Coral Farmers

[SJLord]

Can someone/anyone give me a book name or some reference on how to setup the tanks? eg. I have 2x the rock in my display tank, and I figure that there has to be another way for the growout tank. Filtering/Live Sand? I am still concidering growing some live sand and selling it, anyone else doing that? Doug had given me a good idea with lighting, shop lights for the sand, but what about filtering on a grow out tank? can I use one with the other? so, im thinkin maybe a book should be out there ... haha

TIA
Steven

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Cant Afford it, Save up, youll need it!

 

[ATLANTIS]

Ignatz,

I will try to answer your questions...

>Can you give a description of the work involved in farming?

After the initial setup it's a lot like keeping a reef (a really big reef). You are striving for an equalibrium, only on a larger scale... Then of course the fun part, there is a lot of fragging.... I mount my frags on aragonite/cement/oyster shell plugs I make. And that can take a lot of time in itself. Then the not so much fun part, there is the work to sell your products... another story all together.

>Can you give a description of your setup?

I am rather small scale. I run out of my cellar.I have 5 AGA 40 gal breeders and 3 AGA 30 gal breeders all rack mounted running through a 150 gal sump. I built the sump with 5 compartments so it has a integral refugium. Each tank has 4 powerheads running off of 3 Wavemaster Pro wavemakers. The 5 40's each have 400 watt MH + 96 PC actinic, they are my SPS tanks. The 3 30's have 3 96 watt PC's. (OH boy you should see my electric bill). I skim 24x7. I have a DIY calcium reactor based on the K2R design. Sump has 3 300 watt heaters and each tank has a 200 watt heater.

>Would you recommend farming to all hobbists?

It is a lot of fun. It is a lot of work (the way I am doing it) It depends on the amount of time you have for it. I do not expect to quit my day job, but I have a lot of flexability in my schedule.

>How is farming different from just reefing? (I have proped my softies, and my SPS...)

I think the biggest difference is the scale of things. I am small scale.. But bigger than the average reefer. Look at Kirbster's 4000 gallons. That's a commitment!! I would love to hear more about his setup.

>Can you give an idea of the economics involved?

Spend an enourmous amount of money up front. Hopefully get a little in return down the road...


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brian

atlantisaquatic.com

 

[Kirbster]

My setup is nothing special at all. I simply have a few large, individual tanks with the parent corals. These are kept just like display reefs in any home would be kept. I started out using the sumps of these for healing and growout tanks. Now I have a healing tank system and a growout tank system.

The nice thing about "farming" is that you can do it on any scale you want. You can farm one species from a single parent and leave it at that if you want.

Economics? I started my place with the intention of making it an LFS, so I would do some things differently if I had to do it over again knowing I would make it a farm. Look for LFS's going out of business. ALso look for individuals selling off their stuff. My whole operation was created from "used" stuff. I would say you could do what I am doing for a start up of less than $15,000. That's presuming you find some great steals. I am always sniffing around for four grand worth of stuff being sold off for a few hundred bucks. It happens all the time and people wonder how I'm always the first one there.

If you want to propagate Cabbage Leathers in a two tank system, you can spend $200 and be ready to go.

Selling the things is the tough part. I am recruiting other people to sell stuff. I have a tendency to give everything away, just because I love seeing people get good deals. I need some hard a$$ salesmen to be my front men.

KA

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"You must unlearn what you have learned."
-Yoda

 

[horge]

My mind is reeling from the amounts of money being discussed. Maybe I'm geographically spoiled, and maybe I just don't know any better.

When so much is poured into it, I can see why you "Western devils" (as the Chinese supposedly sometimes put it, hahaha) might try to make a business out of it. But, it doesn't always have to be on a Perrin-esque or even Kirbster-esque scale, does it? A decent reef tank, stocked at levels typified by what I see on the Net, should run into real estate shortages in a few years.

You would HAVE to harvest. Heck with species like Xenia puertogalerae, real estate isn't even an issue. How many years have there been reef tanks in the US? How old are the coral colonies therein?

(Once more, with feeling....
"If everyone lit just oooooone little candle..." hehehe)

StillReefs & Ironlung.
My grow-out basins bump 80-plus Farenheit degrees when it really cooks (and man, in this country, does it ever, hahaha). Might explain the Helio slow-grow. I'll be checking on the reef-returned Helio colonies over the year for changes in growth rate, unless the next storm oblits them prior.

 

[billsreef]

Horge,
Many people in the US like to have large showy specimens or they are afraid to prop. I don't have any large specimens (I keep fragging them) and many people I talk to are amazed that I cut up corals. However, as time goes on more and more people are starting to frag over here.

On the Heliopora it would be of interest if you could post on the conditions it is found in on the reef, ie depth, habitat etc. I feel the closer we can make our systems to the typical habitat of a given coral the better our chances of success.

