RnB

I have the price list from 3 wholesalers internationally. I have the air frieght charges from each. I know the maf fees for the import. I have estimated mortality rates. this I reckon I know the imported landed cost of the fish. I know that both importer and retailer like to make at least 100% margin to cover expenses like rent, equipment and most importantly their own time.... the 100% is gross, not net profit......... from the prices I see the model above looks right on, assuming that each is taking about 100% gross profit. remember the number of hours that are required to go to the airport, Q fish, setup etc etc etc while 100% prob sounds a lot its probaby right for the importer. I do see a skew in pricing that I still do not understand... thats the simplist fish, clowns, chromis etc seem to retail at a skewed higher price then the more expensive to import fish..... It may just be that the retail and wholesale channel actually makes more on these basic and most imported fish, to help keep themselves in business. ????? I have heard this mentioned, that you make all the $$$ to keep the lights on in chromis, damsels,clowns and that in comparison the corals are a lot less margin.... some wholesalers will pack 150-200 chromis in a 20kg box.... anyway my point is that these prices are sustainable, the only way think you can expect to see much lower prices is if a importer/retailer combined so there was not a double 100% markup, however the commercialy viable price at retail could probably only drop about another 25-30% even then, given the size of the AKL market. And surely that operater would then try to maximise margins by doing this, not minismise profits.... or if someone imported on a profitable but not fully commercially footed basis, and sold direct to the public...... of course then the shops would probably not buy off that importer, increasing his/her cost due to the increased number of hours required to catch and bag fish individually for the hobby market....... Prices would also drop if the market got a lot bigger IMHO. Probably to aussie prices....... we have just seen a 20-25% drop in fish prices! IMHO yay! I cannot see why the same logic will not apply to corals but you just can't pack as many corals per box as fish..... competition is alive in the AKL market.

copperbands - $65 holliwoods now 27% cheaper then jansens lemonpeel $90 nice first effort guys lots of interesting fish, these are much better prices at the retail level steve. I hope its sustainable (numbers look ok to me, based on my spreadsheets) and look forward to seeing price reductions on corals in the future.

some LFS give you a 10% discount for those "smaller/flatter" ones.....

go on tease me then....... what are the prices and the variety? ok, I go take a look tonight and post some details...... Prob best for steve/nick if we all trot down and show support for them etc...... I am after a male clown so who knows?

anyone got a few spare...... sure I can swap for something I have not seen this snail in my tank...... and love biodiversity..... Peter

as an aside, if it does leach Al, would it not quickly form Al oxide or other things? how toxic are they, will the leach process be so slow that regular water changes flush anyway? I guess I am asking what the equation is and how fast the reaction will occur.

why niot email the guys from the advanced article, I am sure they have thought of this and may well have tested even if not published.

I found a NZ supplier of these units about 3 months ago I was quoted $150 + GST + freight (Normal price $189 + GST). they are in CHCH. I have just asked price for 5 units from him, see what he comes up with. but on 5 units from the US the frieght go down quite low..... I think it best to import 10 direct from the chineese manufacture and flog em that way..... would anyone be interested Please PM me.....

no..... :oops: have been training for coast to coast and other things..... but I have made the mounting plate etc for it. Just have to get a through fitting for the sump and all is away! I may yet convert from a plastic contaner sump to a glass one with fitting already installed I got from AW ages ago when he sold up. will def increase my in tank flow as I will put the 1060 into the tank... that will give 40 as return, 2 x 1060 + 2 x tunze pulsing pumps (old but seemingly reliable) Peter

i use an ehiem as return, a 1060 not the best pump but as it is "in-sump" , less chance of leakage..... I am sure as soon as I "upgrade" the setup with time saving thingies..... disaster will be close at hand

Eric: Orthophosphate around natural reefs generally measures about 0.01 ppm and the instructions that come with Rowa Phos state, "the phosphate concentration should always be kept below 0.015ppm." You may consider 0.03 ppm low, but ideally levels should be half that. It is true that it is difficult to reliably measure levels that low with hobbyist test kits. As I stated in the article, at 0.03 ppm I couldn't detect any color with the Salifert kit. Richard Harker

i have lots of live rock heaters are in tank (one set to keep at 24, one at 26) pumps and heaters are on a a/b breaker arrangement. my tv is on A, video on b if a or b go flatties will reset to get tv on I have found skimmer cup overflowing back into sump after 5 days away a few times, no real bad effects so far. I have auto topup but limit the total in the system to 30L, and tank is about 500L so even all in at once not a disater. tanks acrylic so chance of springing a leak is way lower (personal opinion here, but you gotta see the joins!!!!!) lights now on IKS, but had issues with cheap timers, will never use cheap timers again... had MH on for 5 days once... ouch! i never dose kalk or additives while away...... flatties throw in food every 2nd day, but tank can survie for 5 days no feeding and often has... 4-5 times per year! plumbing has no joins... all pipes flexible 1 piece! this will prob change now home all the time, but was major consideration when away. chim - lots of people called me lots worse then simple ;^) I have left my RO/DI system running overnight by accident twice! but i would never trust myself to run it into the tank directly... also when syphoning out the pipe bore is so big, it takes about 15 sec to fill a 25L container so no chance of leaving it running.... Peter

this is a great read http://www.athiel.com/lib/questions/anemone.htm

pack the fluval with coral rock (cured) and a bag of carbon.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/ I keep coming back to these guys and finding the best prices.... They sell a lot of "unbranded" products that other companys like sedra just place a label on for about 60% of labelled price.... ie OEM stuff. no actual experience with them however.....

Sorry to hear this, I hope you only have limited losses. Automation fails, humans err no easy answer I consider myself very lucky that with over 2 years away from my tank 5 days a week, I have had no issues at all due to failed technology. that said I keep things REAL SIMPLE for this reason.

at night the front of my tank, and rock... is covered with them... They are the best addition to your tank you can have!

http://www.niwa.co.nz/pubs/wa/12-3/weed the risks are real, it appears we are our own worst enemy....

xx

i take out a contaner of tankwater every so often during a change, put it aside with the fresh seawater in another cont, and when temps are the same check my SG with hydrometer....... no real calibration problems that way.......

your new tank setup looks great, I will be down in WGTN as i pass through on way to the south island at the end of this month. I will phone up first but would love to see it in person....... Peter

wasp - are you arguing that because the zeovstuff bacterial binding, then removal by skimming, is such an effecient removal method compared to the other binding agents, thats its not worth doing?

ok, yes i work in IT but cannot I get decent printouts of articles off Reefcentral mag.... no how i print in portrait so the RHS words do not get cut off...... some sites have print friendly versions etc etc :roll:

so far the reefcentral DIYers have managed to get about 1-2 years out of cheap powerhead homemade jobs.... If you love DIY and are not concerned about pumps cutting out (i guess you could have a few spares in the cupboard) then at about US$30 per homemade they do seems to move a lot of water around..... I think there is a LOT to be said for the wave motion that controlled tunze streams seem to produce.

there is a very good post on reefcentral about why the streams are expensive... from a tunze guy, they did heaps of testing and found lots of motors just not up the the load over the longer haul.... also issues with the shaft, its support etc...... it was well argued and sounded valid, can't imagine an ehiem version would be that much cheaper if it was directly comparable to the tunze unit.