rckmtl's 40g

[rckmtl]

this tank is setup for propagation. I'm just learning how to pro. most stuff, but i got some lfs's who said they will buy stuff. My goal is to be able to open a coral farm in a couple of years. Myself and two partners will be opening a pet store in a year. Hopefully it goes well and i can use some profits from it to start up the coral farm.
I plan on selling wholesale to the lfs's in my area. My theory is that if the customers out here can finally get their hands on some healthy, lower cost corals and get rare specimens more frequently, they will support the lfs's more and the hobby as a whole will benefit.

40gal breeder
2 55w PC actnics
2 55w pc 10k's (setup in a quad config)
powersweep powerhead for water cir.
overflow to a 29 gal sump refugium

corals will change as they grow out from frags, but this tank is for softies
currently- mush's, green star polyps, gorgongia, ricordea, colt frags, and some zo's

3-4" of argonite
10 turbo snails
live rock in tank and refugium
caulpera in refugium... I found someone who will actually pay for the stuff

I will be setting up a 2nd 40gal with mh's in a few weeks for hard corals
Might setup another small tank for red algae maybe...

anything I forgot that people might need to know in the future?

[Travis]

Sounds like a nice setup! Are you using a skimmer?

[Tarasco]

Also, watch out for those powersweeps. I've heard plenty of stories where they crap out after a while, and stop sweeping.

You can also offer to sell some frags in the selling/trading forum, I'm sure that there will be at least a few interested people.

[mps9506]

What area are you selling to?
Having done a lot of research on the costs and development of aquaculture farms for both fish and corals I just wanted to point out that for a profitable farm you will probably need to wholesale to more than one store or one city.
My store buys propogated corals from about 3 people, none of who can keep up with my demand for corals, therefore I still purchase from ORA and wild caught.
But a small scale prop system is a great way to offset the costs of running your main tank or offset costs of running an LFS.

Also what I've found is that most SW customers are interested in softies and LPS corals.I'd say 90% of the corals I've sold in the last three years would be mushrooms and euphyllia. If you could find out how to quickly grow and propogate frogspawns and hammers you would be the man

Good luck man.

[rckmtl]

Originally Posted by Travis

Sounds like a nice setup! Are you using a skimmer?

Thanks! nope, no skimmer on this tank. I just use carbon for a day right before I do a water change. I figure that way, if I take out any good stuff, I'll replace it right away.

I've always run small setups before w/ small bioloads and tons of biological filtration so I really don't have any exp. with skimmers.

probably will add a skimmer to the hard coral tank after a while, and compare before and after results. All the research I've done on them seems to say that as long as you don't have huge bioloads then it's a matter of opinion whether to use one or not. but... if I end up doing lots of feedings with bbs, and live phytoplankton and such, I might need one. Any thoughts/exp?

[rckmtl]

Originally Posted by Tarasco

Also, watch out for those powersweeps. I've heard plenty of stories where they crap out after a while, and stop sweeping.

Yep! here's another one for you then. I have to take apart and clean mine once a month or more just to keep it working. And if I don't put that little spinner back -perfectly- I have to take it apart and redo it.

all in all it works great for the currents and keeping food suspended in the water, so that's good at least.

-Ellen-

[Craig Manoukian]

Welcome and post some pics Ellen!

[rckmtl]

(replying to mps9506's post)

It's going to be the chicagoland area. still coming up with the list of stores that sell corals, but it's more then 20 easy.

I definatally agree with you that making a coral farm profitable is a tough problem to overcome. Like you pointed out, it's hard for your suppliers to keep stocked up. Cuz to do so you need a big farm, but a big farm costs sooo much to setup. But if you go too small, you never get the sales you need to drive the profit line high enough to expand.

I would love so much to be running a hug setup a few years down the road. Out here the hobby needs access to propagated stuff pretty badly, so I would probabbly have the same problems keeping up with demand as your suppliers do.

I worked at a lfs for about two and half years and we also sold a high percentage of soft and lps. More soft then anything else though, possibly cuz of the lower price point.

Yeah! that would be cool, to come up with the 'amazing multiplying hammers' method. "just follow these 3 easy steps... and wake up to a tank full of hammers in just 24hs!"

Hey, If you would like to, i'd love to keep this discussion going and trade info. Is this the right forum for that, or would it be better to setup a new thread elsewhere?

Thanks for all the input.

-Ellen-

[rckmtl]

Originally Posted by Craig Manoukian

Welcome and post some pics Ellen!

Thanks! Pic's will be posted when i can drag over my friend who has a carmera
-Ellen-

[mps9506]

Originally Posted by rckmtl

Thanks! nope, no skimmer on this tank. I just use carbon for a day right before I do a water change. I figure that way, if I take out any good stuff, I'll replace it right away.

I've always run small setups before w/ small bioloads and tons of biological filtration so I really don't have any exp. with skimmers.

probably will add a skimmer to the hard coral tank after a while, and compare before and after results. All the research I've done on them seems to say that as long as you don't have huge bioloads then it's a matter of opinion whether to use one or not. but... if I end up doing lots of feedings with bbs, and live phytoplankton and such, I might need one. Any thoughts/exp?

I ran a 40 gallon barebottom SPS dominated tank (just broke it down since I'm about to move). My bioload consisited of a lawnmower blenny and a 2 inch candy hog. I ran a Euroreef ES5-3 setup to skim wet. There is no way I would have run this tank without the skimmer.
As far as the softies and zoo's however I see no reason to use a skimmer, a plenum and tank full of algae for nutrient export is what I would do.
But for the SPS, I would seriously recommend keeping them in a very low nutrient environment with no sand bed and a good skimmer set to skim very wet.

[rckmtl]

No sand bed to reduce nitrate/nitrite build up due to debris build up? or for another reason?

What method did you use to keep the calcium levels up?

With skimmers, if it is running wet, you get really moist gunk right? and vise-versa with dry?

but what are the differences in effect on the tank from running wet or dry?