Step 2, pay the maid after she has made up your mind.
Just kidding.
It is a big investment to do right and unless you are well known and respected by your peers the chances of you being successful are slim.
Chances are slim to begin with. For someone to be able to make money as a "coral farmer" requires one or both of two things:
1. VERY LARGE QUANTITIES of frags and a distribution channel to sell them through.
2. Respectable quantities of a VERY LARGE SELECTION of frags.
If you are producing 30-50 different corals and have 10 frags of each at any given time, they are healthy, have grown out a bit and you are a good guy, you MAY be able to make a "little" money on it after you have paid your electric bill, refilled your CO2 tank for your calcium reactor and paid for the salt for your water changes.
Thanks everyone for the motivation and very supporting words lol. I know it takes money to make money. So if anyone wants to send me some old equipment ill be more then happy. I still need lights and power heads. Like I say in the start I'm doing this so I can give small frags to people that are new to the reef world. I would also sell larger frags to people for low prices.
Most of the members here on MR and other sites would most likely recommend asking these questions BEFORE ordering something. Not sure what purpose anyone's opinion of the lights would serve you now.
250W MH and 4 T5 bulbs on 8"h tank is way to much light. The reason most frag tanks are so shallow is so you can use less light and save money. I would just run the T5s alone on that fixture. For $150 you could have bought a used Kesil or 120W chinese led light and not had the bulb replacement costs or the higher electrical costs of the fixture you bought.
sps? go with either metal halides or high end super expensive LEDs like radions or vegas. either way, overhead costs will be off the rocker with coral farming.