Company Name: Reefkoi Corals
Website: www.reefkoi.com
Human Contact: Chris Bueschel
Headquarters Located: Peyton, Colorado
Favorite Fish: Anglers
Favorite Corals: Goniopora and Fungia
Chris Bueschel is the owner of Reefkoi Corals. I have met him through the hobby at various trade shows and have worked with him on the logo for his company and various projects for his booth advertising. He is a genuine guy, always up front and kind in our dealings.
Chris started out this coral adventure as the owner of an excavating company working with sewer and water lines. He started in the hobby about 18 years ago. Twelve years ago he set up a 180 gallon tank and ran it until he upgraded to a 600 gallon display tank in August of 2000. In the Spring of 2008 Chris started Reefkoi Corals by fragging his own corals out of his 600 gallon display tank. He had a small yahoo website for posting pictures of his corals where people could call him or email him to make a purchase.
The demand for Reefkois' frags was great enough that he decided to expand from just fragging his 600 gallon, to a complete setup dedicated to coral grow out. He built a 8'x8' fish room in his garage to house his new 220 gallon 4'x4'x2' frag tank. Lit by a 400w metal halide bulb and packing a decent skimmer and refugium, he worked part-time at this budding business of his.
Shortly after, he took his business from the internet and ventured into trade shows. Currently you'll find Chris and his amazing stock of corals at over 20 shows all over the US every year. When asked which shows he chooses to attend, Chris answered, "I sometimes pick a random location that I know there is a need for good quality corals, and other times I pick locations where I know I can have fun. For example, I just went to New York last weekend, and I go to the Southern California shows every year because I love it down there." In June of 2009 he finally upgraded his website to be a true e-commerce store where he could sell his corals to people all over the US.
In November 2009, he tore out the existing fish room and upgraded the structure to take over 90% of his garage. At a whopping 22'x 12' he was able to add in an additional 600 gallons of tank into the room. He plumbed three 4'x8'x1' tanks into one sump for even more coral space. At this point in time he started with some shipments of corals in from the wholesalers in Los Angeles, CA and trans-shipments to add variety to his broad stock. He's since scaled back on shipments greatly and focuses his efforts on growing out his current livestock for sale. He said, "...ideally I would like to keep coral sales to 80% of my aqua-cultured corals and 20% of wild caught corals to just add variety to what I am offering."
His coral care procedures are commendable. He dips all his corals in CoralRX and has no known pests in his tanks. He searches his tanks daily for signs of any newly introduced pests or parasites. After fragging, on average he lets his chalices and acros heal about a month (preferably 2-3 months) before he puts them for sale. He said that his acros are usually growing down to the frag rack before he sells them. Chris uses a wet band saw with a diamond blade to cut 95% of his corals so the cut is super clean and heals easier with less stress to the animal.
When asked what his mission is for this business, Chris responded, "First I like to keep it affordable for people. I like updating my $20 section and keeping nice stuff in there. I also like having the rarer stuff on hand but I don't want to be so exclusive that it becomes unaffordable for most people."
In January 2010 Chris stopped his excavating business and went full-time with ReefKoi. For his first year in full-time business things are going well. He is still learning things about refining shipping and better methods for handling customers, but things are getting better and better by the day. This summer Chris launched his own line of LED lighting, Evolution LED Lights and plans to expand it further with new developments and designs.
Chris will be at Reef-A-Palooza in Costa Mesa, CA and at the Mountain West Reef Fest in the coming month. If you plan on coming to either of those events be sure to stop and say hello and tell him you read about him on Reef Addicts. And if you do go, be sure to go home with one of his home-grown coral frags on the exclusive "hex disk" made for him by Boston Aqua Farms. Be sure to browse his website at www.reefkoi.com
Reefkoi, Reef Addicts thanks you for your friendship and support of this site and the great addition you make to the saltwater industry.
You can also see Chris talk a little more about his company on his recent On Location interview at Reef-A-Palooza
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