Since my last frag swap, I have been kicking around the idea of actually starting up a small coral business. I am not sure to what extent I would go, I could be a wholesale distributer, or an online retailer. My thoughts are that I really, really like this hobby, I think if you do it right there is money to be made, and it seem as thought you could scale your operation as you needed as well as you could do it in a limited capaciy; i.e. still keep your day job.
I have some space in a temperature controlled area already. I guess I would need tanks, lights, pumps etc. Here are a few questions I was hoping others could help out with.
What are the obsticals that I would run into having just corals in my tank? Would the reduced bio load cause any issues?
Would it be wise to have all the frag tanks piped together?
Is the trade already saturated? Can you make money?
What am I missing?
(just thinking out loud here...)
Im not sure about your questions but you would also have to look at shipping costs, web page development and maintaining, being able to ship out the corals, and also last but not least finding a wholesaler in ohio to buy from that has good corals. if you want to go online only.
where you thinking about having alot of diferent choices purchased and brought in or where you thinking about fraging and selling those frags as you get them?
Save a coral, Trade a frag.
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Actually, I am not sure at what level I would want to be in the distribution process. I am just kicking around ideas. I could be a wholesaler myself, but I would have to have a much larger scale operation. I thought it may be cool to specialize an online business in a specific type of coral or corals.
It just seems to me that I could find something to do to make a little $$$ (I am not looking to be a millionaire) doing something that I like to do.
The obsticles are hard to determine ahead of time. You plan, move in that direction, hit an obsticle, adapt, move on.Originally Posted by wildeone
There are no obsticles to having just corals in your tanks. Although most coral growers will have one reef safe tang or some other algae grazer in there.
The trade is not saturated for anyone putting out a good product and giving service.
Can you make money??? My wife's counting on it making us some money.
Amphibious
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Amblyeleotris randalli commonly, Randall's Goby.
That is what I think Chad does from his home. He also just took over a lfs here.
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.The trade is not saturated for anyone putting out a good product and giving service
That is true Amp. I suppose you start out small and see what develops.
Chad has some nice stuff on his site. I was unaware he existed.
He is only about 15 miles away from my house and the store he has taken over is less than a mile from my office. In fact I think I am going there after work tomorrow and seeing if they still have some pink zoas I saw last week.
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I sell on the web and work out of my home. I'm getting my frag operation going, hope to have frags available soon.
Lay down some plans and move in that direction.
Amphibious
Good Luck comes to those who research and prepare.
Our Talking Reef Forum The Cultured Reef Forum
My tank journal Amphibious' 135 mixed reef.
The Cutured Reef toll free number - 888 745-0449
Amblyeleotris randalli commonly, Randall's Goby.
one recommendation i would have is to start doing it unofficially now.
grow the frags, sell and trade them locally and on sites like frags.org, here, RC, or any other place you want. if you want to stay local, sell them to your LFS as you can.
this way you find out exactly what you are in for, you'll get an understanding of shipping and how to do it best before you stake your reputation on it.
you can even get a site up for your personal frags for sale, many people do this.
then once you are comfortable and ready to take it to the next step, then you can, but before you do that you will have had the chance to earn some capital, learn the tricks of the trade, and build up some clientele
Just my thoughts.. HTH..
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Wildeone, check out Calfo's "Book of Coral Propagation, vol 1"... It seems like the first half of the book is geared toward starting your own propagation business... It might help with some of the questions... not to mention it is just a good book to have around.
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frag tanks as you've prob seen on some posting doesn't have to be showstoping units like the effort you apply to the the main display. in actual fact they can be crude but effective holding vessiles. using an acrlyic viewing pane on the water surface even does away with the personal need to view them through glass or acrylic! as long as everything is plumbed in correctly, the parameter needs are met there no reason why the start-up costs have to overly huge!
just as an example of such a posible set-up i borrowed this from the frag posting.
ive considered it because theres a genuine viod down here, and i wanted to start up workbench programs for reefers of any level so the level of involvement and awareness increases. its also a way to constantly drum up business
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