looking for local store that carries Dow flake (calcium chloride)

[fishnuttoo]

looking for local store that sells Dow flake(calcium chloride) or Peladow or Dow mini pellets.

also interested in Magnesium chloride (from dead sea works)

trying randy's homemade mixtures. the article said home depot carried haven't found it yet.

i started using b ionic, then switched to bulk reef's additives, know i want to try randy's homemade.

anyone ever try this, and how did it work?
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[verper]

Stick with the Bulk Reef stuff - it basically is Randy's homemade two part.  Any Dow Flake (or any calcium chloride for that matter) made by Dow - who makes about 90% of whats out there - now contains elevated bromide levels.  They stopped removing it from the calcium chloride.  BRS bought up a huge amount of it before this happened.

I think I read where there is something wrong with the Mag flakes from dead sea works.  Something like the manufacturer does not recommend it for aquariums any more.

[MechanicalEngineer]

Yeah, don't buy magnesium chloride or calcium chloride locally unless you know for sure that it's the old formula.  The new magnesium chloride has elevated levels of ammonia and other nastiness that the company does not recommend for aquariums.  +1 on what verper said about elevated bromide in calcium chloride. 

Bulk Reef Supply bought a ton of the old formula stuff when they found out the recipe was changing.  That's where I still buy mine from. 

[Joel]

What are you guys going to buy when BRS runs out of the old stuff?

[MechanicalEngineer]

Cross our fingers and hope that someone else has come up with a pure solution of it.  I think I have about 3 years worth of the chemicals stocked up here for myself (might buy more once the 150g starts sucking it down), but yeah, no idea. 

If no one has a pure solution of it by then, I'll probably be just stuck with water changes every day.  But I have a feeling that a huge majority of people will be screwed without the chemicals...which means some bright chemist will find a way.   

[verper]

Use a calcium reactor and use what I have left for suppliment of new salt water only to make it last longer.  Its a good question.  There is no problem with the Alk and Mag suppliments as they are still being manufactured to pure enough quality.  And there is still about 10% of the calcium chloride out there that could be used - you will just pay more as much of it is lab grade stuff.  You will just have to weigh the cost of it vs the manufactured 2 part stuff.  Of course, they have to get their raw materials from somewhere also............

[MechanicalEngineer]

The magnesium and alkalinity supplements will probably never run out since they're both used in food...so they'll always be food quality.  Yeah, worse comes to worst, I'd probably just run a calcium reactor.  Done.