What Corals would You Put in a Propagation System?

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Kc189

Premium Member
I am thinking about setting up a propagation tank after Christmas and I am looking for some feedback as to what most people think is the best types of corals to propagate. I am thinking about SPS, Zoanthids, Acans and xenia at the moment. Here are my plus and minus and I would love to here what everyone else has to say.

SPS
Plus -
1. They can bring a good price in the market.
2. Lots of different colors and types.
3. Normally ship well.
4. I have a fair collection of nice pieces.
5. Easy to frag

Minus -
1. Lighting cost (MH, Heat and Water from Evaporation)
2. Water quality must be higher.
3. Slower growth.
4. Need for more CA.

Zoanthids
Plus -
1. Easy to grow.
2. Can grow under less lighting (t-5s).
3. Grow very fast.
4. Bring good prices in the market.
5. Lots of different color morphs.
6. Normally ship well.
7. I already have a fair collection.
8. Easy to frag.

Minus-
1. Seem to have more sickness and predators. (Though proper dipping and QT help)
2. Needs a fair amount of space for grow out.

xenia
Plus-
1. Grows very fast.
2. Very easy to keep
3. Easy to Frag

Minus-
1. Small local market.
2. Does not ship well.
3. Normally does not bring a good price.

LPS (Acans)
Plus
1. Still bring a pretty penny.
2. Ship fairly well.
3. Would do fine under t-5's.

Minus
1. Growth can vary a great deal IMO.
2. Harder to frag.
3. Stinger tentacles.
4. I do not have very many different color morphs right now.

As I am sure you can see I am leaning towards zoanthids. But if I can find a LFS that will buy the xenia I will most definitely be growing that as well. If I do zoanthids I would keep my SPS collection in my display tank and just grow out and frag from that location instead of having a dedicated propagation system for them.

I would love to hear your ideas on what you would propagate if you had the time and space. I would also like to know if you think there is something I am missing. If anyone is currently doing a propagation system and has profit and loss figures as to what can be expected out of a system that would also be great!

My goal is not to make a business, but I would like to help pay for my tanks with the money made from the propagation tank. The system will not large as I have plans to put it in a 58G RR tank that I already have. I will be lighting it with either t-5?s or a 250DE MH. Sorry for the long post, but I think most of the information is needed to help understand the idea.

Thanks for the time and thoughts,

Keith
 
I would do zos and xenia. Dallas north will take your xenia all day. Granted not for much but it grows like a weed. Zoanthids would be second in my book for your reasons. Plus you can get decent zos for not to big of an investment

SPS is just a really really long process and if your willing to wait is ok but not the easiest. Always demand for nice SPS though but a huge investment in both time and money.

Acans and blastos and the like I would stay away. Flavor of the month and by the time you grow them out you won't be getting much for them!

Best thing would be to go around and ask the LFSs you have a relationship what they would take and rough price and go from there.
 
You will never be able to propagate enough SPS to make your money back or even break even.

The big benefit of a propagation system is if you have a colony that STN/RTN's for no known reason (assuming the system is stable and nothing else crashes) you will at least have something to replace it with at no cost to you. Nothing is worse than losing your prized coral :x .
 
Servo brings up a good point. Look at Dr Mac and those guys. They have real effiecient setups using sunlight, etc, etc and I know he's not making very much doing it. I talked at length with him at MACNA about it. The only way you make anything is if you end up lucky and get some rare stuff that you can name and it becomes "famous"
 
Keith I have to agree with you for the most part! The largest problem with prop systems as I have learned on RC is that in order to make money you must have a very large market in which to sell your goods. And in order to get access to this large market area you almost have to start an online store. This leads to a much larger problem, in order to keep traffic volumes up on the site you must have a very large coral base in order to keep corals on the site at all times. And that is only the start to an online business. You also have shipping, uploading of photos keeping up with emails and orders, which in the end is far more work then I am looking for right now.

Which as lead me to a conclusion that I either need to change my goals for the system in general or I need to hold off on the idea until I have room to setup a cheaper larger system. (I know larger and cheaper normally do not go with each other but they can when you?re setting up a prop system) The largest problem for me currently is that I have all the equipment (tank, lights, sand, skimmer, sump, and pumps) that I need to complete the setup and I just hate having the stare at me. I have plans to do a current audit of my tanks and see how much I currently spend on supplies and Elec. It should then be able figure out how many corals I would need to produce a month to break even. I have a feeling it will be a rude awaking and it will end my idea of setting up the tank, but you never know. Thanks for all the input.

Keith
 
If I had a space with water source, electricity, some way to cool just that room with a window unit. I would set up a prop tank just to culture sps corals for myself to begin with. Then maybe sell a few to pay for salt and other stuff. But never would I imagine that I would actaully do it to make any real money. It would just be a place to put all those frags that I now ignore and just die on the bottom of the tank, because I do not want want a bunch of mounted frags sitting in my main tank.
 
Downside to the whole xenia/DNA thing is that they only give you store credit right?

Zoanthids can be very colorful, are very hardy, grow quickly once established (mostly), ship well and are an all-round favorite. Yes, there are some pests but there are also acro eating flatworms, red bugs, monti nudis.....

SPS can fetch a high dollar but require more dilligent care, are more sensitive to slight changes in conditions and only appeal to a niche market. SPS prop is usually best for keeping backup colonies for yourself and your friends, with the occasional sale to cover expenses.

My old 7g yielded over $1000 of coral sales over 18 months with a lifetime investment of around $1500. I suspect it actually generated closer to $1200; at $1000 I stopped counting.

My 20L hasn't been doing too bad either....
 
To further the point I went to the Atlanta Reef Club meeting tonight and the owner of www.scientificcoral.com gave a presentation. Neat place. He said critical mass for them is roughly 500 of each species.

They currently have about 2000 pieces for sale and over 10,000 growing. He said he does not see how you could do it and even close to break even with less then 1000 corals and at least a couple hundred for sale or you would run out all the time.
 
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