Salt selection in western Canada is terrible
 

So, I guess I am a bit of a salt nerd and like to try different things. I find the selection out west here really sucks.

Basically, unless you want Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals you need to do some digging. One store carries Red Sea, but I'm not battling traffic for 45 minutes each way for salt. Amazon sometimes has Red Sea. D&D, Aquaforest, Kent and Salinity at certain stores, and that's really about it. Seachem Reef is discontinued and NLA.

So if you want to try Tropic Marin, ESV Brightwell, Fauna Marin, Fritz or a bunch of other brands there is no option other than US or eastern Canada and crazy shipping rates in the latter case. I like supporting local/Canadian stores. I run my tank at NSW and I'm sick of having to deal with muriatic acid all the time, that stuff is harsh. I have used AF in the past and wasn't all that happy, maybe they got their stuff together now.

I am using Balling Light and the FM stuff rocks, but I can't try the salt without an insane price tag. Am I alone in this?

not just for salt selections, pretty much true for everything else too, I mean everything else...

You should be happy you at least get choices

Up here we had until recently only one choice which is IO but now We have three choices two of which are IO General use and Reef salt and the third is carried at another pet store in town

If we want something different we have to online order it or do an overnight trip to grab some salt.

Not to mention you probably can get it a cheaper price than us northerners

I would imagine if its a brand that the store gets in regularly, like brightwell additives you could always check to see if they would special order the salt. As they already have contact with a supplier should be easy enough to add to the next order.
Or if you could get a group together that wants to buy a certain brand a pet store would most likely be able to get it in, just needs to be worth the freight costs I guess.

Drs Foster and Smith now ship to canada too, think its flat rate 19.99 plus 22% international charges on what it cost.

I've asked, they said they need to bring in a full pallet and didn't want to commit to that much.

My work goes to Blaine two or three times a month to pick things up, at the end of the day it's not a big deal and I can get whatever but I would rather buy from a Canadian source.

Could always start a group buy, ask a store how much you need to order for them to bring it in and then see if you can get a group of people in.

Just like some people do with the coral group buys, a salt group buy.

I don't know how much a pallet is, but I would assume about 30 boxes/buckets? One supplier out east sells FM by the pallet, and it's 27 units.

If anyone wants in with either Fauna Marin, Brightwell or Red Sea (I don't know if it has to be all the same type for RS), I am down for 3-4 units. Still a long way to thirty though. Price would have to make sense too for everyone.

They're all the same. Used one, you've used them all.

So, Fauna Marin got back to me and has offered a group buy. We would need to hit ten boxes, price is $128.25 per 20kg box and free shipping. Also because it's from out of province it should only have GST but I would have to verify that. I imagine it would have to ship to one location together and distribute from there. I can receive it if necessary. Overall savings is about 18% from standard shipped price.

I would be willing to grab 3-4 boxes so if anyone else is interested just let me know.

The only real difference (feel free to correct me here anyone) is in the guaranteed analysis of elements in any given salt mix. As Albert says, used one, used them all.
"Higher grade" salts claim they can be used as soon as 2 hours after mixing (although I have never pushed that envelope) while many salts recommend a 24 hour stand time.
As long as you stick to the bare bones basics of any reef tank husbandry practice which is to test and match perams you should not have any issues.
Other mixes are just more convenient in allowing us to not be so concerned about dosing to top up as much in certain elements after we do a WC.
I used IO for quite a while and really only found that the salinity tended to vary a bit from batch to batch and I learned thru trial and error to leave enough room in my mix barrel to fine tune the water before I completed a change.