Help / Suggestions

[Agent M]

Hi Guys,

I was curious about everyone's thoughts about selling/trading within this hobby and what they would like to see happen on this forum amongst it's Victorian members in this regard? Maybe we can come up with some great idea's that would encourage more hobbiests to propagate their corals and distribute these into other people's tanks. And also to continue the long-standing traditions of distributing classics like the Dallas acro amongst reef keepers. I have long drooled over the Buying, Selling and Trading section on Reef Central and wanted to see something similar form in Australia.

I personally think there is a lot of trading that goes on in the hobby here and not enough selling. As a newbie filled with Americanisms from my research online, I dreamt of a 'sustainable reef' with only aquacultured specimens, however I found that when I offered cash to people who regularly propagated their corals and publicised this, I was refused on the basis of 'trade only' - despite me leaving the price up to them. I had some pitiful success acquiring a few aquacultured corals from hobbyists but soon ditched my sustainable reef as a silly pipedream that would take me 10 years to complete one polyp at a time! :confused: I have seen some improvement on this front now, but it can be really difficult for new ones in the hobby who either don't have something to trade, or would cry at the thought of fragging their prized new purchase that has barely had a chance to grow.

Of course, ultimately whether you trade or sell is your choice, they are your corals after all ;)

So suggestions I have:
- if you have an established tank, and you are doing some pruning maintenance, let us know you are about to have loose frags avail for $5-20 a piece, Reefuge credits and/or will trade for ........... (for eg.) and to come get them.
- once our trading and selling section is set up, list everything you have including things like baby turbo snails, sand-dwelling fan worms, even amphipods, coralline and the like. I personally eradicated all bristle worms from my tank while I had a pair of seahorses and only recently were they reintroduced from live rock I purchased from someone shutting down their tank. If I'd been able to get a few from somewhere I would have gone and got some a lot earlier, no joke! Some of us may have had fish that picked the tank clean of certain 'clean up crew' and we may want to reintroduce those to our little reef ecosystems if we no longer have the fish.
- have any of you heard of Coral Banking? This is a concept where you propagate a much loved coral and distribute it to other reefers, so that if you lose it for whatever reason, you can get a piece back and it is not lost forever. I would like to suggest we get together and do that with a few things, such as the Dallas acro, a pulsing Xenia I am currently trying to encourage to spread all over my tank, and I am sure there is more we could come up with.

Well that's me fresh out of ideas at this time of night - thoughts and suggestions?

 

[The Reefuge]

Hi Megan,

That is a really great idea. In the new year I will post it up in the news section and we can work together to build this system.


Thanks.

 

[The Reefuge]

Okay, for the time being I will keep this post in here.

How is this system going to work? What are good ways of implementing it into the forum? etc

Thoughts?

 

[Agent M]

I have a few vague ideas, would be good to be able to bounce them off other people to see what they think and help define what will work well for everyone. Without creating a bit of excitement about trading and selling I don't believe it will be very successful and as this forum is unique, it has real potential to be something outside the box that works well.

Will just throw ideas out there, whether I think they are crap or not:

- IMO focus should be on ones new to the hobby, as they are the ones who will embark on an obsessive mission to stock their tanks with coral. Yes we all did that didn't we ;)

- it would be great to be able to see a coral you like in someones tank journal and approach them to see if they will grow a frag specifically for you. This is the idea I can see the biggest problems with but I like it nonetheless. Not everyone would appreciate this and it might discourage some from posting pics too. I am most interested in this idea yet can't seem to come up with a fully formed suggestion at the same time... :(

- traditional use of the Classified section. We know this works but Yawn!

- Frag Competitions? Could sale and trade of frags be somehow incorporated into this or a similar concept?

- a reward system for sellers - you build your reputation to different levels. As you reach each level or X amount of feedback in the reefTrader, you get a reward of X amount of credits or an award such as currently exists with likes received

 

[The Reefuge]

Hi Megan,

I was referring more to how it will function. Do you know of a website (does not need to be reef related) where a similar system is functional? (Could be a file swapping website, etc). I just need to see something to understand what you mean so I can look into how it will be implemented in the website.

From reading what you have posted, it seems to me that your idea is for people in this hobby to want to frag coral from time to time and sell it in the marketplace... or am I way off? Is there a different way of approaching this?

