucket

pretty sure box used to be cheaper than bucket.

I've ordered the reef salt from Amazon a couple of times and haven't had any broken buckets. Sounds like I've been lucky.

I wish I had read this thread before trying to mix some salt in my bucket. It flooded out my closet!!!

GUess I'll try for the 10% discount!

On another note, does anyone know of a Canadian source for -NP-Pro yet?

Been using the Probiotic salt, Coral A,B,E,V and Pro Bio S for 6 weeks and I have totally noticed a difference in the tank. The corals are more colourful and my rocks have never looked so clean!

I am currently using a bit of vinegar instead of -NP-Pro as a carbon source for now... seems to work just fine!

NP Pro isn't available in Canada yet. You can buy off the Amazon.com website and have it shipped up though. Our dollar is a bit better these days so it isn't super terrible. I think a 50 mL bottle is about $40 all in. There is also a diluted 2L bottle that you can put on a dosing pump, but you pay USD$25 shipping on it.

I was looking at this today. The description on Amazon didn't indicate that the 2L bottle was diluted but I trust your experience. :)

Went for a bucket of the probiotic salt and did my first wc with it yesterday and also dosed the tank with biokit from prodibio. Hoping for good results. My bucket came unbroken which was nice.

For anyone that is interested the Amazon.com shipping costs have dropped for the 2000ml bottle of NP Pro. Last Sunday it was ~$25. Today it's ~$15. Had to pull the trigger.

I really like Aquaforest products. I don't have a point of reference to compare it to other than "no dosing at all" but in the past few days that I've been using ProbioticS there is a marked difference in the the beauty of my tank.

I emailed them to ask about it,and that's what they told me. Since then I've noticed a couple tanks on RC using the 2L version on a doser.
Nice score! Thanks for the alert!

Edit: 2L bottle is USD$22.99 now...already jumped back up.

Just received my bucket of reef salt today, ordered on Wednesday night and showed up already with the pail in one piece. I'm down to my last 2 cups of RC so I'll soon see if this salt is just as good. It's already cheaper than RC and it shows up on my door step so two pluses already. No free bottle of anything though.

Just make note that the Ca/Alk/Mg level is NSW values (410/7.0/1250), so if you keep elevated alk for LPS, then you'll want to boost it up.

Thanks, I'll measure to see what I get on the first batch. The certificate I got says this batch comes out to 430/8.0/1380.

The price is great and having delivered to my door is terrific. Very disruptive to the LFS who continues to resist competing at a national level.

No kidding right. As much as I like to support my LFSs I love having that big heavy bucket brought to my door for free!

I filed a complaint to Amazon about my broken bucket a few weeks ago but have not heard anything.... oh well, it was worth a shot.

-
The last salt(22 kg.) i got from Amazon.ca came in a bag delivered in a box.
I think that's the method they've switched to.
-

Mine showed up yesterday in a pail. Maybe you got lucky and they shipped you the 25kg box by accident?

-
I just checked my last order, and it was the box I ordered. I guess my thoughts about them
shipping salt in bags and boxes is just wishful thinking.
-

My salt did come bagged inside of the bucket but I think I'm going to put it in my own pail anyway. I have one with a rubber gasket in the lid and I'm not sure how well the AF buckets actually seal once the bag is opened. Next time around if I like the salt I'm going with the box.

-
I use a old(Instant Ocean) bucket with a rubber gasket as well. Gives a nice tight seal.
-

Well they weren't lying to you. The jug showed up today - which blew my mind considering I ordered it two days ago. There was no box, no instructions - just a small jug. I checked out the web site and sure enough, it's meant for a dosing I don't have one so I found an unused syringe for dosing. Not a big deal. I guess we'll see how well this stuff works in conjunction with ProBioticS.

Hehe, nothing on the jug about dosing? The Component 1+2+3+ have instructions written on the jugs, but no instructions on paper are supplied.

Nope. Nothing at all on the jug. Oh well I'm glad I found some instructions on the web site.

Are you dosing ProBioS and NP Pro daily, Myka? I thought I read somewhere that if you're dosing NP Pro that you only need to dose ProBioS for two weeks and then NP Pro will sustain the bacteria going forward.