Where to get these chemcials in Vancouver or lower mainland

[wminglee]

Does anyone know where to buy food-grade calcium chloride and calcium hydroxide (pickling lime) in lower mainland region?

[fkshiu]

Two of Canreef's sponsors, Chemaster and Bulk Reef Supply, sell everything you need for dosing two-part and kalkwasser.

[Tangman]

You can get Dow Flake (calcium chloride )at PK ( Port Kells) Building Supplies ,Harvie Rd (about 188)and 88TH Ave Surrey, just of the freeway
Does anyone know where to buy food-grade calcium chloride and calcium hydroxide (pickling lime) in lower mainland region?

[wminglee]

Thanks, fkshiu.

I am looking for a local retailer for lowering down shipment cost. Both of Chemmaster and Bulk Supply are out of BC.

As I understanding, there is little difference (in term ouing in reef tanks) in products of calcium hyperoxide from general chemical manufacturers and from marine companies. So, why pay more for a brand?

Anyway, thanks for your suggestion.

[wminglee]

Thanks a lot, Tangman.

I shall try to get there when have time.

[Reefer Rob]

You'll find that the Calcium Chloride from BRS will mix a lot cleaner and faster than Dow Flake. Worth the extra money IMO. I've tried to locate food grade locally, but I've been unable to find any at the consumer level.

[fkshiu]

Not to scare anyone (well, sort of as an fyi), but there was that whole controversy regarding excess bromide levels in Dowflake produced during a certain time period. The conclusion being that such changes resulted in Dowflake being "OK" to use but its longterm effect on aquaria was unknown, I believe. And as Rob mentioned, the altered Dowflake results in a lot more sediment.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1275153&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

The guess the bottom line is that it's not just a difference in name, but there are substantive differences in chemical mixes.

[wminglee]

It is interesting to note that the link for ordering calcium on the website twopartsolution.com mentioned in the referring discussion thread with inputs from Randy Holmes-Farley in Reef Central points to www.bulkreefsupply.com which is the website of BRS.

The header of the twopartsolution.com reads : Bulk Reef Supply and Home of the Two Part. Its contact link points to www.bulkreefsupply.com too.

Does this mean that BRS sells Dow calcium or repackages of it? In his response to the question "so is it ok to use the twopartsolutions.com stuff? calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate?", Randy Holmes-Farley said that "Yes, their products were apparently stockpiled before the changeover, at least they claim so." The date of the thread is 02/09/2008.

Does anyone know info about this? There seems quite a lot of related discussions on the RC. I tried to search the site but failed due to the fact I have yet registered and do not want to for the moment.

[fkshiu]

BRS and twopartsolution are the same guys. They only sold chemicals when they started then expanded with a lot of other stuff hence the name change.

As far as their CaCl is concerned this is from their website (see question #4):
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/faq.php?cID=1#18

You can also ask them directly in their sponsor forum. I would also give littlesilvermax a shout in his Chemaster sponsor forum as well. I've purchased from both and have had positive experiences from both places.

[wminglee]

Thanks, fkshiu.

Don't mean to be offensive to BRS. However, I've googled and got a statement from someone named as Snarkys with an occupation in TwoPartSolution.com on the RC, dated 12/19/2007 :

link: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1275023

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Bromide and Dow Calcium Chloride, the sky is not falling : )

Recently we have been receiving a bunch of questions about the manufacturing changes at Dow and the new elevated bromide levels in their calcium chloride, we would like to address this.

The brine that Dow uses to make calcium chloride has always had these levels of bromide. Recently Dow has made the decision to stop the processing step that removes bromide from their calcium chloride. This means that any new material will contain what we believe to be unacceptable amounts of bromide and will not be using any of the new Dow material.

All of the calcium we sell was produced by Dow prior to these changes and does not contain the new elevated levels of Bromide. The change to the “food grade” material was made in 2007. We have a huge stockpile of material produced prior to the changes and there will be no shortage of availability for a very long time. In addition we have already sourced other high quality manufactures for when this runs out.

Please keep in mind that while Dow is one of the major producers here in the US they are not the only one. There are also several high quality international options. This is going to have very little impact on the aquarium industry. The main impact will be on the do it yourself aquarist looking for 50 pound sacks. Luckily most of us have no need for 50 pound sacks and couldn’t use that much in a single lifetime. Dow was the most readily available product to the consumer and it may be difficult to find a suitable replacement in the retail sector with the same wide availability. Please be aware a large portion of retail calcium chloride found in hardware and pool stores is repackaged Dow product. You may want to evaluate the risk verses reward with trying different brands , for most people the savings is a couple bucks a month.

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I shall try to find info for /further newer development. I gotta to have lunch now. Is 2:48pm now.

[fkshiu]

I don't think that the statements are inconsistent. They're basically saying that the don't use NEW Dowflake because they have a big stockpile of OLD Dowflake and once they run out of the OLD stuff they've got other sources presumably without the excess bromide. Anyway, I shouldn't speak on behalf of the BRS. This is something they can address themselves.