Reef Crystals vs Instant Ocean Bucket Fill

[galaxynovaLV]

Has anyone else noticed the difference in the amount of salt in the 5 gallon buckets of Reef Crystals verses Instant Ocean? I have a bucket of Instant Ocean Sea Salt that I've been using. Since I'm adding more coral to my aquarium, I thought Reef Crystals would be best. I bought a bucket of Reef Crystals and when it was opened, I noticed that the salt level was much lower at about 3 1/2" down. It was a significant and obvious lower level compared to the regular Instant Ocean bucket when it was opened. Both buckets indicate they make 160 gallons of salt water. Both buckets indicate that 1/2 cup of mix is needed to make 1 gallon of water. The Instant Ocean bucket weighs 48lbs and the Reef Crystals bucket weighs 44.8lbs. How can there be a difference in weight and quantity, but both buckets still produce 160 gallons of saltwater. Can this be explained, kind of. I continued reading the label and for the Reef Crystals it takes 1.4lb of salt to make a salinity of 1.021 and Instant Ocean takes 1.5lb of salt to make a salinity of 1.022. This shortage of salt seemed quite deceiving when I popped the lid off of the Reef Crystals. Why doesn't the manufacturer make Reef Crystals 48lbs and a salinity of 1.022. Maybe I'm missing something, just curious.

 

[Formulator]

Sounds like some creative penny pinching by the manufacturer… doesn’t even make sense though as you would expect the recommendation to be higher salinity in a reef tank vs fish-only. Weird.

 

[galaxynovaLV]

Sounds like some creative penny pinching by the manufacturer… doesn’t even make sense though as you would expect the recommendation to be higher salinity in a reef tank vs fish-only. Weird.

A message was sent to Instant Ocean but they never replied back.

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Years ago In statistics class we were weighing m&ms. Now the more precise a weighted product the more expensive are the machines are for packaging.

They ensured each product would hit a minimum weight but all the bags were at or over the Minimum with the most be around 12% more then stated amount. So you could be looking at this wrong. I lucked out getting 10% more salt with one bucket.

 

[rhitee93]

Years ago In statistics class we were weighing m&ms. Now the more precise a weighted product the more expensive are the machines are for packaging.

They ensured each product would hit a minimum weight but all the bags were at or over the Minimum with the most be around 12% more then stated amount. So you could be looking at this wrong. I lucked out getting 10% more salt with one bucket.

One of my first jobs was designing a control system for bagging a popular triangular shaped chip for single serving bags. (back in the last century) I forget the target weight, but remember that the accuracy tolerance they gave us came out to be half the weight of a single chip. However, a bag was not allowed be underweight, so every bag ultimately had an extra chip in it.

 

[rtparty]

A few years back when BRS tested salt costs the IO bucket weighed 22,345.5g, took 801g of salt to make 5 gallons of 35ppt water, and the bucket made 139.5 gallons of water.

Reef Crystals weighed 20,228.5g, took 804g of salt to make 5 gallons of 35ppt water, and the bucket made 125.8 gallons of water in total.

Just one of the many oddities (that is my nice word) with IO in general.

 

[klc]

Interesting observation, the same scenario as Home Depot not being allowed to call a popular dimension of lumber a 2x4 as it is really 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 haha.

Those are 2 different products with different mixing instructions, it's all in the marketing.

 

[427HISS]

Sounds like some creative penny pinching by the manufacturer… doesn’t even make sense though as you would expect the recommendation to be higher salinity in a reef tank vs fish-only. Weird.

Creative penny pinching. lol,...I know ! My wife says that "shrinkflation", where the box shrinks in weight but the price is higher !
Did a search and it reads,...." it's the practice by companies of reducing the size or quantity of a product while keeping the same price. It can mean fewer chips in the bag, or fewer scoops of ice cream in the container. Basically, the purchase price remains the same but the cost per unit rises."

Yes, "weird" lol.

Interesting observation, the same scenario as Home Depot not being allowed to call a popular dimension of lumber a 2x4 as it is really 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 haha.

Those are 2 different products with different mixing instructions, it's all in the marketing.

Yes it is. I too remember when dimensional lumber meant the actual size of a 2x4 was,...wait, 2" X 4". SHOCKING !