Do you think there is a market? (1 Viewer)

[H2OHOH]

I’m in the process of doing some new aquascape. My tank has been up and running for awhile and has been producing great. Very stable.. let’s for discussion say it is clean. No significant or known crap

I like islands and overhangs and stuff like that. So I have been using dry rock for years. Easy to sculpt and cement, but.obviously takes some time to get “live”

Over time I now get the dry rock that’s already purple. Just looks better day one. Again, not seeded or “live”

So I recently bought 40 lbs of purple Caribsea dry rock. I think I got it on sale for like $160 a box, let’s just say $4-$5 a lb

Two weeks ago I rinsed it and put it in my frag tank. Same system as my main. Has lights and flow and all the stuff you need for it also has probably 50 plus frags on racks.

So, my questions:
1) after two weeks it was dramatically more natural looking…not purple. How much “live” do you think there is after 2 weeks?

2) how long do you think it would need to bake to get good live rock to really jump start a new tank?

3) do you think there is a market for this service? If so how much per pound?

4) or if you had your own rock and I seeded it for x days, y weeks, or a months how much would it be worth to you?

 

[ichthyogeek]

I think 2 weeks is enough turnaround to at least get a starter population of microfauna, but I think that rock really takes like 6 months to have a good turnaround of being "established". 2 weeks is definitely enough for nitrifying bacteria.

I'm not sure if there's a market for this though. At least with the turnaround times/prices people would want. It might be better off for you to cure live rock imported in (like Fiji Pukani) or something? Not many people on Facebook (where you'd probably get a lot of traffic from) seem to be looking for actual live rock/they're posting after they set their tank up.

4) Doesn't the club already have a "sand/rubble" swap informally going?

I think that for people that do the research, you'd have a good market. Unfortunately that's not a lot of people that enter the hobby....

That being said: custom aquascapes that are already pre-seeded might be worth it! I know that I struggle with making scapes, and I'm basically resorting to making my own rock at this point because of how bad I am at it.