Feeling a Change of hobby coming on..

suzimcmullen · 03/16/2008, 04:49 PM

Well the last year has been pretty terrific with my grow room operation. But I'm not happy with the overall results from some of the things I've grown. I've learned that less is more and I've learned which things I want to put my efforts in. I'm about to empty the room on the first decently warm weekend that my husband and I are both home. We will clean up, reorganize etc.

So I'm thinking about something. From time to time I see really cheap live rock online. And I know people pay good money for snails and other items that grow quite readily given enough time.

I have also figured out with enough time and patience, the live rock will do all the work of filtering the water, especially if the bio-load is low.

So.. Let's say I want to get some cheap narly rock and throw them in rubber maid containers with powerheads, heaters and of course no light until the cycle is mostly over. Then I could use my existing lights that range from flourescents to high pressure sodium to metal halides. I don't need a pretty glass box if I'm just going to give the rock a year or so to grow nice and purple, let the hitchiking critters grow and reproduce some snails. Throw in some phyto-plankton and copepods and other critters from time to time and seems like a year from now I'd have some darn expensive rock to sell. But of course, it's a lot of time to wait. So I'd want to add critters that wouldn't increase the bio-load much and would be beneficial to reproduce and sell later. Obviously, I have tons to learn about all this.

Suzi

MYDRAAL · 03/16/2008, 05:10 PM

It would have to be some pretty expensive live rock to make up the cost of time and work spent on this.

suzimcmullen · 03/16/2008, 05:18 PM

It's a hobby

I think that over the long haul, as with any business, some things draw in the customers without any profit but hook them for more. For instance, sell a dog, sell dogfood. Sell a mandarin fish, sell copepods...etc. I'm just feeling my way through this hobby. But one thing I know for sure. We have crappy alternatives around here for pet stores. I think person to person sales should be the way to go. I know that I'd LOVE to buy from knowledgeable invididuals and pay for local and decent expertise. I even called a man one day that advertises that he does marine maintenance. But he never called back from my message. I guess he must only do commercial and isn't interested in helping individuals. There is a WIDE untapped market out there for someone. I'm just not sure exactly what or exactly how yet.

Suzi

seanb1 · 03/16/2008, 06:05 PM

to tell you the truth, you will lose your ars.

even dry base rock is expensive, and if you havnt noticed nobody will pay much more than 3 dollars a pound for rock around here.

tack on the price of shipping after the cost of electricity and the cost of the base rock , your probably in the area of 5-8 dollars a pound.

something that i think someone could at least break even on would be breeding anemones.

if you could afford to buy 25 rbtas and wait a year for them to split you might get a profit.

or maybe breeding a fish.

i can tell you that theres not much profit in aquaria if you are on small scale.

i at one time had between 3-4 thousand baby discus that i sold quite a few of, and at the time they sold like hotcakes because they were new strains , colors. like snakeskins or jack wattley green mambas.

after all the water bills electrical and setup costs even at selling them singley for 8 dollars a peice or 300 dollars for a 300 fry school of them it was not worth the effort and time.

i bet i sold 10,000 discus, and it wasnt worth it.

and now that you announced it, you would even need to be a sponser to sell anything on here. RC would want their cut.

seanb1 · 03/16/2008, 06:16 PM

there are people around here who have made a small mint selling frags.

i dont care what anyone says, you see people here selling frag packages in the hundreds of dollars and they sell fast.

you see the colonies they come off of and theres a hundred more where they came from.

if you could just learn this hobby and become really good at growing out sought after corals you could make a fortune on ebay.
keep prices low because shipping is a big turnoff to most people.

thats where the money is at. good saught after coral frag packs, 100 bucks a pop.

i should add that in my comment up above about people making money here selling frags that reef central does a good job of rooting out people that come here to make a profit on their dime.

suzimcmullen · 03/16/2008, 06:19 PM

If I find something profitable, I'd not have a problem with being a sponsor. But as I said, I'm into the idea of long haul. A person can take a hit in one area if it expands their customer base and I'm talking way down the line anyway. Now is for experimenting. God will show me what will work and what won't.

