[chrisblore]

I am thinking of 'commercially' producing live rock as an initial part of a coral farm which I am setting up in my garage. I have noticed several articles on the web about this process and am wondering what you think of it. Some of the rocks would be made using a mixture of concrete mix and oyster shells (with some grit mixed in) and others would beproduced using conventional rocks which are commonly sold for aquarium decoration.
I reckon that I could initially have a live rock culture system of approximately 1500 gallons (+) and, in addition, I will have a similarly sized SPS, clam and soft coral system.
The process for the culture of the live rocks would be as follows: initial manufacture of rocks (using cement and grit mix as above), curing period in fresh water in separate vats, shorter curing period in salt water, addition to main system where I would have some pre-cultured rocks to aid in the seeding of the new ones. I would then leave the rocks in the main system for a period of approx 6-8 months or until I am satisfied with the coralline growth etc. on the new rocks. When this process is complete, the new rocks would be placed into a smaller vat with a spraybar for a period of about 24 hours so as to remove all dead growth and prepare the rock for delivery to the customer and LFS.
Do you think that this could be viable? (Please bear in mind that I am going to be building a coral prop. system as a natural progression from this and that it will not be a standalone product. I will post shortly with more specific questions and details about the coral system)
Many thanks
Chris