As an example, perhaps we could get volunteers and we have a list of coral people would want to swap. Maybe each volunteer can buy a piece of coral and send the frags to other volunteers?

Let's start throwing some ideas around :)

 

[NiCd]

Hi Megan,

I love this idea, i think its something that would be great to be implemented nationally but managed locally, if you want a hand with this project im keen to assist.

Cheers
Ads

 

[Agent M]

At this point, the only idea I have is that it would make sense that it would all function out of the ReefTrader section so that the advertisements and feedback are all in the one place. Successful online marketplaces like eBay or Etsy could be good reference points? Nothing else comes to mind but I will do some online research for something simpler and post anything I find.

 

[Sarg]

I dont understand why people wouldnt want to sell? All my tanks have been freshwater to date and the so many of the guys in that side of the hobby are all about breeding for $$$$. The forum i used to inhabit was QLDAF and the buy/sell section was the biggest by far. One of my old bosses had couple of nice display tanks but then he had 33 other tanks in his garage full of breeders. He more than paid the bills for his hobby he made a bit extra. Given the power bills that come with marine i would have thought people would have jumped at the chance to make a bit back?

 

[mscott]

Well megan, i think we can go one more, as we all know it is a ver expencive hobby and everyone buys spare parts or swaps out their old ones, how about things you are going to bin, give them to someone who is in need of it/loan it to them, whatever. I know some people who buy spare pumps/heaters ect every year, just in case, and bin their old spares, just because they have no use for it.
I think free trade/loan of somewhat crucial parts in imergancies should be encouraged.
E.G. add a loan section to the classifieds, someone who is need of something till they can get their own/awaiting the arivall of shipping ect puts up a post, someone with the goods offers it to them on the post, post can only be removed after comfirmation to moderators that the goods have been returned. or something like that.
cheers

 

[TJReid]

maybe like a loan system of parts can be inbuilt into the forum ? ie heaters, lights etc for emergency tank crashes or something, i know of other forums similar that do it for members which is a good idea in the past during long public holidays and lfs closes i have had a heater blow and was stuck stressing watching the temp drop slowly !

 

[rockerpeller]

We do have something along those lines with the member location thread. We were supposed to have a list of spare equipment for emergencies. Should start one on Trent ;)

 

[chimaera]

long-standing traditions of distributing classics like the Dallas acro amongst reef keepers.

Williamstown were selling tiny, crappy looking frags of dallas recently for $40+. Literally 1cm nuggets, some half brown. I had a piece in my pico that was growing really well (from Frankston), but lost it when I nuked my tanks.

That kind of trading/sharing/distributing would really help make this community even stronger than it already is.

 

[macca_75]

AgentM - you know I'm happy to swap most anything in my tank to get more variety. Problem is I usually won't take money because

1) i'd feel guilty
2) cash doesn't help with variety. As you've said people expect to pay less for a frag from a tank than a shop - so a frag swap is more attractive to me.


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[Synodontis]

We do have something along those lines with the member location thread. We were supposed to have a list of spare equipment for emergencies. Should start one on Trent ;)

You just reminded me about this mate lol.

 

[Agent M]

Swapping is a great way of getting new corals - and this is definitely something that you can do easily once you are established in the hobby, your tank has grown out a bit and you are feeling more confident about the prospect of cutting up your corals.

I guess where I'm headed with this thread though is that aquacultured corals DO and SHOULD have value - and they tend to be treated in two ways - that they should be free or that you can only trade for them. When you don't have anything to trade, this is really frustrating. I want to encourage more people to put their frags up for sale to others - no need to feel quilty, the people who buy them from you will be very happy that something was available to them!

If anyone has any ideas about this I'd love to hear it

 

[Buddy]

Just noticed this thread! I love the idea of coral banking :cool: I find it hard to get decent frags too because a lot is trade only or if they are for sale/free then preference is given to masa members sometimes. Any way that newbies have access to cheap or free frags is going to help benifit and build this community.

 

[The Reefuge]

Hi everyone,

This thread can now be found here http://www.thereefuge.com.au/board/threads/coral-program.3349/

Please read the first post, and make suggestions.

Thanks.