Mission: Chilean Nano Tank

[Walter]

Hey everyone!

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Walter R. Im a 21 years old student from Chile, South America, and "this" is my problem:

After looking at all those great pictures of nanos and huge tanks, Ive decided to make a tank, but soon I started to look for materials in my country to start it, I got some problems:

1) The smallest amount of rock I can buy in my country is 45lbs, and as you all might know, 45lbs in a 10 gal its like a 400lbs guy using leather pants . That means that I got to spend 336 dollars for Premiun Fiji Live Rock, and belive me, I dont have that much money.

2)Each coral (the cheapest one) cost 80 bucks

3)Each false percs cost the same as the corals

4)Lights are easy to get, just like the powerhead.

 

Now, lets think about the expenses:

336 dollars in LR

80 dollars 1 perc

400 dollars in cheap corals

100 in PC

100 in misc. expenses

1016 dollars in a 10 gal, 5 corals and 1 perc tank..

 

Dont you guys think is too much? I do belive its way over anyones average expenses in a nano.

The thing is that I STILL wanna do that nano, but for that Ill need as much steps and information to start it in a right way. For ex. how can I make live rock? etc.

I would really appreciate that info so I can make the first colaborated-chilean-nano

Again, thanks a lot

 

bye

 

W. (seis66)

[Satchmo]

For those prices, you'd be better off buying a plane ticket to South Florida to get what you need.

[Christopher Marks]

Reef keeping is very popular in Brazil, and you might be able to get rock and livestock shipped from there. It's definately worth looking into.

[NanoReefer53]

any chance there's any reefs in Chilie ? just go pick up a couple pieces of rock/coral direct

[Walter]

Of course I would love to move over there and buy, but that means that I gotta pay taxes for all the lr, corals and fishes... and that would sum something like 1500 easy

I still be waiting for all the ideas.

We dont have reefs here, nanoreefer53

Thanks chris

W.

[tinyreef]

exchange the money for patience. setup the tank with dry sand and dry rock. cycle the system with a damsel or whatever's cheap. then get a soft coral and let it multiply.

 

Live rock is half-marketing and half-truth. You can use anything to get the surface area of LR (i was considering Cell-Pore for my new pico reef). the biodiversity is the key thing that LR injects into your system. LS is good too but the cool hitchhikers and stuff come along on the LR.

 

go slow and have patience. try spend where you have to (lights and patience) not where you want to (dendronephthyea or carpet anemone). the system can still be seeded from your first coral purchase which typically has a little piece of LR attached. good luck!

[Metznreef]

here's a tip. mail order corals! the shipping will be expensive but if you by 3 at a clip you will save alot of money. same with the perc.

[Goofnut]

I suggest that you post on message boards and visit your LFS to find other reef keepers in your area. Once you network with them, you can buy small amounts of sand from them to seed your tank with. If you don't mind waiting a while for the tank to develop, a couple small pieces of LR will seed cheap base rock that you put in your tank.

 

Also, you can find 2 other prospective nano reefers and split the 45lb box 3 ways. That's a good amount for a nano and will significantly reduce your cost. Corals are the same way. You can buy a specimen and frag it and sell the pieces to other people.

 

I think you will easily be able to get your costs down to under $400 for the whole setup.

[Walter]

First of all, I would really like to thank all the support Ive been recieving in the message board

 

 

. If you don't mind waiting a while for the tank to develop, a couple small pieces of LR will seed cheap base rock that you put in your tank.

 

Goofnut, this is one of the plans I have for that, but the problem is that I dont know what kind of rock I need. Some people in the IRC chat channel told me that I could start my own LR with Volcanic Rock. How does the propagation start? How do I need to place the LR so I can propagate?

 

"Metznreef" here's a tip. mail order corals! the shipping will be expensive but if you by 3 at a clip you will save alot of money. same with the perc.

Its impossible. They dont mail order to Chile

 

Thanks a lot to everybody!,

Ill still getting all of your ideas

bye

W.

[printerdown01]

Sand and rock are two things that you could collect from the chilly waters (no pun on the countries name). The waters are quite cold. Start the tank off very cold and slowly bring the temp up. Don't pick pretty LR as most of the life will die off quickly. However, a lot of the bacteria will live. -At least this will save you on rock $$.

[Walter]

After making some phone calls, a cousin of a friend have some live rock!!!!!

Now, the first step of my plan is to propagate the live rock into volcanic rock, but for that I have 2 questions:

 

1)Does this rock ( http://www.aquaplant-chile.cl/tienda/decor...ichas/Roca6.php ) works for LR propagation? I believe its from a chilean volcano in the south of Chile. They might picked it up from the shores of a river.

 

2)How do I propagate the LR to other rocks?!?!!?!?!? Thats something I want to know.