Kirbster,
My cabbage grows like a weed. BTW, how are you getting your tree softies to attach, that seems to be my biggest challenge.



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Bill

If damsels grew as big as sharks, the sharks would run in fear!
My dive photos
ICQ 56222784

 

[jdthomas]

I have a 40 breeder, 2-10gals, and a 25 for propagation. I am doing mainly leathers & polyps. My display tanks (75,180) are just to full of stuff to prop in there.
My question is about the lighting. What lighting do you use?? How many 'crops' do you get before the bulbs need to be changed?? Every time I try to figure it at a different angle, I come up with the same thing. Is is VERY difficult to show a profit on small-scale, artificial lit, captive propagation. The initial cost, electric cost, and maintenance costs, all eat up the price of the coral pretty quick. Faster growth needs higher intensity lighting, therefore more cost. I currently use MV on my 40, but the growth rate isnt as good as under the MH in my reef. I save money on bulbs & initial cost, but lose it all back in slow growth rate. I am trying various other setups on the other tanks. The 2-10gals are used just for testing lighting.
There has to be a sweet spot somewhere in terms of size/lighting/growth rate. Any ideas??

 

[Kirbster]

Bill,

I've come up with several ways after discovering superglue was useless on trees. The simplest is to fill a deli cup with rock rubble, drop the frag in, and wait a week. It usually ends up attached to a piece of rubble. I had some losses due to lack of current in the cups, so I changed methods recently.

I get a piece of rubble like an acropora skeleton branch or something similar and use a plastic zip-tie to firmly tie the frag against the piece of rubble. Then I put it in strong light and current, and I usually get attachement within a week.

What I'm having trouble with is Sinularia brassica. Can't get them to attach to anything but the smooth side of half-shells. I am going to start trying bridal veil to get them on rocks. Nobody wants them on shells.

KA

 

[horge]

billsreef:
Helios aren't actually too common wghere I snorkel, and are the worst topic for any sort of habitat-description, given the range of conditions they can adapt to. Fishermen do assure me they are plentiful on reefs far from shore.

Colonies found on near-shore reefs are typically dessert-plate sized, many-humped discs on near-vertical reef faces. I recorded temps from 79 to 84 deg F, over depths from 50cm to 3m (the limit of my snorkelling ablity, I'm afraid).

They seem to locate themselves in robust to severe water movement. Whether this is an indicator of preference, or a limiting factor on competitors I cannot hazard.

 

[Still Reefs]

Hey Bill and Kirbster,

I don't have too much experience with different tree softies but have done a little with Sinularia sp. I find that using bridal veil netting works best. I don't cover the whole cutting instead, like the cable tie method, I make a veil "band-aid" over the base of the cutting and tie it in a knot under the rock. Lay the cutting on the rock on its side then just tie it on. The veil covers a little more surface area than the cables ties while allowing space for covered polyps to extend.

Hope this helps! I like talking about prop methodology!


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Sean Bradley
Photographer : Still Reefs Photographic
Productions
Still Reefs' Home

 

[IronLung]

i've had bad and good experiances with several leathers....cabbage seems to be very hardy when propping...have had lots of luck with colt...did allrite with toadstools...i think with the harder skinned leathers u can get away with gluing...using the veil on softer leathers is always good....i had alot of problems trying to section off a carnation a while back and ended up losing the nice piece...dumbass i am...

one method i'm am gonna try soon with colt corals will be to slice a section of the base then drill a hole on a piece of LR for the piece to sit in...then run a line through the colt and around the rock to hold the piece in place till attachment...i wonder if the dendros can take this much stress

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[goby]

Ironlung,

I have proped colts like this...only the LR alredy had holes in it... I tried everything..rubberbands, superglue, even fishing line sewed into the flesh of the colt.. and nothing would keep it stuck to the rock, eventually, out of frustration, I just dropped it in a hole in the LR.. a week later, I went to move it to try another method of attaching it, and when i picked it up, the rock came with it I have another one that is in a rock right now, I'll let you know how well it attaches...

g
o
b
y


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The quest ( and the questions) continues...
www.iag.net/~vigg

 

[Kirbster]

Iron,

The only problem I have had with the wedge-'em-in-a-hole method is apparent infections wiping out cuttings. I attribute this to the cut area being in a low-flow, somewhat stagnant area (the hole in the rock). I suppose this can be fixed by allowing the cutting to heal before cramming it into the rock.

KA

 

[Jeff C]

I am currently setting up my first reef tank and would love to know how I could get as much tank-raised stuff as possible. You all are on the right track as I know I would personally be willing to spend more money if necessary to obtain tank-raised species.

How would I go about buying corals (or fish for that matter) from any of you in about 6 months when I will be ready for some corals?

Jeff