reef

Well it has been 5 years looking at the equipment side i dont think much has changed other than a bigger skimmer, wait until you read the line about barebottom tanks

yes. not sure how update they are? might ph them and find out.

Summed up pretty well by Pet planet to a degree, however interesting to see what hobbyist think is an awesome coral. Many people have different tastes.

I just found out that only borders sell the PFK. no LFS sell them anymore as Borders have sole rights. Not very good for Hobbyist.

Got the mag today. Good write up. Bit disappointed as no full tank pics and few incorrect fish names. But all in all looks good. Will see if i can get the article scanned for hobbyist to read.

chimera wrote I guess your comments on threads does show you lack of business acumen. It does take time to learn so hopfully you can learn something from these threads. Talking to LFS owners will also help you understand the computations and permutations LFS face. Its pretty simple, if LFS thrive then maybe more might spend more money on better systems and money might be avilable to add more fish to the MAF list. More stores might open a marine section because it actually might be worth doing it. Not the current trend of reduced outlets

Never rinse in fresh water., will stress them even more. just put them in and give them good current, many coral will slime after transport.

Take them out and put them in a bucket of water, no issue at all, Hard to landscape with corals in a tank. you will do more damage.

I dont think it is that simple. Profit margins could not have been that high due to the above. So it would have been a easy call to make. Give shops a good reason to close marine then they will. Livestock is a real risk so you should expect a good returns. Great to have loyal customers but you have to make money. I dont see many hobbyist bailing out pet shops when they go bust because the shop kept the prices down to help them. Just look at all the pet shops that have closed due to trying to do everything on the cheap to get business. They are gone and jansens is still around. And to be fair too any business. Why would any company want to supply a unprofitable product line. Can you image the out goings they have? Staff is the biggest expense for any business. If you invest millions in a company you should expect a good return. if it was your money you would do the same. especially if you had share holders to answer too. would we invest in a business that was making min profits. What if Hollywood’s close the marine section? Something to think about? Not saying this is the case, but could happen. At the end of the day there is no easy solution, but the thread gives hobbyist something to think about and give them a insite on how business operate. price of a product is what it is as it has to be so that you will still be in business the next day and the next etc. Too be fair not many Hobbyist are business minded or run successful business so that is why their are heated arguments. Might be information overload. I am sure if the shoe was on the other foot Hobbyist would think differently.

Sure it is, Bit hard to cover every aspect on why shops fail in a few lines. If you have bad service The best thing to do it to provide feedback to the store manager or nothing will improve. You could say that many LFS/wholesalers also have a weakness that could be improved. If they don’t know they can’t fix it. Hopefully they will listen and do something about it.

I guess they are focusing on being a profitable business, and focusing on core products that produce a solid revenue stream. something you have to do so you are still around in 5 years etc. With the current climate of things slowing more buisiness should be looking at reducing costs and remove unprofitable product lines.

pretty much. surprises are good to some degree.

about a year, best to throw them out and get fresh test kits.

I dont think many make money, many come and go and the ones that charge more and provide better service are still around after 5 years. The margins in pcs are so low that you have to churn out thousands of pcs so you can make money. Also moving stock quickly is important otherwise you will have obsolete stock. the large pc companies have far more cashflow so they can offer a bigger range compared to the back yard companies.

I think thats why is is fun to buy a brown acros, who know what it will turn out like,

Yes but not the same, 2 Million people want pcs, vs 400 hobbyist want marines. many PC business actually make money. vs shops make no money. Pcs dont die, Fish business is high risk, so you should expect good returns, but this is not the case.

Fmxmatt, you are spot on. You would have thought Janssen closing would have been a warning, but the same people continue with the same naive attitudes and have really stuffed it up for others. Sure we all want stuff cheap but at what cost to the industry.

If you did analysis on the aquarium industry in NZ you might find that many have gone bankrupt. Selling cheap means you have to have a large turnover and we dont have the population to do that,

this may help http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/ethica ... tml#262222

Very appealing, i like all that space. A background would hide the cables,.

some fantastic tanks.

The marine industry is that way as it is what hobbyist want. They keep moaning about prices and a few have deliberately undermined the stores. Shops don’t make money from marines however hobbyist keep always going on about the price of stock and don’t support the shops then it will only continue the way it is going. The hobby will only grow if more stores carry stock not because of pricing. There are many old threads that will cover this and really no point in repeating it and it goes in one ear and out the other. Also due to overseas demand it is going to get harder to get stock. Not sure re the quality, as the stock I have seen is as good as any stock overseas. tHEcONCH the post is not direct at you, sorry if it reads that way .

the 20k bulbs dont have much power as the bluer you go the less light. not great for blue/purple corals. I am using true 14k and they dont look great but the coral colours are much better. i doubt your bulbs are true 20k, most are just named 20k because they look blue, what brand are they?

Not good idea, they pollute the tank.

i quess we assume they are the same product. MM seems to work for most, not sure about the caribsea stuff.