Cost Saving Tips - Podcast Episode 17

[Rob]

This week I thought I would put together a list of ideas to save you money when setting up or changing your tank. So if you are interested in saving some money with your tank, make sure you check out this episode. I would especially like to hear your ideas. If you have cost saving tips, please call in and leave me a message explaining your cost saving tips and I will play them on-air.

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Question and Comments responses

Here is the question I got this week.

• None

In this show I have put tother a great list of ways to save money on your tank. Save money with tank setup, tank expansion, or modification. Make sure you send in your money saving ideas so we can share them with everyone.

Please send in questions, comments, or your show ideas or suggestions to podcast@talkingreef.com

Show Links

• GARF Organization
  
• Maxi-Jet Stream Mod


• Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime
  

[BrianPlankis]

Rob,

Hey man, I'm still working my way through the podcast episodes, I just made it through this one. Some good tips on saving money!

A couple of points on making your own live rock (aka Agrocrete).

First off, I've been able to locate cheap crushed oyster shell, concrete and sand. So I was able to make my own LR considerably cheaper than base rock, on the order of $0.30/lb. Would I do it again though? NO WAY! Way too much time and effort in getting that stuff to cure and shaping it correctly. As you said in the show, only for artists and I'm not an artist!

I actually ended up using a few pieces in my tank, but it definitely is more dense and has less pore space than real live rock.

Second, you mention in the show that GARF was the first to start making LR. But actually some public aquariums started making their own live rock out of concrete just after World War II. However, one could argue that GARF.org made making your own live rock popular and they are frequently linked to on the web.

But there are other authors that were posting things online at about the same time:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...ementRock.html

If you read this article, especially the bold part, you'll see making rocks started much earlier, back in the 1920s and 1930s. You can even say that King Herod, almost 2000 years ago, used concrete rocks to make his palace lagoon. First possible agrocrete rocks? That might be a little bit of a stretch, but just pointing out GARF was not the first

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog...er_052498.html

Nice show, I enjoyed many of your tips! On to the next show....

Brian

[Rob]

thanks brian..
yes, i have come to learn they were not the "creators" of making your own Rock.

what i am more referring to is that they are kinda the creators of Aragocrete, in that they have spent alot of time effort and research into figuring out what works the best and posting the results. did they invent it? no, but they sure did tune it..