Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
How do people float in float tanks? With salt, of course! Salt water is denser than regular water, so it can hold more weight.
But not all salt is made the same. Find out about what salt to use in your float tanks, how it’s made, and the different options out there for float tanks (plus which salts count as “delicious”) in this episode of the Daily Solutions Podcast.
Show Resources
FTS Blog – Getting To Know Your Epsom Salt
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Okay, so today’s question is, what’s the difference between sea salt and float salt. And what the heck is dead sea salt?
Ashkahn: Okay. Interesting. Well I’m gonna go ahead and separate these into the delicious and not delicious categories.
Graham: That’s pretty much how he separates everything in our lives.
Ashkahn: Yeah. That kind of the base one classification … that I go into here. So, if you try to eat float salt, it’s not delicious. That’s the first thing you should really know. Does not taste good. You’ll probably only do it once, and then realize that you never want that in your mouth ever again.
Graham: And dead sea salt too, is also-
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: -in the not delicious category.
Ashkahn: Yeah, that’s not delicious. However … Are we talking about, what was the other thing?
Graham: Sea salt. Regular sea salt. Live sea salt.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Is very delicious. I-
Graham: Especially out of ocean water.
Ashkahn: Yeah, like sometimes I would just take scoops of ocean water and sprinkle it over my breakfast.
Graham: Over your cereal.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Yes. And so it’s because the basic chemical composition of these things is different. Right, they’re not actually … Salts are something that forms that’s a structure of molecules, that forms into this kind of crystal and lattice. But, the molecules that are going into them can be completely different right. You can have chlorine salts as well. In a sense.
Graham: Like, sodium chloride chlorine salts? Like table salt?
Ashkahn: Right, so that’s the first one right, table salt is sodium chloride.
And that again, delicious category. So the sea salt when … Is basically a completely different chemical than what is in the float tank, which is magnesium sulfate. So those are the most specific of these. The dead sea salt is, as far as I know, like a mix of things.
Graham: Right, yeah. So it’s mostly I think, sodium chloride.
And then with just a bunch of other minerals and things that have kind of accumulated and mixed in.
Ashkahn: So, it’s multiple, it’s different percentages of different things. Of different types of salt and I don’t really know much more about the actual breakdown of dead sea salt than that.
Graham: Yeah, nor do I, but for the sake of this conversation, I think that the main question really is about what makes our float tank salt … Why can’t someone just buy a bunch of salt from the store and pour it into a float tank.
Ashkahn: Well, you can. Actually you can buy a bunch of salt from the store and pour it into a float tank.
Graham: We’ve been doing it wrong this entire time?
Ashkahn: Yeah, yeah, and in fact it’d be cheaper. Like I’ve seen 50 pound bags of sodium chloride at Costco for like $10 or something.
And a little piece of float history, that’s actually how it started with float tanks. I mean there was many, many, years of just water, and then when they first-
Graham: So no salt?
Ashkahn: No salt. Zero salt, and when they first started introducing salt into it, in an attempt to make the water more buoyant, they started with sodium chloride. Table salt. And got it up to that kind of same level of saturation and basically just found that it’s … If you had any sort of small cut or abrasion or something like that, it would sting and it just would not stop stinging. And as much as it did help and make you float, it was really uncomfortable to actually be in.
Graham: So that’s essentially the main reason for not doing that. That’s why even if you could get it cheaper, you don’t just wanna go down to the store and use table salt, is because it’s way harsher on people. And those stings are from cuts that you have, which you can really still feel in a float tank very much. Don’t really go away with the table salt, nearly as much. So that’s why people don’t do that.
