Hello Im really new with ???'s.

I heard you can buy sand, melting salt, fertilizer food and many things from Home Depot or Lowes to get your new tank started is that true?

The fishtank can be also made from plywood correct me if Im wrong.

I don't have a lot of money and this might be a great option to start off with.

Also, I heard you can make your own rocks out of cement, sand and stones.

Thanks so much.

 

There is a lot of DIY things you can buy from hardware stores, but you have to know what it is your buying before you buy it.

Most sand from homedepot and lowes is silica sand which has no buffering capabilities like aragonite sand. You can use "Pavestone Pulverized Limestone", NOT the powdered kind use for chalk on ball fields. Limestone is aragonite pretty much.

Plywood tanks are considerably cheaper then glass tanks, but a heck of lot more work. Plus you have to know how to work with epoxies and fiberglass resins to make it water tight and also have to have some wood working skills to make it structurally sound. However it costs more to build small tanks out of plywood then buying a glass one. Like 100g or smaller.

If you've never had a saltwater tank before, I would recommend buying a used 75g tank and start from there. Learn the basics FIRST HAND and see how that goes before you get into a large project such as a plywood tank.

 

corn glad you posted your own thread now karma for you

but like I said in my pm to you slow down take 2 steps back this hobby is extreemly expensive and if you are thinking you cant afford the basic setup cost then you definately wont be able to afford to maintain the hobby

i personaly barly have the money to keep what I have and about half the stuff was donated to me as a new reefer and I am deeply greatfull to those people as I would not have my reef right now if it weren't for them

on a second note the road salt you hear of people buying for their tanks isn't to make saltwater with it is for adding a specific mineral to the tank that the corals use this needs to be done with extreem caution as you can easly crash a severaly thousand dolar system if dont wrong

for the sand I would avoid the sand at lowes and hd as they usualy are silica based sands and are nowhere near as pure as the sand we purchase for our tanks

for making the rocks this should be left to the very experienced diy'ers it is a very time consuming process that takes several months worth of curing and other things I am not going into detail on this and once again if not done proper it can crash your tank

 

oh yea one more thing about the cost of this hobby figure for every 1g of water you have at least $10+ a month spending on maintance and suplies

 

Amen, couldn't have said it better.

 

Wow, very well said, kudos to you my friend. That deserves some karma.

 

I happen to have a plywood reef tank and I like it except for the fact that it is much harder to see through than a standard glass tank. Just my opinion.