Coral Farm advise

[JOE RIES]

Hello everyone Im starting a soft coral, lps and macroalga farm in Kent Washington, large scale and secret. Does any one have any advise on live stock. I've been doing this since 1997 and its easy now but I'm not sure where to start besides building my systems. I need to know what people want and are buying. I'm not into sps because the market is saturated with sps. I was thinking of offering live sand and live rock- agro based. The market seams to be missing softies, alga and live rock/sand...Tank you in advance...

 

[Zer0]

Sounds like a cool idea, also sounds like a ton of work lol. My only advice, and you may have thought about it already, but think about backup power, like a generator big enough to power all your holding/propagation tanks. Probably one of the most important aspects in this hobby that a lot of people either overlook or just put their faith in their power grids/company, IMO. I will never start another system in my life without having a sufficient backup power solution.

 

[JOE RIES]

oh yeah i got a 15,000.00 list I'm working on. A 3200 watt dual fuel Honda inverter is on it.

 

[Pistondog]

Hello everyone Im starting a soft coral, lps and macroalga farm in Kent Washington, large scale and secret. Does any one have any advise on live stock. I've been doing this since 1997 and its easy now but I'm not sure where to start besides building my systems. I need to know what people want and are buying. I'm not into sps because the market is saturated with sps. I was thinking of offering live sand and live rock- agro based. The market seams to be missing softies, alga and live rock/sand...Tank you in advance...

Have you considered using sunlight instead of lights?
Seems like it would save money and maybe better for some species.

 

[Zer0]

Have you considered using sunlight instead of lights?
Seems like it would save money and maybe better for some species.

I am curious about your natural sunlight method, considering the OPs geographical location. I don't think it is feasible, not without large reflectors, which would be expensive and most likely outrageous, unless they live on a farm. Tidal Gardens is a pretty good example of a coral supplier that is based is the middle of nowhere lol.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Well its not a secret anymore. Lol
Locally you would have some competition but if you did online orders it would be a good idea and start imo.
Im local and the two coral breeders i go through i would not change. Seattle corals seems to be taking off as well.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Blastos. Mushrooms. All euphyellia. High in demand.
Yesterdays not so greats are todays hot mess. The circle will come back round im sure.
D

 

[Pistondog]

I am curious about your natural sunlight method, considering the OPs geographical location. I don't think it is feasible, not without large reflectors, which would be expensive and most likely outrageous, unless they live on a farm. Tidal Gardens is a pretty good example of a coral supplier that is based is the middle of nowhere lol.

I was thinking greenhouse, or solar tube. You are correct about lack of sunny days but for OP's coral selection, cloudy light would probably be enough.
I'm sure they have greenhouses in Seattle, and plants might be more of a challenge than low par corals.

 

[mdb_talon]

I would recommend anthony calfos book on coral propagation. It is dated now, but a ton of good info still. Also talks about thing like greenhouse farms.

 

[ReefBeta]

Not sure if you're targeting country wide with shipping, or just focus on local market. Here are some thought on the local market.

Probably talk to LFS to see if they are interested in a partnership and what coral they want more.

From what I saw in the LFS in the area, there are always tons of softies and they go slowly. The LPS are usually dumb colors, except euphyellia. There are lots of bright color euphyellia from indo that I don't see a shortage of them, just thought they're generally overpriced for the level of availability.

The rare encounters are micromussa lord, favias, blastos with nice unqiue color. Also photosynthesis gorgonia. Only ever see that one boring milky color type. There are more colorful plume sea fan out there that I never saw in LFS around here.

Basically anything that's truly eye catching. The common color morph are saturated for any type of corals. I think similar can be said of SPS. The problem with SPS is that, none of the LFS here were able to showcase the true color of the high end frags to make people want to buy.

 

[ReefBeta]

I was thinking greenhouse, or solar tube. You are correct about lack of sunny days but for OP's coral selection, cloudy light would probably be enough.
I'm sure they have greenhouses in Seattle, and plants might be more of a challenge than low par corals.

Seattle is a lot more up north than Tidal Gardens. Evan that Tidal Gardens gave up at using natural sunlight after many years of trying, and switched fully to artificial light. The daylight different here between winter and summer is crazy. In winter it gets dark by 4pm. In summer it's still bright at 10pm. That's nothing resemble stability about that.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Ive been to a greenhouse in eastern wa that had natural sunlight coral bins. The corals were very brown and blan.
He was using leds for the sps and clams.
D

 

[Pistondog]

Ive been to a greenhouse in eastern wa that had natural sunlight coral bins. The corals were very brown and blan.
He was using leds for the sps and clams.
D

The light you view the corals in changes their appearance.
Most corals look pretty bland in sunlight.
Our corals pop when viewed with the artificial spectrum we provide.

 

[mdb_talon]

The light you view the corals in changes their appearance.
Most corals look pretty bland in sunlight.
Our corals pop when viewed with the artificial spectrum we provide.

Agree. Most of our coral would look bland under 6500k.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Yup. Im growing coral rn with 1 5k bulb. And 3 8-12k lamps. Lol. Essentially grow bulbs. My coral looks brown but with blue led shines. Lol.
Yes yes. Love corals.
D

 

[Mark Gray]

My advice is maybe give Dr Mac a call and talk with hime I will give you his shop web site. He has set up countless farms.

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[JOE RIES]

Have you considered using sunlight instead of lights?
Seems like it would save money and maybe better for some species.

The cost of solar tubes is outrageous, I cant justify it... and we have short dark days out here, but I thought about it a lot, their are many other factors too. But mike paleta and tidal gardens makes it work .

 

[JOE RIES]

Seattle is a lot more up north than Tidal Gardens. Evan that Tidal Gardens gave up at using natural sunlight after many years of trying, and switched fully to artificial light. The daylight different here between winter and summer is crazy. In winter it gets dark by 4pm. In summer it's still bright at 10pm. That's nothing resemble stability about that.

and keeping the temp up in Seattle/Kent would kill any profit.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Nice Leathers and mid-priced mushrooms.

 

[JOE RIES]

Nice Leathers and mid-priced mushrooms

the first system is soft corals, lots of mid priced corals