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

When it’s Time to Fire Your Customers – DSP 120

This is one of those situations that’s never fun to be in, but it’s something that’s gotta be dealt with. A customer is rude, unpleasant, or makes the staff or other customers uncomfortable. It can start small and turn into a repeated and difficult problem. As the business owner, oftentimes, the buck stops with you and you have to figure out how to handle that situation.

Graham and Ashkahn share their experiences at Float On with their problematic customers and how they handled it while offering tidbits of advice. 

Funding your center through Kickstarter – DSP 119

Crowdfunding has made so many projects possible that would otherwise not exist. It seems perfect for niche ideas, concepts that would otherwise never see the light of day, and passion projects that just need to happen. This sounds perfect for float centers, but there are some caveats. 

Crowdfunding is time intensive and there’s not guarantee of success. Aside from that, there are some issues with it that complicate things for float centers that other crowdfunded projects likely won’t face. Graham and Ashkahn talk about the successes of float center crowdfunding and the not-so-successes as well. 

Don’t Build Your Own Float Tank! – DSP 118

For anyone considering a DIY float tank, give this episode a listen first. This isn’t a discussion on the merits of doing things one way versus another or expressing an opinion on one side and playing devil’s advocate for the other. Graham and Ashkahn know painfully well from personal experience the pitfalls of falling into the hubris trap of thinking you can build your own float tanks. They built two large open tanks in Float On and even years later they still cause headaches.

What’s more, they’ve spoken with dozens of people who’ve also gone through this themselves and heard their horror stories after they didn’t listen to the advice of not doing it.

The perception that it can be a cost-cutting measure or a more reliable way to get an operating float tank in your center by going DIY is generally pretty flawed. There’s so much to it that you just can’t consider before the fact.

Should Your Float Center have a Blog? – DSP 117

This seems like a good idea on paper. It helps with SEO stuff for Google. It gives you an outlet to write about floating and share information about the industry. And it seems to fall in line with something that other businesses do, right?

So what are the downsides? How much time and effort does a blog really take? What sort of impact does it have for a float center? Graham and Ashkahn lay out the pros and cons as well as things you may not initially consider about the responsibility of having a blog.

Thoughts on Buying Yelp Ads – DSP 116

There are lots of businesses that experience the dogged persistence of Yelp sales people calling them. Float On has done both buying Yelp ad space and living without it and Graham and Ashkahn break down exactly what that experience was like.

They also go into exactly what Yelp ads mean and how it impacts your float center (or doesn’t, as the case may be) as well as how well Yelp stacks up in comparison to other ad sources.

Latest Blog Posts

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing

Today, I’d like to talk to you about nothing. But first I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Ashkahn, and I’m one of the co-founders of Float On. I’ve spent the last 2 years of my life entirely devoted to these magical boxes we’ve all discovered, and...

Much Ado About Nothing

Past & Present of Oasis & Future of Floating

My focus here/now will be on the past [portion of this 'assignment'] that set me up to be involved in floatation work... It was probably inevitable that I would end up involved with float tanks .... When your last name is Wasserman, which means 'waterman' in german*,...

Much Ado About Nothing

Past, Present, Future

My life is focused around balance. This is the key to everything I do; A balance between cosmic vows of spirituality, family, and the business with the scales constantly being tipped back and forth on the scale.To understand why I am involved in the Flotation Industry...

The Art of Managing Expectations

The Art of Managing Expectations

When considering opening a floatation center, I came across the following story that helped me understand the process that I was going to be going through as the owner of Float Matrix.    There once was a plumber who was excellent at what he did. He knew everything...