Recommend lighting for frag swap

H@rry

H@rry

In Memoriam
I think this was my 6th or 7th frag swap. When I went to the first one it seemed like almost everybody brought frags in ziplock bags. Then people started bringing 10 gallon tanks. Well, I looked around Saturday and realized that I was the only one who brought frags in plastic bags. Everybody else brought tanks. I brought about 150 frags and only sold about 1/3rd of them and I think the display was the main reason. I spent almost 2 hours bagging and packing those frags Saturday morning.

I've been thinking about it ever since and decided I want to bring two 10 gallon tanks with some kind of "portable" lighting fixture. Maybe some kind of T5. I'd appreciate some of you with experience with them to recommend something that would light two 10 gallons tanks. Thanx in advance.
 
I brought mine in bags too H@rry, just not ziplocks.....there were a couple of others that did as well:)
The displays are nice and I'm sure some people with experience with them will chime in.
Chris
 
Well, it all depends on how much you'd like to spend and what you're selling. For SPS and LPS I'd recommend either T5s or a viper light. When it comes to zoas and shrooms maybe PC or T5s. Like I said, it all depends on what you'd like to spend and what you're selling :)
 
I was gonna say nova or some other T5 fixture as well. I'm really pleased with my finnex 4x24w T5 HO Light. My purple cap is really purple and green digi has a brighter green compared to the PCs. The cali tort looks really good too.

Steve
 
Any other trick besides lighting?

I suppose that it's important to keep water warm in transit to keep zoanthids from closing up for a long time and keep SPS's from pulling in their polyps. I suspect that some of you travelled with an inverter on your car battery and kept a small heater plugged in.

Does having a lit display tank really boost the number of frags you sell? While I believe that a professional looking display tank attracts a lot of potential buyers, some of us seem to do well with just having WYSIWYG photos.

H@rry obviously sold about 50 frags of SPS's. Did many of you sell more than 50 frags?

Tomoko
 
I might get screamed at by a few people by saying this, but almost every swap I've been to has had some type of electrical problem at some point during the swap. With that in mind, I think halides are a bad idea and if everyone brings them we'll be popping breakers no matter how many outlets there are (most places, even those built according to the newest codes, are only going to have two or three 15A circuits available in the frag area).

I just use PC aqualight fixtures because that is what I have laying around. They're pretty tough and light enough to use for something like this, but definitely don't bring out the best colors. I'll be getting a new light for my frag tank at home and now that i picked up a second frag tank I'm thinking about making it something that is relatively easily portable (a T5 TEK light fixture maybe) instead of building a hood or top for it. Whatever way you go make it something you can use when not at a swap or something that is pretty cheap to begin with. Doesn't make sense to drop a bunch of money on a nice light to use it 2-3 days/year...
 
with that said. It doesn't matter to me if it's in a tank or not. Pics are nice too. I only bought from Jack (crumbletop) who had a display tank setup. But all of his frags were $5....when I made it there. So, that's what I like more... :lol:

Steve
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11651570#post11651570 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tomoko Schum
Any other trick besides lighting?

I suppose that it's important to keep water warm in transit to keep zoanthids from closing up for a long time and keep SPS's from pulling in their polyps. I suspect that some of you travelled with an inverter on your car battery and kept a small heater plugged in.

Does having a lit display tank really boost the number of frags you sell? While I believe that a professional looking display tank attracts a lot of potential buyers, some of us seem to do well with just having WYSIWYG photos.

H@rry obviously sold about 50 frags of SPS's. Did many of you sell more than 50 frags?

Tomoko
Click to expand...

I allways do pretty good pre selling and bringing what I have extra. I think a LOT of how much you sell, like selling anything else, has to do what you have and what it's priced at. If you are trying to sell the same old Acros and Digis at every swap there will be a ceartain amount of newbies every year that will show up to buy that stuff but if you have some more desirable pieces you will do even better (assumming you are selling them for a reasonable price ie ~1/2 or less of what they would go for online retail) with your sales and MUCH better with your trades:)

As far as lighting to show off frags the best. You will want something with a true atinic (420 nm spectrum) to really flouresce your corals and a little 450nm thrown in to add a little blue.

