A view from inside the World Wide Corals store in Orlando, Florida.
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Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives courtesy of World Wide Corals, ©2018 All Rights Reserved.

We thought it would be interesting for our readers to take a closer look at our sponsors. So, we’re going to profile them and help you get to know them a bit better. We value our sponsors immensely, and it can be revealing to get to know them behind the scenes.

We’ll start with World Wide Corals, also known as WWC on the forum. World Wide Corals has their own subforum on Reef2Reef. They have an extensive website, a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and ebay. WWC sells aqua-cultured corals and some inverts.

Some things worth noting about WWC: website purchases have a 10-day guarantee, WWC ships to the lower 48 states plus Alaska only, and at the bottom of each web page, you’ll see there are no less than 11 different ways you can pay for your purchases, which is a bit unusual. WWC also has a subscription club with which you can receive monthly packages.

World Wide Corals Subscription Club
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Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives courtesy of World Wide Corals, ©2018 All Rights Reserved.
I spoke to Chris Turnier, Manager of the WWC Web Department, and I asked him some questions. If you sniff around, you’ll find that Chris has quite a web presence himself, because he’s a professional photographer and not only an expert on coral husbandry and propagation but also on aquatic photography. It clearly doesn't do a business any harm having a professional photographer on staff. I’ll put some links at the bottom of the article if you want to see some references to Chris on the web.

Zoanthids
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Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives courtesy of World Wide Corals, ©2018 All Rights Reserved.
In any case, here’s what Chris had to say in his own words about WWC:

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How did your business get started? How long has the business been around?

World Wide Corals started in a garage in 2006, so we are into our 12th year.

Do you have a brick and mortar store or are you just online?

We have both! Our present brick and mortar store opened in 2008 and we started shipping corals from our online store soon after. [The brick and mortar store is in Orlando, Florida.]

We also have a fully established service and maintenance department servicing Central Florida and beyond.

Do you have more than one brick and mortar location?

Currently we only have the one brick and mortar retail location. We also have a 3,500 square foot farm at another location close by.

How many employees do you have?

39

Where do you ship to?

All over the continental United States. [plus Alaska.]

How many corals and coral frags do you have at any given time?

We have right around 40,000 frags in total.

How many mother colonies do you have that are NOT FOR SALE?

Too many to count! Well over 1200...

What methods do you find work best to achieve maximum color and growth in your SPS corals?

Sterile systems are out! Simplicity is the key. The main thing we do is to feed once per hour.


We also test everything weekly if not biweekly and keep many of our levels up through adding additives in our weekly water changes. Search our threads right here on Reef2Reef.com for our exact parameters and processes.

How is the recent Indonesian and Fijian ban affecting how you do business?

It hasn't slowed us down much at all as what we farm makes up a huge percentage of our sales. We did have to adjust a bit by purchasing more colonies from Australia to supplement that part of our business.

What are you most proud of in your business?

Being as helpful as possible to vendors and customers alike. This in turn helps expand the reefing community via our transparency.

Are there areas in your business where you plan to expand or evolve?

We are currently going through a massive build out! Everything is expanding! Retail, Online and Service and Maintenance are moving into a facility that is over 12,000 square feet.

What advice would you give to beginning saltwater aquarists?

Start slowly and do not rush it! The biggest downfall of a beginning aquarist is to place corals into a reef too soon! Education and early success is key, so start with easy corals and do your research!

In closing, is there anything special you would like the public to know about your business?

We are in this for the long haul. We are here to aquaculture every piece of coral we can get our hands on. We are here to help the reefs of the world by taking the pressure off of them and to give whatever success we have growing these corals to anyone who wants to learn. Search for us on YouTube for our video collaboration series with Bulk Reef Supply where we break down everything we do and why.

Further Reading:

3 Ways to Spot a Photoshopped Coral.

Bangor Daily News.

Some photos by Chris Turnier in “Aquarium Trade in the Pacific,” a science bulletin put out by sprep.org.

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We encourage all our readers to join the Reef2Reef forum. It’s easy to register, free, and reefkeeping is much easier and more fun in a community of fellow aquarists. We pride ourselves on a warm and family-friendly forum where everyone is welcome. You will also find lots of contests and giveaways with our sponsors.

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Author Profile: Cynthia White

Cynthia received her BA in English from NYU a long time ago. She has been a freelance writer and editor for over 20 years. Her portfolio can be found here. Now she is a writer and editor on staff at R2R, where her forum nickname is Seawitch.

For 15 years, she kept a dozen freshwater tanks, bred cichlids--Cyphotilapia frontosa--and sold them to pet stores in Calgary. Finally, after years of study, she has come to saltwater side. She lives in British Columbia, Canada, with her husband and three special-needs dogs, a five-minute walk from the Georgia Strait.