[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

You get what you pay for:

1. Custom build tanks: it is a well known fact that commercially available tanks are much cheaper than custom build tank. But I believe paying somewhat more for custom build tanks are worth it since thats the "house" of all your livestocks for which you will be paying money for!

2. Salt: IO is awesome; no doubt in that but it lacks some of the things that expensive salt has. Easy to overcome that with additives BUT you would have to measure things that are needed to be mixed. I believe paying $20 more for a bucket is worth it. After all, it is the 2nd most important thing for saltwater. But I also believe there's a very sharp break even point for using expensive to cheap salts as the tank size gets bigger.

3. Test kits: Yes I am willing to pay a bit more for test kits. Obviously not crazy amount but I believe the prices of salifert/elos are justified. Even hanna to some extend.

custom tanks, your not getting what you pay for, you are merely getting a size or options not available in mass produced tanks for a huge markup.

IO salt is just fine, people add so many additives anyways why spend extra on sale for stuff your going to add anyways. but even for those that don't some of the best tanks I have ever seen were IO and a ca reactor...

test kits I agree with you, not because of the quality but rather because the more expensive ones seam to be easier to read