Starting a coral farm
- Thread starter redseamax130d
- Start date
- Location
- lodi nj
No 4 t5s and 4 stunner strip led . Im just trying to find a good light that would let sps to grow the best
- Location
- lodi nj
If I don't it jumps to about 81-83. I know it's not that bad but I feel the reason my corals do so well is because I keep my temp,alkalinity and calcium at the same point always
- Location
- Huntington
Good luck man. Hope your business grows successfully.
- Location
- lodi nj
Thanks Gabe your one of the few that want me succeed. Most people have just been saying the bad things and how hard it is
- Location
- Long Island NY
hey man all power to ya. I think you should be realistic that its going to cost investment money to get started and then some more for trial and error. It's certainly going to be a long while before you start paying back on investment costs but the joy of the work might be worth it and eventually through time and experience you'll turn a profit (hopefully)
Question: what are you going to use for a sump? After seeing some coral farm videos the big rubber container pools seem cheap, and large to make a sump. Thinking of using one on my big upgrade since ill have an equipment room
Question: what are you going to use for a sump? After seeing some coral farm videos the big rubber container pools seem cheap, and large to make a sump. Thinking of using one on my big upgrade since ill have an equipment room
- Location
- lodi nj
I'm thinking for this setup you will want wide shallow tanks plumbed into one system.
Shallow tanks will be easier to get good flow and much cheaper because you could use a couple koralias. A deeper tank will need more and you may end up with dead spots.
For lighting you can use wide array LEDs. T5 would be great to but they are more expensive to run. The light you posted is for deeper tanks and that is not efficient for frag farming. It is more for displaying. You want to go horizontal not vertical.
Lighting is going to be your biggest cost. Choose wisely because this will probably affect color more than anything else.
Shallow tanks will be easier to get good flow and much cheaper because you could use a couple koralias. A deeper tank will need more and you may end up with dead spots.
For lighting you can use wide array LEDs. T5 would be great to but they are more expensive to run. The light you posted is for deeper tanks and that is not efficient for frag farming. It is more for displaying. You want to go horizontal not vertical.
Lighting is going to be your biggest cost. Choose wisely because this will probably affect color more than anything else.
- Location
- Upper West Side
It is not that people are telling you bad things just because they want to be negative. But in the 25+ years of experience I have, the one thing I learned is that you will DEFINITELY fail if you do not plan things properly and are patient.
Your posts make it clear that you have not really thought this through well. You are buying things without having sat down and drawn out a plan. You are bidding on a light fixture and asking for opinions AFTER the fact. Frankly, you should already know what type of lighting you are getting because it would be in your plan.
The above is just the reef keeping component. Having been a business owner since I was 18 (21 years) I can tell you that the same exact principles apply to business. If you don't have a clear plan and stick to it you are doomed to fail. You need to know EVERYTHING about what you are getting into. You need to know what your costs are going to be, how long it is going to take for you to reach certain goals, etc. It does not have to be perfect and as you move forward you will find yourself making many changes to the plan as you learn from experience. I am literally rewriting my business plan for my telecom business as I type this. I have been working on it for several months and trust me, I had a VERY detailed business plan. The world changed and I had to change along with it. Having a plan made it MUCH easier to change because I can look at it and see where I need to make those changes, I can see what has worked and what has not and I can gage how accurate my predictions were and whether or not I had realistic goals.
Anyway, I DO wish you success, but the best advice I can give you is to STOP, sit down with someone (or perhaps even two people- a business expert then a reef keeping expert) that has experience- bribe them with dinner and pick their brain. ;-) Map out what you want, what your ultimate goals are and the steps you need to take to get there. THEN map out the details such as the frag tank. Otherwise, experience tells me that you will be wasting your money.
Best,
Alfred
Your posts make it clear that you have not really thought this through well. You are buying things without having sat down and drawn out a plan. You are bidding on a light fixture and asking for opinions AFTER the fact. Frankly, you should already know what type of lighting you are getting because it would be in your plan.
The above is just the reef keeping component. Having been a business owner since I was 18 (21 years) I can tell you that the same exact principles apply to business. If you don't have a clear plan and stick to it you are doomed to fail. You need to know EVERYTHING about what you are getting into. You need to know what your costs are going to be, how long it is going to take for you to reach certain goals, etc. It does not have to be perfect and as you move forward you will find yourself making many changes to the plan as you learn from experience. I am literally rewriting my business plan for my telecom business as I type this. I have been working on it for several months and trust me, I had a VERY detailed business plan. The world changed and I had to change along with it. Having a plan made it MUCH easier to change because I can look at it and see where I need to make those changes, I can see what has worked and what has not and I can gage how accurate my predictions were and whether or not I had realistic goals.
Anyway, I DO wish you success, but the best advice I can give you is to STOP, sit down with someone (or perhaps even two people- a business expert then a reef keeping expert) that has experience- bribe them with dinner and pick their brain. ;-) Map out what you want, what your ultimate goals are and the steps you need to take to get there. THEN map out the details such as the frag tank. Otherwise, experience tells me that you will be wasting your money.
Best,
Alfred
- Location
- lodi nj
What about Stunner strips I've been using them in my display tank and I have sps frags in there. They also come in 12.5 inch and cost about $35 each so for a 30 inch tank I would say about 8 of them 4 12000k/blue and 4 ultra purple. What does everyone think
- Location
- Huntington
A dollar and a dream.... It used to be the American dream. When there's a will, there's a way. Go ahead, never backwards!!
- Location
- Park Slope
If you want fast growth stunner strips won't do it. They are great for color and will grow lower light corals fine if you have a lot of them. You can even maintain/grow some sps up at the top of the tank but if you want fast growth not a good idea. The panorama pro modules by the same company have higher output (look at the Aquanerd articles on both). Otherwise go with an adjustable LED fixture (more $), t5s are bright, and halide always grows sps well.
- Location
- Park Slope
Ha. For some reason this post came up and I thought it was new - guess I should have checked the date! I'm sure he has his lights by now.
- Location
- Staten Island
lol this kid was a mess from what I read he's lucky the corals he had were alive. He's probably out of the hobby by now.
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