Where can I find these ingerdients for Two Part?
 

Locally in Vancouver. Im not interested in paying for shipping for something I should be able to get here.

calcium chloride dihydrate
magnesium chloride hexahydrate (Dead Sea Works is apparently the brand I am suppose to find)

Thanks. The rest of the ingredients are easy to find but I have had a hard time sourcing these.

Hey GSP, I was looking at the two part as well, the calcium chloride dihydrate can be substituted with Kent Turbo Calcium if I'm not mistaken. I used Dow Flake that I bought from Surrey Building Supplies. A big (40lbs I think) bag was about $30 but it's hard to store air tight. For Mag, I ended up using Kent Mag suppliment, I looked at Mag Flake and other sources but it was going to be over $100 to get it. As for Dead Sea Works specifically try health spas. Some of them make up their own salt bath mixes and they use Dead Sea salts as their base.

Doug

Ok thanks.

I think the Kent calcium kind of defeats the purpose though. I could be wrong but I thought it was pricey...well relative to something like DowFlake.

I am really just looking to buy enough calcium (50lb. bag) and magnesium to make two part for a year. I guess three part if you add in the Mg :D

For the magnesium though, I don't mind using the kent product since its not used up as fast. I guess I will focus on finding the calcium then.

Anyone know of a place in or close to the city for DowFlake?

Doug, where is Surrey building supplies?

Thanks!

Heres the address and phone #
P K Building Supply Ltd

18981 88 Ave, Surrey, BC V4N 3G5
Telephone : 604-882-0064
and the link with map
http://www.superpages.ca/bus/British...&le=2f141077ae

As for Mag , I use epsom salts, just don't use the sented kind :lol:

I'm sure you've seen this but thought I'd share before you buy any Dow.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1275023

No experience with this, but how different is dosing as opposed to running a ca reactor?

Yes and Randy addressed this in another thread. I think he said it was still fine to use but maybe not ideal anymore.

Thanks I had actually forgotten about this ;)

Ughh...maybe in the end I should just pay the shipping for Bulk Reef Supply. Perhaps buying a year or two worth at a time will make it worth it. I think I will look into it. Just wish I had done it while the US dollar was poor.

Well your getting the same result in the end. I personally dislike Ca reactors.

I am going to be going with the balling method eventually once I can afford it. But the dosing pump is so expensive.

My reef is young still and the Ca usage isnt too bad yet, so I like two part.

I don't want more equipment...reactor, CO2, ect. I have the room but it just doesn't interest me.

Try contacting Univar........ they may not sell to you directly (although other people in Canada have bought from univar direct before). If not they can probably tell you who you can buy from.

Cheers,
Vic

You can buy Red Sea magnesium chloride from Univar. I bought a 20 of bag a few months ago. Mix with Epsom salts available at any drug store. See Reefkeeping online for recipe and addition calculator. I have been doing this for a few months now. Works well and is cheap.

Do they sell direct to consumers or do you have to be a business to order from them?

I've been a bit confused on this because some other forum threads I've heard that they can buy direct from them and others they said that they could not.

Cheers,
Vic

Where is Univar?

I used my company name but paid cash. I do work for a chemical company though. Try calling. If no luck, pm me.

They have distributions centers in Vancouver & Abbotsford.

List of chemicals sold.
http://www.univarcanada.com/pdfdoc/c...pounding-2.pdf

Canadian homepage
http://www.univarcanada.com/index.htm

Cheers,
Vic

This would be perfect if they will sell to me. Going to call tomorrow morning. Looks like they have both the calcium and magnesium I am after.

Do you remember the cost?

PM me if you prefer.

I think I paid about $2/kg for the calcium and the magnesium. Many times cheaper than any liquid solution. The Epsom salts are about the same.

A couple of years ago I bought MgCl from Univar. I used my company name to buy it , and they hade minimum quantities.

PK Building is just around the corner from my shop, and I've bought Dowflake there, but again not for a couple of years. I found it mixed up quite dirty, and with some sediment. I wasn't really comfortable with this.

Put a lot of effort into sourcing Tetra CaCl locally. The Tetra rep, I beleive in California, was very helpfull, but their local distributor only sold by the truckload:cry:

In the end I've found it much easier, and cost effective (if you consider yor time) to just order from Bulk Reef Supply. You could try to get in on a group order (or start one) to offset the shipping cost.

Last fall we did a group order BRS and it went extremely well. There was no savings to be had in the shipping costs as each persons order was sent directly to their homes. BRS indicated that as the shipping costs are by weight it made no difference in the cost to ship the orders to one location or 10 locations.

The quality of the product sold by BRS are the best.

Tom R

Order from US
 

I've ordered stuff from the US - including Bulk Reef Supply - and sent it to Ship Happens. It's in Sumas so for you folks in the city it might be a little far but to those in Surrey, White Rock, and the Valley its great!. It's a company that has a US postal address. You use your name with their address and send it to them. Hop across the border, pick-up your stuff for $4.00 (they have to make a living too) then cross back. I park and walk across in Abbotsford. The 176 crossing isn't far either. Even if (depends on the Border Agent - heh:neutral:) I pay GST and PST:sad: it sure beats the shipping cost the Bulk Reef charges you to Canada. After all, they ship for free in teh states I believe! Check it out: http://www.shiphappenssumas.com/
Maybe theres one near the Peace Arch too?? So for a little bit of your time (I've done it in an hour walking across) you do save some money! Hhmm....I wonder what the Border Services would think of a group order with all those chemicals????

I have a box in Pt. Roberts and I've made a lot of runs across the border for all kinds of stuff. The issue with the large quantities of bulk chemicals that you'd have for a group buy would be that any cautious customs inspector would understandedbly be very suspicious about them. Granted reef chemicals don't have the explosive potential that FW planted tank chemicals have (e.g. KNO3), but as a former border cop I can tell you that I'd be checking into things further if a guy had a barrel of fine white powder in a passenger vehicle.

I usually don't have any issues as long as I'm nice to them AND have ALL shipping documents with me. This includes the print-out from ordering online as well as any packing/shipping documents. As long as I can prove its a legitimate company selling legitimate supplies there really isn't too much issues. Now getting back to that group order........You might be right 100 bls of magnesium might arouse suspicion:twised:

Our Last group buy from BRS was Great. You pay full shipping but the cost of the items are marked at the lowest bulk prices.
The Group buy policy allows everyone to take advantage of the prices regardless of where you live (Vancouver, Calgary, or Anywhere) because you pay shipping to your house

J

Yeah I really upset I missed that :(

Set one up. All you need is 10 people who want to buy at least one item. The great thing about a BRS group buy is the people can be any where as they ship to each persons door.

We just did one in Calgary a couple of weeks ago.

Keith

Now if BRS could only do something about the Canadian dollar . . . ;)

Yeah I think the last group buy was when the dollar was little better for us wasn't it?

So........ did you give univar a call?

Cheers,
Vic