New Tampa Bay Saltwater Sponsor Forum

[sspargur]

Just ordered my TBS "Package" with Mary this morning. Will post pictures when it's delivered Friday 4/9.

Excited to get some beautiful rock from you Richard!

 

[liverock]

messages

messages

Hi Richard,
Please check your Private Messages on this board.
Thanks,
Steve

Where?:rollface:

 

[liverock]

Re: Re: SBA

Re: Re: SBA

To be honest, I don't know enough about our (FEMA's) Individual and Public Assistance programs to speak with authority on them. I'm on the Mitigation side of the house that deals with grant management and project development to lessen both the hazard potential and effects of hazards (ie. hurricanes) in communities.

It DOES surprise me to hear that FEMA would exempt your activities from disaster assistance. Your aquaculturing is only a part of your business, but it's the part that produces your product, not where you're doing the actual business. Most of your business and distribution is actually coming out of your inland site. If having the live-rock site destroyed put you out of work for a period of time, that could be covered under "unemployment benefits" under FEMA's Individual Assistance program. Though, I also admit, I don't know if that would apply to busniess owners. I'm also not familiar enough with SBA's disaster programs to speak with authority. Though, you also may not WANT any government assistance after a disaster like that if you have the capital and financial steadiness to recover on your own. 90% of the assistance FEMA and SBA gives in times of disaster is of the low-interest loan type, not the grant or 'free money' type. I'd downright bet my life that you make too much to be eligible for the grant type of assistance that FEMA and SBA offer.

Now, if your warehouse and actual business site were damaged or destroyed by a hurricane, there is no question that you'd be eligible for disaster assistance if you're in a County that becomes part of a Federally Declared Disaster or an SBA Disaster. But again, those would be mostly loan-type of assistance that would be available to you get get repairs done and get your business back in operation.

Yes, I'm sure that you've already searched and toiled through all the options and recourses. Let's just hope you don't get hit like that again. *smiles* I also figured it was good information for everyone else reading the thread.

I'm making some calls and working with some people about some of the issues that you've had and I'm seeing what I can do to help you out in these areas. I'm not going to go into details right now or in this forum, as I don't want to get your hopes up or really talk shop in a public forum, but let's talk and discuss how to make your life easier in the future both when you're dealing with governmental and legal issues.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

Thanks so much for the info.....as you said, help from FEMA comes as low apr loans....no freebies.....last year when all the local freshwater fish farmers lost their crops to freezing weather, there was talk of assistance from the feds, to this point I have heard of nobody who got any $$$$........self recovery is the way to go.....if able......
Thanks!
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com :rollface:

 

[kaiyokanman28]

Re: Re: Re: SBA

Re: Re: Re: SBA

Thanks so much for the info.....as you said, help from FEMA comes as low apr loans....no freebies.....last year when all the local freshwater fish farmers lost their crops to freezing weather, there was talk of assistance from the feds, to this point I have heard of nobody who got any $$$$........self recovery is the way to go.....if able......
Thanks!
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com :rollface:

Freshwater fish farmers as in fish for eating or fish to be sold for aquariums? If it's the former, that would be covered under the USDA programs. If it's the latter, it would be covered under SBA and FEMA programs. But ONLY if there was a federally declared disaster. In the case of crop loss, that's not something that FEMA or SBA would be involved with if it was limited to that kind of loss. Though absolutely devastating to the fish farmers... (I always love it when I'm interviewed by the media in the field and asked the question 'Is this the worst disaster you've ever seen?' It's a rare reporter that seems to understand that they're talking to someone who's seen things like Puerto Rico being devastated and the Towers in NYC go down and a tornado knocking down a couple of houses in Ohio isn't exactly Armageddon...but it certainly is for the people who owned those couple of houses, but I digress ) ...who lost their entire crops, it wouldn't have had a significant effect on the County as a whole and the infrastructure for the Governor to call us in. So, no, it doesn't surprise me when you tell me that they haven't received any money that you're aware of.

Just like you're mitigating damage to wild reefs by aquaculturing live rock, I always like to see damage mitigated either completely or at least to the point where people can recover from disasters on their own without assistance. That's actually, the good part of the job...seeing that kind of thing.

*laughs* So...think we've irked enough people yet by taking things so far off topic? Like I said, once I get some more information, I'll email you some of the details, maybe make your life a little easier.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program...

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[kaiyokanman28]

Re: SBA

Re: SBA

I thought the rock had been blown away, but after about 6 months, when the sand receeded, bingo, it was all still there......which makes sence as the ballast piles from the spanish galleons which sank over 300 years ago are still in the same place. Our site is surrouned by ancient shipwrecks, one just a hundred yards from out site......

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com
:rollface:

Just a curiousity question, what sort of reefs have those wrecks turned into? Are you, as in you personally, permitted to collect critters from those wrecks, or does that fall under the 'no collecting from wild reefs' thing?

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[liverock]

They are now just ballast rock piles, as the ships were wood......but there is still gold and silver to be had......but they are all leased out......since the 60"s......
Richard TBS:rollface:

 

[SPC]

Re: messages

Re: messages

Where?:rollface:

Go to My RC, you can find the private messages you have received there Richard. Heck, you may have a message there from someone wanting to order a million dollars worth of LR:lol: .
Steve

 

[kaiyokanman28]

quote:
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For TBS rock I would have the tank cycled if possible
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I also agree with this statement. You really should not be trying to cycle the tank with live rock with the kind of life you get from TBS. I would just get some decent live rock from a decent distributor and let it cycle the tank. then you can add additional pieces later with the more diverse life on it. Like I said before the true best way to get maximum diversity is to get your rock and sand at different times from different vendors.

Okay, I was just reading another thread...and obviously, you're talked about a great deal, Richard...this is a good thing, and I've heard nothing but good things...But this one somewhat has me worried.

I was planning on STARTING my first tank with TBS LR, and this has me concerned. I know that you do your 'The Package' deals in two separate shipments. Does the first shipment that is not coral rich work just fine for first-time tank cycling? I'm figuring that 'The Package' is set up EXACTLY for this kind of first-time tank set-up...but have you run into these kind of problems with first-time cyclings, higher die-off rates and longer cycling times because of the water changes?

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[liverock]

Not to worry we have thousands of Packages world wide.....read the testimonials, you can get a better understanding of what our customers do with the Package..

I am off to the Keys again Monday...back thurs-Friday.
Thanks
Richard TBS:rollface: