Thanks for the support guys. I should have known better with so many people there not to leave my stuff unattended. I walked away to have a beer with Chris and 5 minutes later I came back to my cooler door open and 12 bottles missing. I did put away all the bottles in the cooler and box before walking out and put them under the table but that wasn't enough.
Aaron is right. I do work hard on this stuff. It sounds simple but I have 4 different cultures of bugs to watch, rotifers and 3 different types of phytoplankton which all require daily attention, different parameters, manual topping off, crash recoveries, etc. I also do weekly water changes on 12 different holding containers for the zooplankton and weekly splits on 8 phytoplankton containers and I have to use new containers on every split. I would say I spend at least 20 hours a week working on my cultures.
I got into this because I wanted to feed my tank plankton. It is important on so many levels to help with the diversity in any reef system and figured I would try to make a little bit of money doing it so it didn't seem as tedious. Fact is I am not making any worth while money at it and then I get bottles stolen from me yesterday. At this point I think I am just going to simplify my whole routine and just culture for myself and maybe anyone who wants a bottle that comes by my house for whatever reason. The work I put into it is just not worth the financial outcome. I had a lot of people show interest in the bottles but only sold 8 throughout the whole event. So I had more stolen then purchased which has really ruined my appetite to do this anymore.
I know a few of you where looking forward to the frozen food and guess what, that is still going to be in the making!!! I really want to provide not only myself but you guys a better, cheaper solution to Rods. My goal was to take the money I made at ERF to purchase the remaining items I needed for the food. Due to the limited sales I made this will be set back for a while. I hope to have something in a month though. We shall see how things pan out.
I will still culture zooplankton and anyone who want a bottle shoot me a PM and you can buy from me directly. Elite Reef also has 5 bottles sitting on their shelves. For me though, back to basics and just enjoying the hobby.
Thanks again guys and great event yesterday minus the a hole who likes to steal plankton LOL. btw the thief was a real idiot. I did not notice any zooplankton bottles missing which is much more valuable then phytoplankton.
Kris
