Sleeping Giant
Proud Canadian Reefer
Welcome to R2R
OP
OP
LeBon
Active Member
Listen up, whilst its on my mind.
With me looking at some outdoor/greenhouse projects and me recently looking at live rock options in bulk etc I got to thinking theres still some ways we can cut time and costs to consumers in some ways by bulk curing the rockand allowing the new enthusiast to sort of get back to the days when we used to insta cycle our tanks with established live rock that was abundant.. minus the pets.
Then I thought about the sculptures; and why wouldnt anybody like these finished structures? Well, I suppose number 1 is price really. i saw some nice little shapes of maybe a few kg's but they were pretty expensive, 4 or 5 times the price of the initial rock.
Not saying its bad value for someones work but I got to thinking that if that sculpture was already cured and live and pretty much ready to go and avoid much of the cycle headaches of newbies..
Talking to some of my Spanish shop guys they reckon that more than half of people drop out of this 'passion' because they just didnt really ever get through a successful cycle, even nowadays and many will use tap water despite our pleas,
It isnt as if folk havent spent money on thier fancy lights and glass tanks and skimmers and fish. but they want reward before they spend money on 'water'! and rocks are how much?! By the ime they got through a cycle it had brought little joy and the attraction had faded before they were fully hooked.
So, what about rock sculptures that we make and stick in in open vats outside all summer/year and only sell them as cycled? Okay I know it can be done for the locals but Im talking eventually larger scale.
Shipping could actually be done with say sealed buckets and packed'fresh' and delivered direct within a day after all. not so sure how it actually supply trade regarding oxygen/shelf life.
Pest free hand made sculpures in a bucket ready to go. yay or no?
In many ways its time and space, a mild climate and a bit of creativity. These things I have in spades as they dont cost me actual cash
With me looking at some outdoor/greenhouse projects and me recently looking at live rock options in bulk etc I got to thinking theres still some ways we can cut time and costs to consumers in some ways by bulk curing the rockand allowing the new enthusiast to sort of get back to the days when we used to insta cycle our tanks with established live rock that was abundant.. minus the pets.
Then I thought about the sculptures; and why wouldnt anybody like these finished structures? Well, I suppose number 1 is price really. i saw some nice little shapes of maybe a few kg's but they were pretty expensive, 4 or 5 times the price of the initial rock.
Not saying its bad value for someones work but I got to thinking that if that sculpture was already cured and live and pretty much ready to go and avoid much of the cycle headaches of newbies..
Talking to some of my Spanish shop guys they reckon that more than half of people drop out of this 'passion' because they just didnt really ever get through a successful cycle, even nowadays and many will use tap water despite our pleas,
It isnt as if folk havent spent money on thier fancy lights and glass tanks and skimmers and fish. but they want reward before they spend money on 'water'! and rocks are how much?! By the ime they got through a cycle it had brought little joy and the attraction had faded before they were fully hooked.
So, what about rock sculptures that we make and stick in in open vats outside all summer/year and only sell them as cycled? Okay I know it can be done for the locals but Im talking eventually larger scale.
Shipping could actually be done with say sealed buckets and packed'fresh' and delivered direct within a day after all. not so sure how it actually supply trade regarding oxygen/shelf life.
Pest free hand made sculpures in a bucket ready to go. yay or no?
In many ways its time and space, a mild climate and a bit of creativity. These things I have in spades as they dont cost me actual cash
Amhojjat
Community Member
Hello, new to reef2reef. Been in the hobby for years now. Took down my tank 5 years ago and just got a new one about a month ago.
new tank is doing incredible well for only being up for about a month!
new tank is doing incredible well for only being up for about a month!
Amhojjat
Community Member
I remember. I think I’m doing everything correctly from my most successful few years.
OP
OP
LeBon
Active Member
its really hard to predict those algae/diatom stages but I think an important part of the process so unlike many folk I have a positive expectation, so long as its a stage and not a total dominant bloom
Fish Think Pink
5000 Club Member
'LeBon' is really a tick-take name that stuck somewhat as a username as previous ''handles'got lost or banned or defunct for various reasons.
Ive worked in the hemp/weed space for 20 years or so and my escape from work has generally been around animals and nature including initially freshwater tanks.
