Hey Rob,
Here is a coral buying tip.
How do you buy corals little by little as not to add anything too fast and yet feel like it's not hurting your pocket? Save your change! Once a month or once every two months, I wrap up the change that I throw into a jar and use that towards my coral purchases. You would be surprised on how much collects after a month or so! I average anywhere from $40 to $60 a month jus by doing this. Another tip: Hide it from your spouse! ;-)

he he- I like that 'hide it from your spouse' part. I like to stash away a few hundreds in the doll room sometimes and somehow someone else gets to spend that money- it's just not fair. I now have another hiding spot- shhhh don't tell. I gotta save tank money somehow, right?

yep.. that's a great tip...
and to add to that...
once you get your tank going, and you can start fragging, sell the frags, and use that money to buy new (different) once.. :)
this is what i do..

Selling frags?? ouch!!

I have to say I love the ARC because most of us don't sell frags. I enjoy giving away frags- I'm in this hobby for fun, not to make a buck. If I give someone a frag and they turn around and sell a frag from it later down the road, I'm not gonna be happy.

If you wanna trade or sell them back to your LFS- go for it.

I just love this thread

http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59002&highlight=frags
Quote "I challenge you people to become ambassadors of captive reef propagation, Give something back to the community that has supported you."

yeah.. there are great points there..
my take, as a hobbyist, i always prefer trade over selling, but that can be very hard, if you do not have awesome super nice corals, you can never equally trade for them..
but if you sell the frags to people that are starting, and use that money to get the super nice ones, its cool...

again, i prefer trade, but dont see anything wrong with selling, since you are essentially putting right back in your tank.. and if you can give them away or trade and for good stuff, more power to you...

To me it's just so rewarding to give away frags especially to people who are new in the hobby. Take Felipe for example, you think it's Christmas with the smile and joy on his face- I love it!!! Seeing people happy and enjoying their stuff is enough pay back for me.

On the other hand, if you have a Tyree coral that you paid lots of money for, I can see selling the frags for cheap, but if someone gives me a Tyree coral- I'm not selling those frags.

Trading is always the best, but for people who have nothing to trade, I just can't take money- it's just not me. idk

yes, i have given many away so far.. usually people will come over to buy something and i just start throwing free frags at them.. :)

or if they are good friends i would give them stuff for free too.. :)

I would love to get to the point where I can give some away. I have some Xenia that's already at that point. I always felt weird about selling stuff. I think that comes from my mother who gave so much and never wanted anything in return. My dad on the other hand would sell anything! (he's a food vendor).
Don't get me wrong, I think this hobby can be very profitable if you plan it out well. But for me, I think just learning new things and making friends from it is so worth it. Trading is much more fun!
You guys rock by the way! You make it easy to post and share my thoughts.
Thanks!

btw - Welcome rmulet!!! Glad to see you feel comfy here! That's what I love about it as well!

As far as buying, selling, trading goes - I would LOVE to find people here that would like to trade! I'm working on it though...hopefully something will pan out soon!

Christi- is there a reef club over there or any way to be involved in a reef community *besides TR ;) * ? Is it hard to find people in this hobby?

There's quite an active reef forum here; however, my Swedish isn't fluent yet, so I struggle through the threads. I usually end up not having the patience for it. They have, kindly enough, opened up an English-speaking thread though, which helps, but I don't think it gets visited as often.

There's a couple of people trying to get a Göteborg Reef meeting going at one of the local marine museums and I try to keep up on that, but so far they haven't met up yet. So far I haven't met too many reefers in my city, although there seems to be a lot all over Sweden. Luckily, the LFS here in Göteborg is one of the best in Sweden...most people travel long distances to get here. But, he's been having some algae problems recently and I haven't felt like buying anything from him until he's got it under control.

Germany has a HUGE reef community! Too bad I wasn't active in it before we left Germany. I could have benefitted greatly from it. There's a bunch of really great online coral stores, but unfortunately they don't like to ship internationally. Georg and I like to stop by some of the stores up in the north when we're visiting family. We'll be driving through in a few weeks again for Easter vacation and I'd like to find a couple new stores to check out. I think there's some good ones in Copenhagen as well, which I think we'll check out this time.

But, you know, there's just nothing like American friendliness and helpfulness! :-)

Keep us posted on if you get to attend a reef meeting. Do they do reef tanks about the same as us or very different?

From what I've seen on the US forums, I would say that the tanks are kept pretty similar. Although, I would say there are definitely more bare-bottoms here than what seems to be happening in the US. Also, there are more people mixing MH with T5s. Mostly glass as well.

A lot of people use the Balling Method for calcium and the Zeovit seems to be getting more and more popular.

btw - Welcome rmulet!!! Glad to see you feel comfy here! That's what I love about it as well!

Thanks Reefbaby!!:)

From what I've seen on the US forums, I would say that the tanks are kept pretty similar. Although, I would say there are definitely more bare-bottoms here than what seems to be happening in the US. Also, there are more people mixing MH with T5s. Mostly glass as well.

A lot of people use the Balling Method for calcium and the Zeovit seems to be getting more and more popular.

Bare bottoms seem to be getting more popular over here. I'd try it myself, but don't care for the look.

What is the Balling method for calcium?

Hey Gwen - I don't have time at work right now, but have several great references for you. I'll put them together this evening....

cool- thanks

Hey Gwen - I'm going to start a thread in the "Additives and Chemicals". Don't want to hijack rmulet's thread here. Plus, it's rather complicated and detailed, so I want to take the time to make sure that I explain it properly. Unfortunately, I can only find detailed descriptions/recipes in German, so I want to translate it properly.....
expect to find the thread in the next couple of days! :-)

I wish someone would give me some frags for free!

Thanks Christi ;)

if you lived in MI i would...
but i tell you, there are alot of new englanders here.. i bet you can get something from them.. :)

Hey Gwen - I'm going to start a thread in the "Additives and Chemicals". Don't want to hijack rmulet's thread here.

Don't worry, me happy!:D

Bare bottoms seem to be getting more popular over here. I'd try it myself, but don't care for the look.

What is the Balling method for calcium?


I know this is an old post, but I am new here.. If you are looking for info, here is a great site.

http://www.andy-hipkiss.co.uk/caalkbal.htm

Hope you don't mind the link.

scott

Thanks Scott...

Christi also posted about it in another thread- seems way too complicated to me though!!

Thanks Scott...

Christi also posted about it in another thread- seems way too complicated to me though!!


I agree 100% :D