Learn best practices for starting and running a float center:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Something in the world of floating have you stumped?

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Show Highlights

When Graham and Ashkahn get to definitively answer a question, it’s like Christmas. Birds sing and the guys bust out their “Answering a question definitively” dance, which has the added side effect of better crop yields during the coming harvest. It’s an exciting time.

There’s a very straightforward mathematical equation for measuring the weight of salt water based on specific gravity, which is excellent. And useful!

Also, whoever wrote this question needs to contact Graham and Ashkahn ASAP!

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Today’s question is, “how much does one gallon of Epsom salt saturated water weight? And, can I ever speak to you about an idea that I think would revolutionize the industry if you could help me to dream it possible?”

Ashkahn: That was part of the question?

Graham: Yeah. You wanna just do the first part first or-

Ashkahn: I guess so. Is that where the question ends or do they go into what the idea is?

Graham: No, they just want to know if they can speak to us about their idea.

Ashkahn: Oh, man, okay.

Graham: So, I guess the answer to that is yeah.

Ashkahn: Totally, yeah.

Graham: Definitely, yes. We love hearing ideas.

Ashkahn: I’m excited now. I wish they’d have written the whole thing in there.

Graham: I mean, it could revolutionize the industry.

Ashkahn: I can see how they don’t want us just broadcasting that out there.

Graham: Which I would have because obviously I’ll just read whatever’s in front of me.

Ashkahn: So, yeah, whoever this is, reach out. Get in touch.

Graham: Yeah man. Shoot us another question.

Ashkahn: Yeah, we’ll say it on the podcast. We’ll tell everybody your idea.

Graham: Unless you don’t want us to. In that case, we definitely won’t share it. So, the first part though, how much does one gallon of Epsom salt saturated water weigh? It’s not too hard to figure out.

Ashkahn: Yeah. It’s more than a gallon of water weighs.

Graham: And there you have it. You heard it from us.

Ashkahn: Okay. So, if you guys have other questions, you want to-

Graham: So, fortunately, the conversion with specific gravity of figuring out the weight of something is not the hardest thing in the world. It’s actually pretty simple. Just multiplication problem of you take the specific gravity and multiply it by, say the weight of water, which is 8.344 pounds.

Ashkahn: Per gallon.

Graham: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Per gallon. So, at 1.25 specific gravity, that’s gonna end up being 10.43 pounds per gallon, and around 1.3 specific gravity it’s gonna be about 10.85 pounds per gallon. And keep in mind, this is gonna vary a little bit. Not only on the specific gravity but on the actual temperature of the solution and on the pressure. But that shouldn’t change it too much.

Ashkahn: Those are marginal.

Graham: Yeah. So, just like the specific gravity is 1.25-1.3 it means that the weight of the gallon of salt water is going to be about 25%-30% heavier than a gallon of regular water.

Ashkahn: Okay. Yeah, that’s-

Graham: And send in that idea!

Ashkahn: Back to the important part of your question.

Graham: And pretty clear cut.

Ashkahn: Right.

Graham: Definitely feel free to run a little science experiment yourselves and prove us right or wrong on that.

Ashkahn: This is one of those rare times we actually know-

Graham: We actually know the answer and it’s concrete.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: We’re just gonna make this a really short episode. So, if you have any other questions for us, send them to floattanksolutions.com/podcast.

Recent Podcast Episodes

How to Help Float Research – DSP 300

With the push from Justin Feinstein at LIBR to get more float centers involved in research, many float center owners are chomping at the bit to push studies forward on the benefits of floating. But where do you start and how do you make it happen? 

Graham and Ashkahn discuss this idea and how to do research right, as well as some of the things that might be helpful OR harmful to the world of floating in the eyes of the scientific community. There’s a lot of nuanced things to know about proper research and if you go in overzealous without considering how established science is done, it can harm the reputation of the practice. 

Tips on Running Power to Float Rooms – DSP 299

Graham and Ashkahn offer some helpful tips to keep in mind when planning out the electrical framework for your float rooms. How many circuits you should plan for, where to place outlets, GFCI compliance, just to name a few. 

Definitely an essential episode for anyone to listen to before going into their build-out phase. 

Floating in National Media – DSP 298

Seeing float tanks in the national news and culture has increased in regularity within the last few years. Graham and Ashkahn discuss how these things get on such a large platform. The guys briefly go over some of the major stories that have been all over the media and how those stories happened. Mostly it comes down to luck, but there are a few things that can increases the chances of your float center getting on national TV. 

The Real Tips on Building Your Own Float Tank – DSP 297

Someone wrote in and asked, again, despite the repeated warnings of the previous episode covering this topic, how to build a float tank properly. 

Graham and Ashkahn try their best to restrain themselves and offer some practical advice about how to build your own tanks while also repeatedly warning about things to look out for when going forward with the process.

How to Handle Other Float Centers Spying on You – DSP 296

Graham and Ashkahn talk about how they deal with other float centers spying on Float On. 

Basically… they don’t. The float industry is a really open community and a lot of information is generally freely available. If someone is spying on a float center, that could be a result of poor communication skills or a lack of awareness of what information is actually out there. The guys share their advice on how to talk to someone who might be in that situation and how to move forward, hopefully as friends instead of rivals. 

Latest Blog Posts

Reflections from the Rise Float Gathering

Reflections from the Rise Float Gathering

Over this past weekend, a good chunk of the Float Tank Solutions and Float Conference crew ventured to St. Louis, MO for the first ever Rise Community Float Gathering. Beyond our excitement to see old friends and meet new ones, we were thrilled to be able to attend a float event that we didn’t have to plan.

When it comes to float tanks, we often deal with a lot of the “what” and the “how” of things – what do I need to do to open a float center and how to I make everything work? We write blogs and put out content. We spend our days thinking about conference flowcharts, water chemistry, detailed business plans, soundproof insulation, etc.

Rise, on the other hand, focused on the “why?”

The Story Behind the Float Marketing Forum

The Story Behind the Float Marketing Forum

Over the past few years, primarily through feedback received from conference attendees and through industry survey responses, float center owners struggled with and wanted a solution to one thing… marketing. It makes sense – if there’s one thing every center needs (besides salt), it’s a solid flow of customers in tanks.

After some brainstorming with Ashkahn, we’ve decided the best solution for this year was to host a series panels covering key marketing topics that will provide the biggest impact in growing your float center business.

Introducing: The Float Conference Marketing Forum.

Announcing the 2nd Ever Start-a-Center Giveaway WINNER!

Announcing the 2nd Ever Start-a-Center Giveaway WINNER!

In what was one of the most difficult decisions that we had to make as a team… and after sorting through nearly 200 entries… we’ve decided upon a winner in our second ever Start-a-Center Giveaway.

Read more to learn who we’ll be guiding through the process in starting a float tank center in their community.

Gut your space before construction!

Gut your space before construction!

One line we don’t think you should cross is this: as much as possible, when building out your float center, gut it completely. Start from scratch.

At least then the mistakes you make are your own and your building will hold fewer surprises down the line. There are many benefits that you may not think of immediately. In this post, we’ll guide you through some of them.