Ashkahn: The Epsom salt on the other hand, still stings like your not gonna get away from that. But it seems to only sting for a few minutes, maybe two, three, four minutes and then after that it kinda fades away and you’re good to go. So it’s much less intense and you can actually still float as long as you’re willing to. Either being a little bit uncomfortable for a few minutes, or put, if it’s a small enough little scrape or something, some of that petroleum jelly on it and make a little force field around it. And because there’s health benefits associated with the dead sea and floating in it and that sort of has its own lore going along with it …
Just to loop back around to the dead sea salts as well. I think there’s this, “why can’t I fill my float tank with dead sea salt,” is that exact same reason as table salt. Which is, it’s also mainly sodium chloride. It’s also gonna be way harsher on your skin. Just not as pleasant an experience. That said, I do know some float tank centers who sprinkle dead sea salt into their float tanks alongside it. So maybe 10% dead sea salts and the rest, 90% of the salt being magnesium sulfate.
Graham: Yeah, even 10% is much higher than I normally hear. I often hear of people put in like, even just a few cups in or-
Ashkahn: A scoop.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: Yeah, so, that’s also an option. We never played around with it. So I have no idea how that actually turns out functionally. But I kind of can imagine that it actually makes that much of a difference on the perception at least or the abrasion from having it in there.
Graham: Yeah, I would be surprised if you could feel a difference on cuts on your body or anything like that. I dunno if there are actual health benefits or not. I think we’re trying to figure out how much you absorb stuff like that through your skin. So that’s a bit of an unknown.
Ashkahn: Yeah, for any of these two. Eating salt, floating in salt, floating in dead sea salt.
Graham: Well eating salt … I think we know.
Ashkahn: It’s good for you. We know it gets in but, I mean, it’s still like I feel like every year there’s a different argument back about how beneficial or not salt is.
Graham: Yeah, that’s true.
Ashkahn: So, just like the medical world where, in a huge quandary about the benefits of certain things.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: All right, so hopefully that answered your question. And we’ll be here same time tomorrow so, tune back in. Thanks guys.
Graham: Later.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Does it matter how you order your filtration equipment on a float tank? – DSP 155
When setting up your float tank, it can be tempting to look at the spa pack and imagine how much more convenient it would be if the pieces were rearranged a little bit. So… is there a particular order to the filtration equipment? Why or why not?
Fortunately, Graham and Ashkahn have painfully researched this issue and know all the ins and outs of water treatment systems for float tanks and why they are the way they are.
Pairing Psychotherapy and Floats – DSP 154
It’s easy to look at some of the research that comes from floating or look at special programs for veterans with PTSD and think about how float tanks should be paired with psychotherapy.
Graham and Ashkahn have met several therapists who use float tanks in conjunction with their sessions, sometimes exclusively. They also know that it’s important to recognize that they are trained professionals who are providing a treatment for difficult to treat psychological issues in some cases. Knowing when to leave the work to the experts is a valuable part of providing a service like this one with so many broad uses.
What is too small for a 4-tank float center? – DSP 153
Real estate costs from building out a float center, especially in an urban area, can get costly really quick. Sometimes compromises need to be made. But how much of a compromise is too compromised?
As with the best float center mistakes, Graham and Ashkahn can speak to their personal experience on this issue. They talk about opening a four tank center with less than 1,000 square feet and how much of a mistake it is. They also provide helpful planning tips so you can find out how much space you need at an absolute minimum for your float center.
How Do You Find Time for Hobbies? (Rise) – DSP 152
This is the last episode we recorded at Rise and it seemed fitting to close out the recordings with the organizers again, Jake and Kevin. In this episode they talk with Graham and Ashkahn to answer a question from Greg Griffin about how to manage your time after opening a float center to dedicate to hobbies.
While the episode starts a little heavy, the conversation turns and begins discussing the value of work and how rewarding it is to be in this industry.
Thank you to everyone who came and talked to us at Rise and shared your experiences. If we don’t see you at the Float Conference, hopefully we’ll see you next year. As always, float on.
What’s the Weirdest Post Float Experience You’ve Seen (Rise) – DSP 151
Another conversation that was captured at Rise was this little sit down between Graham and Ashkahn and a float center owner by the name of Jeremy out in San Antonio. They talk about a subject that I think comes up whenever float people get together. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen after someone got out of a float?”
Sometimes people have a hard time coming back to Earth after a really good session in the tank and seeing how they interact with the rest of the world afterwards can be heartwarming and enlightening. It’s part of the reason we do what we do.
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