Growing large amounts of plants.

[Zefrik]

I know that it is probably a uneducated desire but I have been thinking about starting a side business growing plants for the aquarium hobby. I work at a local pet shop now two days a week cleaning all of the 100 something aquariums. Throughout this time I have compiled a moderate amount of plants and other aquarium supplies. I started an emerged plant tank in November of last year. It was an empty 10 gallon that I threw some soil and sand into. I just took trimmings and clippings from my planted tanks and threw them in and watched them grow. Well I started to see the ability to grow plants without worrying about algae and co2. I really got into the idea of "farming" plants that I could use at a later time in my other aquariums. And then when I was setting up my new tank I bought 3 pots of h. callitrichoides, I had more than enough so I put the other pot into my 10 gallon emerged to save for later. I bought these in 2 inch pots for around $3.50 a piece. That's when I started thinking that I could use emerged plants to get a little extra money. I then got excited and grabbed all of my empty aquariums a set them up in the basement on storage racks. I grabbed some cfl's to mount over the tanks threw more substrate in and went and trimmed all of my plants. I planted a 55 gallon to the point you could not see the bottom of the tank. I misted the plants with water from my aquariums and left them there for about a month. Every day I would flip on the lights along with my aquarium lights and mist the plants. After that month I had a good amount of healthy plants. I was able to harvest a lot of them to use again in my aquariums. I was running out of space because they where growing so fast. I then setup a 40b I had gotten for no reason during petco's dollar a gallon sale. So now that is where I am today. I have two tanks full of plants. I am not wanting to start to get rid of them yet because I am wanting to make a large stockpile so to speak. And that is why I am posting this. I am going to be moving in a few months, June probably, and I have a room in the basement of the new house that is about 10x15 feet. I am wanting to continue to expand my plant collection while still having a part time job. I am want to get some stuff from my lfs while I still work there because I get a nice discount. I don't want to sink a lot of money into this though. I have been a cheap as possible. I have 2 40b's that I am going to use as well as the 55 gallon. Next dollar a gallon sale I will probably get one more 55 gallon. I just went out to walmart today and got a shop light to use over my 55 so I could replace my cfl's that where all over the place. I also know for anything like this to be successful I need to be bring in more money than I put out, but that is why I still have my job. I am just kind of stocking up little by little. I know I also need to take into consideration of where I would sell all these plants, how much electricity is being consumed and how much space is available. Sorry if that was too long but I just wanted people to give me some ideas or advice.