I wonder if there is money to be made in visiting peoples tanks while they are out of town? I've read the horror stories about people losing everything while gone because the person they left behind made grevious mistakes. I really think part of the problem with LFS and the shoddy things they do, is that they miss the big picture. If they don't take care of the customer when they are first starting out, they may not know if a customer is a gold mine. Take me for example. I started out to buy one small tank and about 2000 dollars later, spent in less than 6 weeks, my first LFS lost his chance to make most of that his because he made too many mistakes to win my loyalty. The same thing happened to me when I started in the hydroponic business. I went to one man to ask him for help and he was so negative about so many things that I bought it all online instead. I also spent about 2000 in less than 3 months then.

Suzi

suzimcmullen · 03/16/2008, 06:28 PM

Wow, true about the frags. I haven't bought my first package yet because I put so much money into this so fast. I need to pay down some credit cards. But I definitely will and I definitely will learn how to do fun and exciting frags one day. It's all part of the master plan. But it takes a long time to get a stable system with enough room and the right kind of light.

Suzi

seanb1 · 03/16/2008, 06:31 PM

well i have the same feelings about pet stores, i think they will sell me anything whether i need it or not, but if you really look at whats going on its that i didnt do my homework.

unless you have money falling out your butt its not wise to just trust someone with it.

i hear that people do make a lot of money doing tank maintenance.

suzimcmullen · 03/16/2008, 06:40 PM

Seems like a great way to get that sort of maintenance business would be to choose a prominant place of business to put up a complimentary tank and do all the maintenance. There could be a nice little gold plague that says who has provided it and maintains it. It could be a nice restaraunt or busy office building. Or maybe a hospital would be good.

Suzi

mixed_reefer · 03/16/2008, 06:45 PM

I dont believe a sponsor can sell anything on RC. I think they just get ads and a forum of their own and tons of exposure.

03/16/2008, 04:49 PM	#1
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	Feeling a Change of hobby coming on.. Well the last year has been pretty terrific with my grow room operation. But I'm not happy with the overall results from some of the things I've grown. I've learned that less is more and I've learned which things I want to put my efforts in. I'm about to empty the room on the first decently warm weekend that my husband and I are both home. We will clean up, reorganize etc. So I'm thinking about something. From time to time I see really cheap live rock online. And I know people pay good money for snails and other items that grow quite readily given enough time. I have also figured out with enough time and patience, the live rock will do all the work of filtering the water, especially if the bio-load is low. So.. Let's say I want to get some cheap narly rock and throw them in rubber maid containers with powerheads, heaters and of course no light until the cycle is mostly over. Then I could use my existing lights that range from flourescents to high pressure sodium to metal halides. I don't need a pretty glass box if I'm just going to give the rock a year or so to grow nice and purple, let the hitchiking critters grow and reproduce some snails. Throw in some phyto-plankton and copepods and other critters from time to time and seems like a year from now I'd have some darn expensive rock to sell. But of course, it's a lot of time to wait. So I'd want to add critters that wouldn't increase the bio-load much and would be beneficial to reproduce and sell later. Obviously, I have tons to learn about all this. Suzi

03/16/2008, 06:05 PM	#4
seanb1 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: bettendorf, iowa Posts: 668	to tell you the truth, you will lose your ars. even dry base rock is expensive, and if you havnt noticed nobody will pay much more than 3 dollars a pound for rock around here. tack on the price of shipping after the cost of electricity and the cost of the base rock , your probably in the area of 5-8 dollars a pound. something that i think someone could at least break even on would be breeding anemones. if you could afford to buy 25 rbtas and wait a year for them to split you might get a profit. or maybe breeding a fish. i can tell you that theres not much profit in aquaria if you are on small scale. i at one time had between 3-4 thousand baby discus that i sold quite a few of, and at the time they sold like hotcakes because they were new strains , colors. like snakeskins or jack wattley green mambas. after all the water bills electrical and setup costs even at selling them singley for 8 dollars a peice or 300 dollars for a 300 fry school of them it was not worth the effort and time. i bet i sold 10,000 discus, and it wasnt worth it. and now that you announced it, you would even need to be a sponser to sell anything on here. RC would want their cut. __________________ he who knows how, will always work for he who knows why..... David lee Roth. Current Tank Info: 125 reef/29 gal sump/29 gal fuge 3- 175w 20k xm mh/4 65w actinic, octopus nw-200 skimmer3 k-4s mag-12. 2 returns. 2 phosban reactors, GFO/carbon.

