Making money off of reefing??

[bronsond99]

Hello! I️ was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how I️ might be able to make some money by being in the reef hobby?? I’m not trying to quit my full time job, I️ was just trying to find a way to make some extra money on side with doing something I️ love, like reefing.

Thanks,
Dakota

 

[Mikedawg]

Depending on how much "extra" money you want to make and where you live, fragging corals might be a good start. Several hobbyists in Atl do this and advertise on Craigslist to keep their costs low.

 

[Kyl]

I've made a few bucks locally selling 3d prints of some holders / hose clips / controller brackets.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Depending on how much "extra" money you want to make and where you live, fragging corals might be a good start. Several hobbyists in Atl do this and advertise on Craigslist to keep their costs low.

One of the local hobbyists in my area does this. He even has setup relationships with some wholesale vendors to buy corals super cheap and then resell them. He get's some amazingly beautiful specimens on a regular basis. Last year I picked up a rainbow gold wall hammer that was about 8-10" across from him for only $75 that the same kind online only smaller diameter were listed at $2-300.

 

[vegamedic]

Fragging corals and selling locally (lots of competition from 1000 online outlets), paring and selling macroalgae like chaeto, and breeding pods & phyto come to mind. With a bit more time investment I'd imagine you could open doors into contracted system maintenance and design consultancy.

 

[landlubber]

if I don't consider the 10 grand I spent on equipment and livestock I'm just a few grand from being in the black!

 

[Kyl]

if I don't consider the 10 grand I spent on equipment and livestock I'm just a few grand from being in the black!

Don't forget, those corals all grow for free so it's pure profit!

 

[jda]

Maintain tanks. This is hard work, though.

Selling frags or being a basement shop is fine when the economy is booming, but the last downturn flooded the market with frag tanks and equipment at 20 cents on the dollar from people going belly up (even some really nice shops)... this is a hard business and buyers dry up when the money does. Also, do not try and figure out your hourly rate.

When selling to people, you are operating with the least common denominator since every transaction has a hobbyist on the other side... people will kill stuff, blame you... get ich, blame you. You can ignore them since you rightfully probably had nothing to do with this, get a bad rep and then business suffers. You can cater to them, keep everybody happy and make little-to-no money. Did I mention that this is a hard business?

You can also expect to become a semi-professional social media expert... but not in a fun way.

You might have some good times, but expect some bad as well.

It is one thing to grow your own coral and sell it, but you better have huge colonies of stuff. Most people need to import wild/mari stuff and use some throughput to be in the black.

You might better off just delivering Pizzas... not in the business of love, but it is a legit way to make money that is sustainable. I do not want to discourage anybody, but people usually have a more grand view of this than what reality offers.

 

[Kyl]

There is only one guy I know locally making a full time gig of coral sales. It's basically primary income due to some extenuating factors, but it's a constant race to be the first to get a high end SPS in, recoup the cost, make the profit and then move on to the next thing before all those frags he sold have grown out and those people start selling frags and tank the limited local market.

It's happened with everything that grows decently fast, especially RR Rainbow Loom. The space invader pectinia was also an expensive seller like 18 months ago, multi-hundreds for frags that are now moving at $40 or less from a dozen people locally. So not only do you have to battle against mother nature with the tank, but also a lot of your own customers.

 

[Bacon505]

Reefing is a good side gig if you’re willing to put out the effort to maintain your system well and dedicated to learn about them. The most profitable are the acro. The current market willing to pay good penny for those colorful one.

 

[Bacon505]

Learn about shipping and find some good shipping supply company. Its nice to deal locally but the market dry up fast. Your best bet is online but with a risk. So learn to ship coral properly will open a bigger market for you online especially here in reef2reef.

 

[fish farmer]

Learn about shipping and find some good shipping supply company. Its nice to deal locally but the market dry up fast. Your best bet is online but with a risk. So learn to ship coral properly will open a bigger market for you online especially here in reef2reef.

Location, location, location. I thought when I started reefing back in 2000 that I could "make money" in the area since many of my LFS didn't have much for frags or full size corals for that matter. Once I pushed my xenia and other easy stuff to the local reefers and got store credit, everyone was looking for something different. Then the same local reefers started to sell off whole setups by 2005, so the other local reefers just swooped in for tank cleanouts. I've seen two good local reef stores open and close within 5 years, another guy was doing the basement breeding of clowns and coral fragging, he's gone as well. I'm in New England and can get stuff from Cultivated Reef shipped to me next day for $20.

 

[BluewaterLa]

I do not see an issue or problem with fragging corals that need to be trimmed and selling of your frags to other hobbiest around you, heck most of us do this from time to time and usually invest the money right back into our tanks for dry goods, equipment or critters.
I do not get how many folks getting into the hobby now days see this as a business venture or side hustle, its a hobby. We will spend way more money than what we will ever recoup on our systems.
I've been in this hobby long enough to know that just by selling some frags you will never make extra cash.
There is a difference between a business and a hobby and one can take the fun and love away from the other.
Once being on all three sides of this hobby, I personally know the cost of the business side and hobby side. What Ive learned is the investment to get to the point of making profit is more than what most could or would want to spend and trying to do this as a side hustle would not make much sense profit wise.
Basically you would be spending even more money on equipment, supplements and live stock than what you would recoup.
Add in the factor that most of us are the same with out tanks in that we will spend the ''extra '' money made from frags right back into more livestock, supplements or equipment and we have More invested not more in our wallet.
At the end of the day it's up to the individual to do what they want and what they see as good for them, free country right ? Just be aware of local laws and the fact that all it takes is for someone to report you to get eyes peering your direction, its happened before to a few people I know personally. I would recommend having a basic business License minimum if you choose to venture into the business aspect and not just the hobby you enjoy in your home.