With cultivation I learned to understand that we were feeding the soil rather than the plants and we needed certain parametres within certain ranges, such as PH, for biological processes to function well. Im by no means a chemist or biologist and actually have winged my way to knowledge the hardway, not really understanding the chemical processes for example but learning to understand what effects each one might have in different environments. So basically Im saying that I find a lot of symetry in either raising plants, fish, corals or even chickens. (I currently have goats, donkeys, dogs and cat and a wide range of birds).
I started reefing about 10 years ago because of two real reasons.
1. As you might expect Im an armchair warrior for all things green and coral deaths in the oceans were pretty much the real wake up call to me that '"hey, the planet is actually dying"
2. The missus likes seahorses
So after a few years reefing at home I did some work in Costa Rica with the hemp farming and got to speak with some quite learned people that were into propogating corals indoors and outdoors and I loved the whole game. Costa Rica is like one of the greenest countries on the planet an leading the way with so many initiatives.. I thought to myself during these times, "I have to take this to Spain one day"
Things have changed quite a lot in the last ten years in this industry, similar again in many ways to the indoor herb cultivation. For example LED lighting and lots of automation in its infancy stages. We have filled some large greenouses with plants over the years and we had a hundred serious offers to partner with LED lighting manufacturers... but we never changed from HPS. So I never chase tech for the sake of tech, function is always before form, form is a nice bonus. I suppose we can say the similar things with chemicals/nutrients too.
Where am I going with this thread? I guess this is more profile than introduction; but basically after 2 or 3 years without home tanks (all for good reasons), a recent home move, Brexit, Spain being difficult with hemp and I suppose me being a little bored with the space I thought why not start that journey of bringing coral farming to Spain?
Things change fast as alluded to, theres certainly nothing forward thinking anymore about setting up a coral farm. Tho if we do run in greenhouse environments then theres another similarity with growing crops in the sense that Spain has pretty much all the sun/energy required and therefore is on a basic level, more efficient. Much of our hemp greenhouse costs are related to the cooling but with solar energy costing something like 1keuros a kw there are clearly options to use free energy on these systems.
So the business has started essentially in various ways but it will likely be 12 months before the build starts, so quite a way off actual scaled production.
Ive read many of you guys over the years, as is the norm to lurk and watch for alot of us with so many channels; and I value not just the experience but often just the 'perspective'. We all have just different ways we click or dont click with folk dont we.(?)
Whats a bit funny to me right now is the scale of things becaue I am naturally comparing to acre sized greenhouses etc and some of the coral farms inthe US for example are only in a few hundred sqm of space
In the mean time tho.. Here to build connections in this space cos I dont have many close to home so to speak. Some of that scale talk might sound like Im a bigshot but its quite the oposite, the legal weed n hemp game has never really made us much money despite ten years graft on some big projects. The last 2 years with covid etc wve essentially lost most of our bankrolls.. no doubt part of the reason ive lost heart with the game somewhat.
So no major big investments. More the same strategy as previous /other busineses, the animals come first, Utilise Spains natural energy and my own nurture nature to create an efficient and customer pleasing enterprise.
over the last few weeks I have been putting togther bits and pieces to put our first small tanks in at home. Literally a cple of 250l or so glass tanks, one of which will possibly be for seahorses again (we bred seahorses at one of our last places and sold the entire colony with tank etc in the end, it was pretty successsful animal wise) and a 5 foot shallow tank around 500l for a frag tank with a basic square sump and return. Its plumbed, partly soft and cycling to a degree before the lights go on which in this case wil 5 foot sunpowers. Its in the garage with some of my greens, 2 tents essentially haha "PLants and Tanks" so will still have to be careful with any pics as usual
Regards/saludos/hi/hello/
Welcome! Glad you joined.
Have you considered starting your build thread for your home tanks? I found its a great place to document my tank's evolution for myself. I started tank first then joined, so I'm still finding myself going back collecting pictures & updating historically as well as current state. Once you create your first post in your thread and link it to your account, they will give you build badge (look left, under my ID)
This is a good reference book type online article I still review:
The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium
This article was sponsored by @MarineDepot at www.marinedepot.com. Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is no...
www.reef2reef.com
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