Quote:
Originally Posted by reefermadness
Well thats not true at all. Profit comes at the end of all expenses. If your selling frags of corals you spent years growing (ie. your a hobbyist), profit is pretty imaginary. Not only do you have ongoing costs of running a system (ie. electical, salt, GFO, carbon, RO filters etc) you have your captiol expense of equipment. And lets not even mention your time. Cause if you are keeping track of profit your time should be considered an expense.
I totally wish I could see every dollar I spent and made in this hobby. If anyone "hobbyist" could come close to breaking even or "profiting" it would be someone like me with a large system and a dizzying amount of coral. Even so I think I would be short. Especially considering my large successful tank came after 2 other failures (previous tanks).
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yeah im pretty sure my montly expense on corals exceeds what i bring back in frags ten times over alot of the times , there is profit for some things but overall theres more going in then coming back out, its not so much the needing to make a buck but the not having to spend my whole paycheck time and time again to buy corals, sure cheaper corals would help but my taste is my worst enemy lol
last month i am into corals for almost $3,000 ive probably sold $200 worth of frags lol i think most months is like this and i tell myself im sure ill break even as time goes by but i dont i just keep hoarding more coral lol im not perfect so i do lose corals from time to time and sometimes its a big hit.
if it werent for the many morphs out there i probably would have stoppped long ago but theres still a ton i want and cant really afford in the grand scheme of things so fragging what i do have helps compensate for those costs.
i do try to grow all polyps that get fragged but its not always possible so i try to get some back while i can, after so long of doing this thoughi endd up with such a large amount of frags that te need to chop stuff right away dissapeared and i think this is where new people are , theres only a few types in the tank so one is left to frag what they have and more often than not to justify buying a favia at $150 they will say well maybe ill cut half and sell it and keep the other half.
in my last three orders from sponsors here on canreef i havent been charged taxes , receipts and these are household businesses, nothing wrong with that and its not a new thing but the times are a changing and people learn the ropes as they mature in their journey
darryl i agree with the aquacultured vs wild statement , seems results are much better for the stuff thats going around and raised in aquariums , i rarely buy wild fresh off the boat unless its mind blowing , i muts have bought a dozen wild darth maul colonies overe the years just to have them mely yet my one polyp aquacultured frag has grown and lasted a long time.