I have an idea....

[FishyBiz]

Well, actually it was my Dads idea who is in no way interested in the saltwater hobby. (but he does like deep sea fishing ) What if there was a company (we'll call it Salty Seawater ) that delivered freshly made saltwater to your door like a Sparklets or Arrowhead water truck. Would anyone be interested in this? Think about how convenient it would be to have 5 gallon jugs of saltwater at your door instead of lugging back and forth to the LFS. I could see a lot of benefits to this but what would the drawbacks be? Personably I have my own RO DI unit but not everyone has the room to mix there own salt.

So what do you guys think?

 

[gkarshens]

If the price was right I think it is a good idea. However, I am not sure there would be enough people that need it to make it a lucrative business.

 

[FishyBiz]

Maybe if you have a truck that ran on water? lol

 

[integlikewhoa]

I don't think the biz would make it. You would have to figure out what the price would come out to be. But my guess is that you would have to charge more then people would pay in order to make it. I have a RO/DI unit at home and a 55g drum. So for me 35.00 makes 160 gallons or clean fresh saltwater. How much will you charge? Pus a lot of people buy 5-15g at a time. What's it going to take to make your trip worth it? Even though I have a 55g drum I could probably myself only order 50g. I still don't think that's enough water to make it worth your trip unless you were making 4.00 a gallon. You probley couldn't do it. Now im sure that some LFS will and do buy their water this way. For example catalina water. But most my LFS do it the same way I do. Mix it them self. But they buy the salt wholesale. But then again im in a apartment and I don't pay for water. So all in all just by a 100-200 investment (RO/DI unit) and some salt call it a day.
Just the initial filling of my tank and maybe 2-5 water changes already paid for my RO unit which was 200.00. I have around 150g of total water. 150 x the price of saltwater. I'm pretty sure I have paid for my Ro unit 10-20x since I have set it up. And no driving.

Oh and how come that isn't one of the polls? Should be a 3rd one make my own. It doesn't fit into either category? And im curious how many really don't buy pre mixed water.

 

[21Reefman]

I never buy pre mixed water but, I lugged 25gal of RO home@ midnight last night (in about 10deg) from the grocery. I am sooooo SICK of buckets. I just have not gotten the OK for the RO/DI yet, I'm workn' on her, LOL. I see how an RO make sense but, premixed is not always what ya' need.
I use plenty of unmixed RO just to top-off and sometimes I need to add h2o@32ppt and sometimes I need more/less salt to balance the tank as a whole. I think that having the sea water delivered you, sounds great but, having salt in it, limits the uses of the water right off the bat.
Also it does not solve the problem of not having an RO, you still need to replentish the evaporate with RO/DI.

Plus you would need to spend $50,000 on fuel for the tanker to get out in the middle of the ocean to collect high quality salt water needed. The water at shore would be an algea disaster as its full of phosphates/nitrates.

Nice idea though, It does have some merrit.

 

[zahner]

what about option 3, i mix my own saltwater?

 

[21Reefman]

The Poll is; If you like the idea of a Co. to deliver sea water. No one asked if you mix your own, or buy it pre-mixxed. FYI

 

[integlikewhoa]

Fine... IF im not going to get my option 3 like i wanted then im going to.... going to.....well i dont know, but atleast make the poll either you like the idea or think the idea would work or not. I feel i fall in the in between. The none of the above. Thats it add a other or a none of the above. I would go for that. LOL

 

[Bebo77]

cool idea. but people can get picky about the water quality and what type of salt you would use. I only use oceanpure and seachem reef, i wont put anything else in my tank.

 

[minimalist]

Bebo hit the nail on the head.

 

[SVTour]

Question is...what would you need to sell the water for the business to be profitable.

Also, we're not talking spring water with a water cooler rental here...where there's plenty of demand (especially in the business community)...so what would the demand be for salt water fish tanks? Do you really think there are that many people with salt tanks in your area?

True, the concept is there...but I think as a business it would flop; however, it might not be a bad idea for a LFS to get a few extra dollars though.

I'd never use it though...sorry.

 

[IslandCrow]

Actually, I think whether or not you mix your own water is quite relevant. Since I don't consider it a particularly big deal to mix my own salt water (along with having my own RO/DI unit), I wouldn't see myself buying pre-mixed saltwater. But that aside, I'd agree that demand would be a big issue. I live pretty close to the water, but I can only think of one other person I know in the local area who has a saltwater tank. Truthfully, the average person thinks a saltwater tank too costly and time consuming. Good idea, but I have a feeling it wouldn't work. You can come back and laugh at me in 5 years when you're a multi-millionaire, though.

 

[Minuteman]

I don't think the market is there. I'd have to say no thanks.

 

[Salamander]

I think that in this obsesive hobby there are plenty of people with money to burn. But unfortunately for your biz idea, I think everyone (myself included) likes to be as involved in ensuring the quality of what goes into their tank. Seem like everyone has their own preferences and that could make it hard for you to cater to them all.

Good idea though. Keep it up. I hope you can find an idea that will spread like wildfire and help make all of our tanks better and easier to maintain.

 

[21Reefman]

FishyBiz, did you want to sell sea water, from the ocean, or saltwater from a salt mix??? Please clarify.

 

[SVTour]

Re: I have an idea....

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6811205#post6811205 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishyBiz
delivered freshly made saltwater

Don't think he's freshly making natural salt water from the ocean.

 

[21Reefman]

Ahh, the criticle reader, Thanks, SVTour

 

[masterswimmer]

Unfortunately it is an extremely limited market you are trying to cater to. Add to that the fact that people in this obsessive hobby normally consider an RO/DI unit part of the basic startup equipment. Lets take it one step further, which brand of salt are you planning on using? I know every reefkeeper I've ever spoken to is very very selective and vocal about what brand they use.

Good luck. May you look back one day and see Bill Gates trying to catch you!

 

[aquaman67]

I don't let anyone else even feed my fish.

Wife, kids, look but don't touch.

There is no way under the sun I'm going to let someone else mix water for me.

And what about liability?

You crash someone's $5,000 or $10,000 reef tank because someone making $6.00 an hour thought that 1.250 was 1.025.

Opps.

You'd better have good insurance.

 

[sebwin]

Although it sounds cool, you'd be a fool not to try to maximise your market as much as possible.

I think you'd be better off doing a RO-DI service only.

That way you can cater to all types of reefers, freshwater, brackish tank owners, offering them convenience and water-on-demand.

To save transport costs, you could organise weekly trips to very popular areas, i.e. come to x playing field to fill up with RO water etc.

By eliminating the time and expense of your pre-mixing, you eliminate a lot of liability issues, + potentially open up your market to the non-fishkeeping community. I suspect there are a number of hobby/small scale fields to which ro-di water is a lot less commonplace than it is to us and would pay a lot for it. You would need to do your research, but I imagine speciality gardeners, even food preperation?