 

printerdown01: Sand and rock are two things that you could collect from the chilly waters (no pun on the countries name). The waters are quite cold. Start the tank off very cold and slowly bring the temp up. Don't pick pretty LR as most of the life will die off quickly. However, a lot of the bacteria will live. -At least this will save you on rock $$.

 

Well printerdown01, how can I do that?!?!?

 

Again, thanks again for all the suport in the proyect, buh bye!

W

[BustytheSnowMaam]

Hi Walter,

 

I have lots of leftover aragonite sand. I don't know how much it would cost to mail it to Chile, maybe I'm loca for thinking of it? Is it likely to get to you if I sent some?

 

Have you considered a smaller tank (say a 5 gallon)? This would require less live rock and sand and would therefore be cheaper.

 

Buena suerte

Tasha

[Christopher Marks]

Walter,

 

To create live rock out of 'dead rock' you will need to use a very poreous rock. The rocks on that website might work, though they do look to be somewhat dense.

 

Also, some people will create their own rocks and place them in their tanks to become liverock. To do that, they mix up aragonite sand with a little bit of cement and mold it into rocks. Then they let it cure in a bucket of water for a few months.

[Goofnut]

Hi Walter,

 

You might wish to do additional investigation into the volcanic rock (read some posts here/other places). Some volcanic rock is great for nanos, other volcanic rock contains toxic metals, etc. You could use a number of different types of rocks for your tank. Perhaps you could call your local University's geology department and ask them for sources of rock containing Calcium Carbonate only (minus the toxic metals, etc). The more porous, the better -as this allows for more surface area for the bacteria to grow on.

 

You can use a number of different rocks, but geologically older calcium carbonate (Calcite, etc) is NOT very porous. Calcium carbonate deposited in reef rocks is ideal, as it is porous and non-toxic to your nano. In your case, volcanic rock is easily found in Chile (and even more porous than most LR), so that will probably be the way to go. I, myself, would LOVE to get some black sand and black volcanic rock and setup a nano with it.... if it is non-toxic, that is. I haven't looked into it much, but I think it would look nice having a black base to show off my coral colors.

 

Making your own base rock, as suggested by Chris, is a good idea -but it just takes so LONG to cure it!

 

"Seeding" base rock is actually extremely easy. I'll give the shorthand here, but be sure to search this site for more info on it. Basically, you just put the base rock in the tank and then finish your aquascaping with the quality LR. The coralline algae, bacteria, and other life forms will multiply in your tank and eventually grow into and onto the base rock. It takes a while, so don't expect it to immedidately look like someone's tank who has premium coralline encrusted rock, but in a matter of months it will get there! Let me know if you have further questions

[Walter]

Hey Goofnut:

The rocks from the link are volcanic rocks, and the seller of them is one of the biggest retailers for acuarium products, so I realize they are aquarium-safe. To delete any doubts, Ive just sell him an email asking for the composition of the rock (I hope they give me a good answer ). Ill ask to the Departamente de Geología de la Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (The college with geology department ) About that chemical composition of the rocks. Thanks a lot!

 

Chris,

How should I look for it in the message board? (you know, even tho I write really good in english, that doesnt mean Im really good at thinkin :*( hahaha j/k)

 

thanks

 

W.

[Crakeur]

Originally posted by Walter

The smallest amount of rock I can buy in my country is 45lbs, and as you all might know, 45lbs in a 10 gal its like a 400lbs guy using leather pants

 

I can't think of anything more perfectly descriptive than that. Cracked me up. Thanks for the laugh.

 

Now, on to your problems (cost, availability etc) Where there's a will, there's a way. Do some searching and I'm sure you will find some more people that either want a nano or have a nano. If you all band together, you can place an order together and eliminate the problem of needing to place a large order. Also, you might find out that things are more readily available, and at cheaper prices, from someone or somewhere that you didn't know about. Go to a few local fish stores, hang out, stalk the customers a bit and you might hit paydirt.

 

Best of luck with the endeavor and the as always, keep us posted.

[Christopher Marks]

Originally posted by Walter

Chris,

How should I look for it in the message board? (you know, even tho I write really good in english, that doesnt mean Im really good at thinkin :*(  hahaha j/k)

I believe most people call this man made reef rock "agrocrete"

 

Do a search on other message boards like reefcentral.com and reefs.org, as well as here for info on it.

[Goofnut]

Walter, use the "search" function included in this board and others. Right above the advertising banner is a group of buttons that say "User CP", "Register", etc. Click on the "Search" button and follow that.

 

There are a number of sites with information on man-made rocks for aquariums. Here's one:

http://www.mindspear.com/reef/concrete/

 

Use google and enter "aragonite concrete aquarium" in the search line for more sites. Good luck!