03/16/2008, 06:16 PM	#5
seanb1 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: bettendorf, iowa Posts: 668	there are people around here who have made a small mint selling frags. i dont care what anyone says, you see people here selling frag packages in the hundreds of dollars and they sell fast. you see the colonies they come off of and theres a hundred more where they came from. if you could just learn this hobby and become really good at growing out sought after corals you could make a fortune on ebay. keep prices low because shipping is a big turnoff to most people. thats where the money is at. good saught after coral frag packs, 100 bucks a pop. i should add that in my comment up above about people making money here selling frags that reef central does a good job of rooting out people that come here to make a profit on their dime. __________________ he who knows how, will always work for he who knows why..... David lee Roth. Current Tank Info: 125 reef/29 gal sump/29 gal fuge 3- 175w 20k xm mh/4 65w actinic, octopus nw-200 skimmer3 k-4s mag-12. 2 returns. 2 phosban reactors, GFO/carbon. Last edited by seanb1; 03/16/2008 at 06:24 PM.

03/16/2008, 06:31 PM	#8
seanb1 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: bettendorf, iowa Posts: 668	well i have the same feelings about pet stores, i think they will sell me anything whether i need it or not, but if you really look at whats going on its that i didnt do my homework. unless you have money falling out your butt its not wise to just trust someone with it. i hear that people do make a lot of money doing tank maintenance. __________________ he who knows how, will always work for he who knows why..... David lee Roth. Current Tank Info: 125 reef/29 gal sump/29 gal fuge 3- 175w 20k xm mh/4 65w actinic, octopus nw-200 skimmer3 k-4s mag-12. 2 returns. 2 phosban reactors, GFO/carbon.

03/16/2008, 05:10 PM	#2
MYDRAAL Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: FWB Posts: 396	It would have to be some pretty expensive live rock to make up the cost of time and work spent on this.

03/16/2008, 05:18 PM	#3
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	It's a hobby I think that over the long haul, as with any business, some things draw in the customers without any profit but hook them for more. For instance, sell a dog, sell dogfood. Sell a mandarin fish, sell copepods...etc. I'm just feeling my way through this hobby. But one thing I know for sure. We have crappy alternatives around here for pet stores. I think person to person sales should be the way to go. I know that I'd LOVE to buy from knowledgeable invididuals and pay for local and decent expertise. I even called a man one day that advertises that he does marine maintenance. But he never called back from my message. I guess he must only do commercial and isn't interested in helping individuals. There is a WIDE untapped market out there for someone. I'm just not sure exactly what or exactly how yet. Suzi

03/16/2008, 06:19 PM	#6
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	If I find something profitable, I'd not have a problem with being a sponsor. But as I said, I'm into the idea of long haul. A person can take a hit in one area if it expands their customer base and I'm talking way down the line anyway. Now is for experimenting. God will show me what will work and what won't. I wonder if there is money to be made in visiting peoples tanks while they are out of town? I've read the horror stories about people losing everything while gone because the person they left behind made grevious mistakes. I really think part of the problem with LFS and the shoddy things they do, is that they miss the big picture. If they don't take care of the customer when they are first starting out, they may not know if a customer is a gold mine. Take me for example. I started out to buy one small tank and about 2000 dollars later, spent in less than 6 weeks, my first LFS lost his chance to make most of that his because he made too many mistakes to win my loyalty. The same thing happened to me when I started in the hydroponic business. I went to one man to ask him for help and he was so negative about so many things that I bought it all online instead. I also spent about 2000 in less than 3 months then. Suzi

03/16/2008, 06:28 PM	#7
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	Wow, true about the frags. I haven't bought my first package yet because I put so much money into this so fast. I need to pay down some credit cards. But I definitely will and I definitely will learn how to do fun and exciting frags one day. It's all part of the master plan. But it takes a long time to get a stable system with enough room and the right kind of light. Suzi

03/16/2008, 06:40 PM	#9
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	Seems like a great way to get that sort of maintenance business would be to choose a prominant place of business to put up a complimentary tank and do all the maintenance. There could be a nice little gold plague that says who has provided it and maintains it. It could be a nice restaraunt or busy office building. Or maybe a hospital would be good. Suzi

03/16/2008, 06:45 PM	#10
mixed_reefer Moved On Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 516	I dont believe a sponsor can sell anything on RC. I think they just get ads and a forum of their own and tons of exposure.