Save money when buying Melafix and dechlorinator

Howdy,

I figured I would share a trick I discovered a few years ago when buying chemicals for the aquarium. Nothin special, just a way to save money.

Basically the idea is that if you need a chemical or treatment for your tank, you might want to go check out the pond section before you buy. (Melafix is a good example) check this out:

you will see the melafix next to a version of it intended to treat ponds, they are almost the same price in the store, a few dollars different. notice the concentration percentage.






you get probably 4 times the volume of product and its 5 times as strong. lets see that makes it 20 times the effective treatment ability. same thing, just isn't a rip off




this phenomenon holds true for things like de-chlorinater and a hand full of other things

melfix is a waste of money, in my opinion. it's a mix of tea tree oil and water.

I have no clue if Melafix actually works but it sure makes a fish room smell pretty!
Nothing beats a pretty smelling fish room!
JB

jb1edlover wrote:

I have no clue if Melafix actually works but it sure makes a fish room smell pretty!
Nothing beats a pretty smelling fish room!
JB

I prefer the smell of prime.

lol,

yea, this is my first time using it to be honest. I do know that tee tree oil is a very strong anti bacterial oil, however I guess we will see.

always buy dechlorinator from the pond section. trust me on that one. If you have big tanks you can save hundreds of dollars a year that way. its the same stuff

not a bad idea!!!

I use this:



the large one is 53 dollars and treats 15000 gallons.... you do the math

good deal, i have ordered several things direct from aquarium pharmaciethicals

It sorta makes me mad that they "water down" the dechlorinator intended for aquariums so much. Its just plain ole' highway robbery

Dechlorinator is sodium thiosulphate sp. avaliable at camera stores. Was around 5.00 dollars for 50 pounds. Will make you one hell of lot of dechlorinator. Just look at zip drops and you will see the main item is.

I use to use chlorm-x for dechlornator not sure if it's still around but it was a lot stronger and cheaper them prime.. but did cost a lot up front as i could only find it in 1 gallon or 5 gallon size.. a 5 gallon was around 125 dollars whole sale...

Dr. Who wrote:

Dechlorinator is sodium thiosulphate sp. avaliable at camera stores. Was around 5.00 dollars for 50 pounds. Will make you one hell of lot of dechlorinator. Just look at zip drops and you will see the main item is.

awesome, I like

omg sodium thiosulfate has about 50 uses.... I already have it ordered. lol

thanks, great post .03 grams to treet 10 lieters of water, I have 5 pounds otw

Wanted to say thanks to everyone in the thread here haha. Got me interested in trying to find something cheaper and I did! For all those who like prime out there... they make a product call Pond Prime... 2 tablespoons treats 600-700 Gallons of water!!!

$35 for 2L! at that concentration... it will be awhile till I buy prime again haha.

Roughly twice as concentrated!

1 tablespoon for 300 gallons
1 teaspoon for 100 gallons
1 teaspoon = roughly 5ml

according to the regular bottle 5ml treats 50 gallons and this stuff 5ml treats 100.

sounds like a good deal but im just wondering about shelf life becuase u wouldnt be using it as much and what happens if u add to much of a certain chemical to ur tank !!can it be harmful???for some people it might be hard to do the math for the dosage for their aquarium size..other than that I agree with u i would do the same..

Well it does say that you can use up to 5X the normal amount is emergency cases so fairly safe I would think. I would likely just use a smaller bottle to hold it in like the bottle prime normally comes in and just the cap of that one (5ml cap full) to treat anything between 50-100 gallons. If you had a really small tank it might be hard to do but I don't think you would really need to invest in 2L of prime if you only had a 10 gallon tank.

also, this thread was really intended for people with bigger tanks, where some treatments and medications become enormously expensive.

I would imagine If I only had a 10 gallon tank I wouldn't be interested with these quantities