Ecotech joins BRS as a sister company..

[Nonya]

Almost, Painful to watch


ATI will change the led game soon give them time, in the next 5 years, and especially when t5's become obsolete, they will be able to focus solely on led production.

What about MH? (Ducks to avoid the impending onslaught).

ATI? Maybe.

 

[Nonya]

Oh, speaking of Randy, I learned he's working for a company that sells AR-15 stuff.

 

[polyppal]

A bunch of us like

 

[NowGlazeIT]

A bunch of us like

Your hilarious! I used to shop there before they went global

 

[polyppal]

But now that Hydros are part of the "family", I have a feeling we'll see some of them in new videos (unless the "mothership" (LOL) decides to phase them out).

What are you talking about?
Hydros is owned by Coralvue, they are not affiliated with Bertram Capital
They're on a totally different mothership

 

[Nonya]

I con

What are you talking about?
Hydros is owned by Coralvue, they are not affiliated with Bertram Capital
They're on a totally different mothership

I confused Hydras with Hydros.

My mothership is so much better.

 

[Nonya]

What are you talking about?
Hydros is owned by Coralvue, they are not affiliated with Bertram Capital
They're on a totally different mothership

So I guess Coralvue will be the NEXT acquisition, assuming they have much of a market share to be any kind of threat.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I con

I confused Hydras with Hydros.

My mothership is so much better.

Does that have smaht pahk.

 

[Shooter6]

You've got me on that one. What's a g video?

The G is fat fingers typing on a phone negligent discharge lol

 

[shakey]

I called BRS this mourning to discuss Flow pumps, particularly the MP40. I was told the BRS, as of today, owns Ecotech Marine.

First question I though of is that since BRS also own Neptune are they gonna make them play nice together and let Apex control the lights and pumps again. I got a "not sure what the future will be with that"

interesting news

Man I sure hope so. I got both and I would love to control them through my Apex. My fingers are crossed.

 

[Nonya]

Man I sure hope so. I got both and I would love to control them through my Apex. My fingers are crossed.

Getting my Radions to work with the Apex was a real joy.

 

[kados]

Wow this threads back from the dead

It's more ridiculous the 2nd time around.

 

[Roli's Reef Ranch]

Business expansion is not the devil, it could quite possibly bring prices back to a reasonable mark-up in these expensive times, if they did things wrong they would disappear like every other co. with operational errors. I have no issue with @Bulk Reef Supply they have always done more than right by me, until that changes, im not going to speculate anything different.

It's business consolidation, not expansion. I've always had good experiences w/BRS customer service, excellent in fact, but consolidation and the elimination of competitors to create a reefing monopoly has implications for consumer choice and have never resulted in increased consumer surplus.

I've already seen some of their most basic items increase by as much as 80%, $24 7 lb bags of Soda Ash now sell for $40 a few months later. This is not due to the increase in the price of baking soda which has hardly budged. The funny thing is that there was a BRS video where Randy asked the audience if they should get rid of these 7 lb bags a few months ago in favor of a bunch of smaller bags (more wasteful plastic at a higher per-unit cost) and lo and behold, a week later the price skyrocketed. So much for the "bulk" in BRS.

As far as I'm concerned, it now stands for Bertram Reefing Supply. I anticipate many further changes and am not opposed to profitability, but profitability needs to come from meeting the needs of the consumer, not price gouging. I have already shifted to buying from Saltwateraquarium.com, and have purchased 50 lb bags of calcium hydroxide, calcium carbonate, and other chemicals in bulk from chemical suppliers, all of which are coming in at less than $2/lb and should last me for SOME TIME...

 

[polyppal]

I con

I confused Hydras with Hydros.

My mothership is so much better.

I should’ve had ‘more than a feeling’ that was a typo

 

[polyppal]

It's more ridiculous the 2nd time around.

 

[Colt13]

 

[rtparty]

Yeah, many years ago in the infancy of reefing, when they were more of a shop than a manufacturer, Id agree that they did a lot more on the research side. But they transitioned to blatant marketing a long time ago, that isn't anything new with their acquisition.

Also, I like BRS. They have great customer service and I use them a lot - so I'm not slamming them here. But I disagree with the idea of them testing products to find the absolute best and only offer those to their customers - BRS history proves thats not the case, in the end its about money.

Example - they purchased a Chinese brand 'Skimz' a couple years ago, and they were some of the crappiest skimmers/reactors/etc ever made. Did BRS halt sales of Skimz products when it became obvious it was junk, for the good of the hobby (or because of some ethical sales standard)? No, they kept selling them like any business would until they could get rid of them...

I didn't know BRS bought Skimz. When was that?

 

[polyppal]

I didn't know BRS bought Skimz. When was that?

They were (I’m pretty sure) the sole importers of Skimz. It was some Chinese company that they made a big PO with, so essentially it was like an in-house brand.

Kinda like Aquamaxx and Marine Depot (except Aquamaxx stuff is actually good, and hopefully BRS Depot continues to support it)

 

[Spare time]

I didn't know BRS bought Skimz. When was that?

I don't think they did. Ryan said that skimz just went silent and they were guessing that the pandemic did them in. They ended up putting everything on clearence from skimz because they were not getting any more responses from skimz.

 

[polyppal]

It's business consolidation, not expansion. I've always had good experiences w/BRS customer service, excellent in fact, but consolidation and the elimination of competitors to create a reefing monopoly has implications for consumer choice and have never resulted in increased consumer surplus.

I've already seen some of their most basic items increase by as much as 80%, $24 7 lb bags of Soda Ash now sell for $40 a few months later. This is not due to the increase in the price of baking soda which has hardly budged. The funny thing is that there was a BRS video where Randy asked the audience if they should get rid of these 7 lb bags a few months ago in favor of a bunch of smaller bags (more wasteful plastic at a higher per-unit cost) and lo and behold, a week later the price skyrocketed. So much for the "bulk" in BRS.

As far as I'm concerned, it now stands for Bertram Reefing Supply. I anticipate many further changes and am not opposed to profitability, but profitability needs to come from meeting the needs of the consumer, not price gouging. I have already shifted to buying from Saltwateraquarium.com, and have purchased 50 lb bags of calcium hydroxide, calcium carbonate, and other chemicals in bulk from chemical suppliers, all of which are coming in at less than $2/lb and should last me for SOME TIME...

Bertram Reef Supply, I think that’s gonna catch on

I agree with the price increase issues, there’s nothing ‘bulk pricing’ about some of their items like Carbon/GFO/2 Part etc. anymore - they can be purchased more affordably from SWA or Amazon (for a product that all probably comes from the same factory anyways). I use Kolar Labs now…

When it comes to success, Harvey said it best: