Can I make $2000 in my refugium?
- Thread starter JPMagyar
- Start date
Fish4us
New member
I didnt have time to read all the threads here. But if you do decide to do this as a business... Look into setting it up as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) that way all your startup stuff is tax deductible and can be in the red for 3 yrs etc. Then after 3 yrs you decide its not for you ... shut it down.
It might save you some cash in the long run by helping with taxes. I know in AZ I was looking at setting up a daycare at one point I think it's like $80 to get the company setup etc...
Just a thought!
Jen
It might save you some cash in the long run by helping with taxes. I know in AZ I was looking at setting up a daycare at one point I think it's like $80 to get the company setup etc...
Just a thought!
Jen
maxvan1
New member
were are you going to sell them? maek your own websight? ebay? also you should grow like a few zoos or somthing so if they spend more then (say 100$ they get a free zoo frag... but price just low enough so they have to buy more.. ex. 9.99 to they cant just buy 10 and get the free frag, gotta buy 11... 
)
)
JPMagyar
New member
Update.
Update.
Since what seems like ages ago that I started this here is a brief summary of what has happened.
1) I realized chopping wild colonies up was not ethical or practical for me.
2) I picked 5 colorful corals (2 Torts, 2 Millis, and 1 Robusta) that I already had and focused on growing them out and fragging them.
3) I sold $450 worth of frags so far to one local retailer.
4) Now I am planning on devoting most of my space to growing out larger colonies on small pieces of LR which I hope to sell for $50 each which would mean I only need to sell 40 colonies per year to pay my electric bill.
5) I am working on growing out pink zoanthids and electric blue zoanthids to be able to add them to the base of the SPS colonies in hopes of having "Combo soft-hard-coral-LiveRocks" which would sell for a premium. I feel that it may take me as much as 2 years though to get a steady production.
And that's it for anyone interested. . .
Still Learnin' in NY.
Joe
Update.
Since what seems like ages ago that I started this here is a brief summary of what has happened.
1) I realized chopping wild colonies up was not ethical or practical for me.
2) I picked 5 colorful corals (2 Torts, 2 Millis, and 1 Robusta) that I already had and focused on growing them out and fragging them.
3) I sold $450 worth of frags so far to one local retailer.
4) Now I am planning on devoting most of my space to growing out larger colonies on small pieces of LR which I hope to sell for $50 each which would mean I only need to sell 40 colonies per year to pay my electric bill.
5) I am working on growing out pink zoanthids and electric blue zoanthids to be able to add them to the base of the SPS colonies in hopes of having "Combo soft-hard-coral-LiveRocks" which would sell for a premium. I feel that it may take me as much as 2 years though to get a steady production.
And that's it for anyone interested. . .
Still Learnin' in NY.
Joe
Whaledriver
New member
You might consider Calcium chloride used in snow melt products to help keep your calcium high. Its cheap and easy. Look up Randys 3 part system in the chemistry forum if your interested.
HybridFish
New member
I want to reply on the post that compared what you are doing to chop shops. I believe what you are doing is great! If you can sell 150 frags a year, you've effectivly saved 150 wild corals. W/ hard work I'm confident that you can meet your goals. I believe 20% at most like to see the mother colony when they buy frags. The other 80% look at something and buy just because it looks "cool". For the guy that said if you get into a hobby, keep it a hobby... If you treat anything like a hobby, then it will stay a hobby. You put hard work into a hobby, then it turns into a profitable business that you like to do. Keep up the good work JPMagyar!
Davckowski
New member
Can we get a progress report?
JPMagyar
New member
Progress.
Progress.
I was selling about $100 per month to my LFS in exchange for service and supplies. No money changed hands, but I had built an inventory of about $5000 worth of frags including $2000 worth of Oregon Tort that I intended to sell on a new website I had paid to have created when I got hit with two disasters:
1) The collar on my skimmer shutoff valve cracked and leaked a 100 gallons out of my sump exposing all my frag colonies for over 10 hours while I was away on a trip. The display tank was unhurt. I removed the colonies I thought were dead and left some others in hopes they would live. A leather coral died (again while I was away) and this time the pollution hit my display tank. I lost about 30% of my display tank corals. That was about 3 weeks ago. Everything appears to be stabilized now and returning to normal.
2) Red bugs returned this summer and I can not sell in good conscience knowing I have a pest . . . The only creatures I added to my tank since treating for red bugs about a year ago were cleaner shrimp from Drs Foster&Smith so either they hitchhiked on them or I never fully eradicated them in the first place.
The growing and selling was easy - the unexpected disasters were not.
I have not given up and feel strongly I can pull this off. Selling a few frags locally was a piece of cake, but I was selling frags at wholesale prices and paying full retail for my supplies and service with the credit I generated. Creating a big enough supply to open a website was very time consuming, and I was so close . . .I really thought I would blow out my entire $5000 of inventory in December, but it wasn't to be/
Check back next year and hopefully I'll have better news
Joe
Progress.
I was selling about $100 per month to my LFS in exchange for service and supplies. No money changed hands, but I had built an inventory of about $5000 worth of frags including $2000 worth of Oregon Tort that I intended to sell on a new website I had paid to have created when I got hit with two disasters:
1) The collar on my skimmer shutoff valve cracked and leaked a 100 gallons out of my sump exposing all my frag colonies for over 10 hours while I was away on a trip. The display tank was unhurt. I removed the colonies I thought were dead and left some others in hopes they would live. A leather coral died (again while I was away) and this time the pollution hit my display tank. I lost about 30% of my display tank corals. That was about 3 weeks ago. Everything appears to be stabilized now and returning to normal.
2) Red bugs returned this summer and I can not sell in good conscience knowing I have a pest . . . The only creatures I added to my tank since treating for red bugs about a year ago were cleaner shrimp from Drs Foster&Smith so either they hitchhiked on them or I never fully eradicated them in the first place.
The growing and selling was easy - the unexpected disasters were not.
I have not given up and feel strongly I can pull this off. Selling a few frags locally was a piece of cake, but I was selling frags at wholesale prices and paying full retail for my supplies and service with the credit I generated. Creating a big enough supply to open a website was very time consuming, and I was so close . . .I really thought I would blow out my entire $5000 of inventory in December, but it wasn't to be/
Check back next year and hopefully I'll have better news
Joe
JPMagyar
New member
It took almost 3 years . . .
It took almost 3 years . . .
I know this is an old thread, but I think there was a lot of interest so I thought I'd offer the "happy ending" update.
Basically I finally got good enough to create really colorful frags, and now I have been selling two "6 frag - frag packs" per month for $150 to $200. It took a long time to get my colonies colorful and my tank stable, but now my Oregon Tort (which is the principle driver of sales) is huge and more than able to provide the 2 or 3 clippings per month.
So there it is - 2 years 9 months later - I did it - my PayPal account hit + $2000.
Beers on me bartender - give everyone a round, LOL!!
Viszlat,
Joe
It took almost 3 years . . .
I know this is an old thread, but I think there was a lot of interest so I thought I'd offer the "happy ending" update.
Basically I finally got good enough to create really colorful frags, and now I have been selling two "6 frag - frag packs" per month for $150 to $200. It took a long time to get my colonies colorful and my tank stable, but now my Oregon Tort (which is the principle driver of sales) is huge and more than able to provide the 2 or 3 clippings per month.
So there it is - 2 years 9 months later - I did it - my PayPal account hit + $2000.
Beers on me bartender - give everyone a round, LOL!!
Viszlat,
Joe
bond007069
New member
awesome, congratulations!!
RedSonja
Premium Member
Re: It took almost 3 years . . .
Re: It took almost 3 years . . .
Thanks for the update, it's good to hear that sticking to it and persevering have paid off for you in the long run. I'm having to learn a lot of patience and self-discipline myself to get my ideas off the ground, I hope that in two years I can also come back and say things are going well.
-Sonja
Re: It took almost 3 years . . .
Thanks for the update, it's good to hear that sticking to it and persevering have paid off for you in the long run. I'm having to learn a lot of patience and self-discipline myself to get my ideas off the ground, I hope that in two years I can also come back and say things are going well.
-Sonja
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