Vincerama Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Hi! I thought I'd start a thread where we can put in our money saving tips. I was inspired by that "It's too expensive" thread! Here are some tips that I've learned; Use pickling lime instead of LFS kalkwasser to maintain alkalinity. Use a $5 "enteral feeding bag" (like an IV) to drip dose it, don't buy an expensive feeding pump or that Kent "Aquadose" thing. DIY everything IF you have the tools, if you don't it is often cheaper to just buy something. Overflow boxes are relatively easy to make. Bulkheads can be made with cheap PVC fittings. DIY a kalkwasser (Nilsen) Reactor rather than buy a full blown Ca Reactor, it will cost less than $100. JOIN A LOCAL REEF CLUB! It may have an annual membeship fee, but you meet a lot of people who will generally share frags with you! Buy small corals and grow them! (For instance, those rescued frags that many companies sell!). Smaller corals are cheaper and WILL grow larger, then you can frag them and trade them for other small corals! Make your own food. There are lots of recipes online for making fish/coral food (mostly blendered nori, shrimp and assorted fish and seafood). Buy the large buckets of salt, you THINK you have a nano so you only need a bit, but like gasoline, you will ALWAYS need salt, so buy in bulk. Online salt is not worth it, unless you can catch PetSmart.com when they do free shipping. Make your own aragocrete rocks rather than buying Live Rock, but seed it with a couple of pounds of real LR. Use Southdown sand if you can find it! USE eBay! YOu can get ALOT of stuff cheap here! OK, that was a lame list. Anyone got any good hints for saving money? V Link to comment
tinyreef Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 read up on additives (you don't need the extra $20/oz. marketing charge they tag on) don't buy your livestock in bulk (it's cheaper but more will probably die) don't cheap on your lighting. (you'll end up spend more than once) raise smart kids (college tuition is expensive) try to have sons (weddings are expensive, as are clothes, auto insurance, etc. :*( ) visit the freshwater forums (get out while you still can) Link to comment
Korbin Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Don't go to the LFS on payday. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 you guys have some great advice but here is the best way to keep the cost down: stay the hell away from this hobby. Link to comment
Vincerama Posted November 5, 2003 Author Share Posted November 5, 2003 It's too late! Like going swimming after your eat, then getting caught in a riptide! V Link to comment
spemin Posted November 5, 2003 Share Posted November 5, 2003 is it possible for me to use some kind of 'base' rock and then have my SPS grow on them, and then just trade that? where can i get suitable base rock? the LFS? I live in SD and my LFSes are AW and Octopuss Gardens, but would like to avoid visiting so that i won't be tempted to buy stuff Link to comment
Vincerama Posted November 5, 2003 Author Share Posted November 5, 2003 Well, you could... 1) Make fake rocks with portland cement & oystershells - www.garf.org 2) Use base rock 3) Use once-live base rock (like Caribsea reef-bones) which then become real live rock 4) glue your frags to sea shells ... there's gotta be lots of those in SD! I think the aragocrete is the best, but currently, since I don't have the space/time to make it, I glue stuff to shells, which are free if you live near the ocean! (Boild them first!) V Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.