[gobies]

How far are you from the coast? If you can get to an unpolluted area of beach, you could probably take some sand from there. If you do get some wet sand, you should probably slowly acclimate it to your tank temperature to minimize sand critter die-off.

[Walter]

Hello everyone:

gobies

How far are you from the coast? If you can get to an unpolluted area of beach, you could probably take some sand from there. If you do get some wet sand, you should probably slowly acclimate it to your tank temperature to minimize sand critter die-off.

 

 

 

Well, right now Im seating towards the beach, so you can suposse I do "live" (I mean live with go to my college, my place, the places I hang out) near de beach. I do can get unpolluted sand, but I dont know if it is "alive" in any way. About the acclimatation of the sand, can you explain me more about it? Thanks

 

 

 

 

Goofnut

use the "search" function included in this board and others. Right above the advertising banner is a group of buttons that say "User CP", "Register", etc. Click on the "Search" button and follow that.

 

 

Thanks a lot, Goofnut! Right now Im looking for information about it in google, so your advice really helped me out. Thanks!

 

Christopher Marks

I believe most people call this man made reef rock "agrocrete"

 

Again my friend, thanks Helpful as always

 

Crakeur

I can't think of anything more perfectly descriptive than that. Cracked me up. Thanks for the laugh

 

Hahahahahah I laughed a lot when I wrote it. I can add more of those "nano reef" jokes if you want

 

Now, for all of you that reads the forum, I have a question.

How can I frag corals?! Can anyone give me a good url to study?

 

Thanks alot again!!

I gotta go to Latin II, witch I hate with all my guts

 

Hope to hear from all of you soon

Bye!

 

W.

[jdiver]

You can go to http://www.garf.org/ for some excelllent and detailed info on fragging/propogating corals.

[Walter]

Ok everybody:

After doing a lot of research, Ive decided that Ill start with DIY nano today! Right now Im going to a kinda-home-depot store here in Chile to see the prices of the PC lights Ive found.

http://www.luz.philips.com/latam/es/prod.j...t=257&cd_menu=1

Bye

W.

[gobies]

http://www.readingtrees.com/books_in_print.htm

and get the "Book of Coral Propagation" by Anthony Calfo...

 

If you get some sand from offshore a bit, it should be "live" sand in that it should have (at least) some bacteria-critters in it.... but I have no idea what the mineral/chemical composition of the stuff would be, so this may be another thing you want to ask the University people about.

[Walter]

Hey:

After I got the excelent news that Im not going to have that stupid "Medieval Philosophy" huge test, Ive decided that Im going to start with the first part of the acuarium: The Hardware.

But first, I do have some questions about it:

1)Does the philips PL-C(2p) works as a PC bulb? I haves 6500ºK ,1800 lm , 26w and 7 inches long

(http://www.luz.philips.com/latam/es/prod.j...t=257&cd_menu=6 ) <-- thats the url

 

2)If it does works, how many of them do I need for a 10 gal aquarium?

 

3)Is it going to have the same brightness as the one you buy over the Internet?

 

About the tank itself, I would like to know the following:

1)Do I need a special silicone to glue the glasses?

2)What kind of glass do I need?

3)How thick does it have to need for a 10 gal?

 

 

 

 

gobies: If you get some sand from offshore a bit, it should be "live" sand in that it should have (at least) some bacteria-critters in it.... but I have no idea what the mineral/chemical composition of the stuff would be, so this may be another thing you want to ask the University people about.

 

 

Well, Im about to ask a teacher about it. I have to meet with him later, so you might know the results today!

 

 

thanks a lot, everyone

 

See ya!

 

 

W.

[Goofnut]

Yikes! Building a 10g tank might be more trouble than it's worth, as a decent one can be purchased (at least here in America) for under $10 USD. If you need one with special dimensions, etc. then it might be worth it for you, but the glass purchased at a local home improvement store will probably cost you much more than that. I bought some small sheets of glass from Home Depot the other day, and at the price they were asking, it would have cost you at least $20 to buy enough to make a 10g tank. The glass they had wasn't thick enough for a tank, however, so it couldn't have been used anyway. Do they have Wal-Mart stores in Chile yet? I know they have them in South America...

 

In regards to the PC bulb, I can't read Spanish and couldn't locate the product on the English version of the page -but I would say that it COULD work, but might not be your best choice. It has 4 bulb segments aligned in a square configuration. This results in lower efficiency, as restrike will wipe out a higher percentage of available light in the tank. That type of bulb is usually designed to be mounted vertically (like in a table lamp). As far as wattage and spectrum, have you decided what you want to have in your nano yet? I suggest setting up the tank around the specimens, not the other way around