Club Coral Library

CastAway · Jun 2, 2015

Hi everyone.

The idea of a coral library has come up a few times with my own club members, and I'm trying to do a little discovery.

Here’s he basic premise as I imagine it; the club buys coral frags and as they grow they’re fragged and disseminated to members. A list of species is maintained, along with a sequential list of requests for each. A proprietor of the systems reports on growth, shares photo’s, and cuts frags when appropriate to be disseminated according to the list.

If your club has a library, maybe you can help with these questions:

1. Is it better that the club buy a dedicated system, easily relocated if need be, or, to choose a members system to house the library, which might result in better growth and less risk?

2. For any given single piece, easy enough to randomly list those requesting a frag, but would one need to weight the request list for multiple pieces? For example, if you were number one on a list for something, could/should you be number one on a list for something else?

3. In general, I wonder what the challenges are with club coral libraries. What are they?

CastAway · Jun 2, 2015

Chriscrna · Jun 26, 2015

I just saw this thread, otherwise I would have responded earlier. Your basic premise is nearly exactly what we do. Club members vote on the corals to purchase and the amount to be spent. Once that is squared away, each coral is listed and club members sign up for the ones they want.

Answers to your questions (this is just how we are doing it.....it could always change, but this seems to be working fine so far):
1. Personally, I think a dedicated system is an unnecessary expense. We chose a member's system to house the library.

2. Once everyone has made their requests, we drew names out of a hat for each coral. If your name was drawn first for more than one coral, then you get to choose which coral you want first. Then, your name goes to the bottom of list for the other coral/s you were drawn first for.

3. We just had a major challenge with our library when Rob's tank crashed (guess we picked the wrong tank

@Rob.D). We emergently transferred the library to my tank. Fortunately everything is A-OK and happy. Other than that, I think the biggest challenge is for members to actually come get their coral when it's their turn for check out. We have several corals waiting to be checked out but haven't been. I think we are going to put a time frame in place for checking out coral. If you haven't picked up your coral within that time frame, then you will be bumped down a spot, and the person below you can check it out. Consequently, in waiting for members to check out their coral, many of the original corals have now grown several polyps/eyes and can be checked out by multiple members.

Here's a copy and paste of our library checkout thread:

Here are details of the library check out system:

1) The corals will initially be grown in the ETRC tank at the club president's house, Rob D.

2) Once a coral has 3 polyps/eyes, it can be "checked out" of the library for a nominal fee. Waiting until we have 3 polyps/eyes ensures that we have backups of the coral in case it dies in someone's tank. At least one polyp/eye will remain in the ETRC tank at all times.

3) Only paid members can check out corals.

4) The coral check out waiting list will be determined via random lottery.

5) Corals may be checked out for a maximum of 90 days. If you have new growth prior to 90 days, please frag the coral, keep the polyp/eye of your choice, and return the coral to the ETRC club tank. If you do not have new growth within 90 days, please return the coral to the ETRC tank. At that point, you will be given a frag from the ETRC tank once new growth is achieved. Alternatively, you may opt to keep your "checked out" coral in the ETRC club tank. Again, you will be given a frag from the ETRC tank once new growth is achieved.

6) If a coral dies in your tank, you are only responsible for the "check out" fee of that coral. However, you may be subject to parameter testing before you can check out another coral.

7) Corals that are no longer requested to be checked out will be sold on the forum or frag swaps. The proceeds will be used to purchase future library stock.

8) Direct any and all questions to ETRC president Rob, LOL!

Hope that helps man. As long as you're willing to wait, it's a great way to spread around the more expensive corals for an inexpensive price.

Good luck,
Chris