Manicure aquacultured corals from GOM

[Subsea]

http://www.aquacultureranch.com/Six months ago, I received a 200 lb shipment of farmed rock from an offshore site in 30' of water in the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa Bay. In my 40 years of reefkeeping, I have never seen rock such as this. The colors exploded from this uncured farmed rock. Here in the Austin area, most reefkeepers would be put off by the abundance of large macro colonies. Mostly green macro as the dominant species during the summr then shifting to red macro during the wintertime.. The last 200 lb shipment showed a shift to less towering green macros with the shift going to many emerging red macros. The one exception to emerging is Red Grapes, which competed well with summertime green macros and continued into the winter. While some will not like the macros, all will marvel when the macros are pulled back. Each of these farmed rock is a microcosom to itself with sponges, tunicates, sea cucumbers, worms and detrivores of many shapes and colors. I now have a spawn of miniture urchins in several tanks. As I have never operated a business for profit, I am formulating practices as I go along. I currently have 700 lbs of this live rock. Four hundred pounds have completed a 60 day isolation period. During this time, I remove all of the towering green macro. I will use desirable macro removed as seed stock for mono specific tanks. Because of an abundance of caution, I remove most all anemoneas. Between leathal injection with hydrogen peroxide and voracious Peppermint Shrimp there will be no survivors after 60 days. I can not begin to exxaggarate the biodiversity on this rock. I am lost with much of the coral identification. Most of the hard coral in GOM are not much to look at. The exception to this are the Caribbean Cactus Corals. They look like minature open brains with the green floresance and numerous feeding tenacles. The diversity of macros on this rock is bodacious. Much of this rock is 5-10 lbs, with large gogonians and red tree sponges emerging everywhere. Many will retail between $100-$200. This is not rock to make a wall with. This rock is the main attraction. Not all rock will be of this caliber. I am considering a pilot program to build designer rock to customers specification.

This would be using live rock that did not make the best of the best grade A basic price would be agreed to for the specific rock with add on and final manicure. I am considering a 1/3 downpayment to secure designer rock for this final manicure. Depending on add ons would determine how long to wait before releasing to customer at which time the 2/3 remainder would be paid.

 

As I have already said, I am a start up maraculture facility. Some procedures will be modified and changed. I am posting on this forum, to get ideas from the hobbiest that want product. What do members of this forum want for their marine tanks? I will not compete with the coral frag business. You can put your own coral frags to this rock as your centerpiece. When I replace my lost iPad with a camera, I will begin to post pictures. Until then view my website. I am currently awaiting a response to my request for sponsorship advertising.

 

http://www.aquacultureranch.com/

[Subsea]

When Chip worded the website, he continually used words as: expertly manicured. I made a picture post with 500 drawf cerith snails deposited in a 6" square in 55G tank bottom with new shipment of live rock. I also use small blue legged hermits, with numerous Emerald Crabs and a bodacious amount of Pepermint Shrimp from GOM. As I am now thinking of it, I will get a link on the website, "meet the experts"..