Chris
 
Speaking of temp, I was a little concerned coming home. I don't know what the temp of the water in the bags were after having laid on the table all day. We packed them back into the styro shipping boxes that we brought them in and they were in the trunk of the car in freezing weather for 3 hours while we traveled and stopped to eat. As soon as I unloaded them when we walked in I opened one of the boxes and put a digital thermometer between two bags and it registered 67º. I was pleasantly surprised. I put them all back in the tanks and the next morning they looked like nothing had happened to them.
 
Yes, preslling definitely helps :)

Pricing is a bit of tricky issue. As you all know, a low price is not always a great bargain, but some people are bargain hunters (I was a bit guilty of that, too, haha.) Boy, one lady had a real sticker shock - she scoffed at $15 for two polyps of a very pretty and rather rare coral.

Tomoko
 
instead of 2 10 gallon tanks why not a 30 long. It would be only 1 tank to load and unload and you could still find a reasonable priced light. When you start bringing displays you gotta account for the room in your vehicle for the tanks frags water and all the equipment to run it all. I like the bag idea for a simplicity factor but I do think the displays make a difference ESP to the folks that just come to the swap and are never on reefcentral.
 
I personally liked the way cee packed his frags. Floated upside down hanging from a piece of styrofoam. But then again I went there just looking for specific items and only made a couple of impulse buys.
 
my lighting that i use is not the same fixture but the same bulb on my display tank

i could have used a PC bulb and made the corals like 3 times as nice as they were in my tank

my tank i had a heater in it --- i am wanting to buy a controller for my setup to regulate the heat better than just trusting a heater

a skimmer would be nice also (hooking it up would be a pain to move around and work with)
 
As an inexperienced buyer who spent way to much saturday. I bought much more from people who had pictures and a tank set up. Some used just 10k and 420nm pc bulb with a little flow. Those corals were much harder to walk away from than those in a bag. Im not qualified to help with the question, but this was my experience.
 
same here walker...i pretty much stayed away from the bagged up stuff....simply because i couldnt tell what it'll look like....honestly, if any of casey's or gary's acans were bagged, i probably wouldnt have bought any.....i fell for temptation though, cause i picked up one from each of them
 
I actually borrowed someones light who had a lot of actinics running to sell a few fraggs of Hydnophora. I walked over and stuck it under the table beside of me lights and the guy was like, Wow, it really does glow under actinics so he bought it.

I helped a gal take her display down from West TN and it was a very nice shape. Someone made her a custom acrylic big square with kinda low sides and she had nice egg creat holders made for it. She had a nice PVC frame holding up a halide but it could easily hold a T5 or other fixture.

I also liked Caseys 40 breader shape. I would think one kinda bigger tank
would be easier than 2 smaller tanks. You could make a wood or PVC frame and have actinic and 10k going but I noticed some people only ran Actinics to show the best colors of there corals.
 
I also impulse buyed from Casey because his acans under actinics were so awsome looking! I am 100% possitive I would have just went over, chatted and walked away if they were in baggs :lol: Darn you Casey!!

On another note, I did bring a 20 gallon last year and set my stuff up with a old shabby PC set up and sold out basically all the same starter stuff I brought this year in no time. I litterally gave away most of my stuff Sat. to keep from bringing it back home. And I only brought maybe 8 things this year. I didn't babysit it and "try" to sell it but still folks just looked in my cups and walked off. The one guy I think would have walked away from the hydno frag if I hadn't have showed him it under lights....And I came off $5 ;) It also seemed more crowded last year.
 
Harry, I broke down and bought a short 20gal foot print tank from GCages. used a 14k mh clamp on pendant that worked quit nicely. I would say selling 50 bagged frags wasn't a bad day.

If I were you I would display one of each in a tank and continue to bag the rest and sell perbagged. And if someone really wanted the display coral, unbag another. by the way i did not sell 50 but didn't expect to.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11656705#post11656705 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angela Short
I actually borrowed someones light who had a lot of actinics running to sell a few fraggs of Hydnophora. I walked over and stuck it under the table beside of me lights and the guy was like, Wow, it really does glow under actinics so he bought it.
Click to expand...

i didnt even have to see it under actinics....that sucker was glowing without any lights.....it only took angela like 20 secs to sell it to me....now im kinda scared its gonna sting all my corals...so its just sitting in the sand bed away from everything
 
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