let the insanity begin

Rick you ever think of putting a wood burning system? About 85% of my heat comes from wood. Durning the day I open up fish tank doors and the heat from the light will keep the house above 60 even if it 0 outside. I come home and get a good fire going each night that will then keep the temp above 60 until about 5am. So my furnace may only run 1 hour at most every day.
 
Maybe I missed it while skimming through the last 30 pages but... WHY? Are you planning on selling coral or is this thing just for your viewing tank?
 
he got bored sleeping comfortably at night, taking the wife out to dinner whenever, buying new things for the house on a whim, and having free time.....

He lost a bet.

He normally builds model airplanes, but the hobby store was all out of snap tight kits, so he thought he'd move on to something more challenging.....





JK....he's planning on an aquaculture facility out here in the Mid-West.


Nick
 
heeheeheeeeeeeee, LMFAO, you guys are a riot. Funniest part is... there is SOME truth to most of that.

As of the end of November 2005, $34,292.77. That is including everything... money spent on travelling during the research phase, computer software, legal expenses, start up costs, heavy equipment rentals, construction expenses, stuff I screwed up and had to re-do, hundreds of trips and purchases to hardware-Lowe's-Menards-farm stores, all greenhouse equipment and supplies purchases, shipping and freight charges, and all of the "usual" expenses too (including propane, electric, water).

Not doing too bad, construction and set up has been under budget, except for the fact that I'm close to a year behind where I thought I'd be so the "usual" expenses are digging in a little right now. Original plan was the first four tanks by January of 2005 and I thought I'd have them all set up by May or June.

Of course, if I would have had to hire people to do any of the construction, digging, electrical, etc., or had to purchase property and have new utilities run, the price could easily have quadrupled.
 
that's not too bad for a start-up, but when you think of it in frags, that's a mountain of frags to break even!!
 
Sooner would be better than later... but I didn't get into this project thinking I was going to get rich, and I didn't think that the corals were going to all of a sudden grow faster than they have for the last thousands of years. On a worst case note, the place would just break even and pay for itself.

Conservatively, (when I get all 20 tanks set up) if each tank can produce $100 per month in frags (average), it will take about 18 months to get to the break even point. My original plan was written with no income receipts during the first year (that was about right) and about $20,000 gross the second year (I will be behind on that, given where I'm at right now). Years three, four, and five, there should be enough stock building up to double, then triple, that projection. After the fifth year.... we can dream, can't we.
 
Those are interesting numbers. I hope it works out for you. That investment that you've put into this so far is nothing to shake a stick at.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6386235#post6386235 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rick rottet
Sooner would be better than later... but I didn't get into this project thinking I was going to get rich, and I didn't think that the corals were going to all of a sudden grow faster than they have for the last thousands of years. On a worst case note, the place would just break even and pay for itself.

Conservatively, (when I get all 20 tanks set up) if each tank can produce $100 per month in frags (average), it will take about 18 months to get to the break even point. My original plan was written with no income receipts during the first year (that was about right) and about $20,000 gross the second year (I will be behind on that, given where I'm at right now). Years three, four, and five, there should be enough stock building up to double, then triple, that projection. After the fifth year.... we can dream, can't we.
Click to expand...

that's pretty conservative, IMO hopefully once all the bugs are out you should cruise right along :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6388259#post6388259 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
you just dated yourself Marc!:D
Click to expand...

I could use a date right about now. :D
 
hey what is happening with kwl1763? Maybe on vacation...no posts by him for a while, but I did check in on his thread and sump tanks. I think he is making a couple of mistakes but I'll post over there about it. I guess I'll have to seal up the original bulkheads, maybe with acrylic instead of the bulkheads themselves. Good point about them leaking. They do not look very strong!
 
Yes, he's traveling during the holidays, but should be back to posting to his thread in a few days again.
 
Most of the equipment (furnace, water pumps, shutter motors, blower, air pumps) is pretty reliable. The companies have long histories and are well spoken of by customers. I do expect to have to replace some things along the way, mostly because of the sheer quantities of items that are used. It would be a little optimistic to expect every item to be factory perfect. But for the most part, I should be able to get at least ten years from the water pumps, blower, and furnace, probably much more than that. There will always be maintenance for those items to be sure. We've already seen the furnace need work and I expect to have to replace diaphragms in the air pumps every year or so... although I am checking into linear compressors (again) which won't have diaphragms. The blower had to be repaired too, but now it's not being pushed very hard at all, so I expect it to last it's projected lifetime. I know an LFS owner who has a smaller blower and a water pump running 24/7 for 19 years now.

When I was writing my plan, I tried to make the numbers conservative on the receipt side and added an extra 10% to the expense side (I called it my "reject factor"). If a tank that is 7' X 2' can't produce $100 in frags each month (once the stock level gets high enough), I need to be shot. Realistically, with carefully chosen species, that number could double, triple or more... I just don't want to get my expectations up too much, so I try to look at the conservative numbers.
 
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