Acan. Frags in the house!

[uniquecorals]

If you are a fan of the Acans, you'll be stoked! We've been growing out some choice Acanthastrea frags for some time now, and they're really starting to look good! And we've got some killer WYSIWYG pieces, too! Always attractive, always colorful, Acans are a great choice for livening up a mixed reef system.

Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

"Green UFO" Bowerbanki
Acanthastrea bowerbanki - Green UFO Bowerbanki

"Goldrush Bowerbanki"
Acanthastrea bowerbanki - Gold Rush Bowerbanki

"Ultra Rainbow" Acan (WYSIWYG Specimen)
Acanthastrea lordhowensis - Ultra Rainbow Acan - 3 Polyp WYSIWYG Specimen

Acanthastrea maxima (WYSIWYG Specimen)
Acanthastrea maxima - Ruby Red Acan - 1.5" WYSIWYG Specimen

Acanthastrea lordhowensis "Grade A Red"
Acanthastrea lordhowensis - Grade A Acanthastrea

These frags and WYSIWYG specimens, along with many others, are available now, so come and get 'em!

Regards,

Scottt

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Never seen a Bowerbanki like that Goldrush! Beautiful pieces!!!

 

[uniquecorals]

Never seen a Bowerbanki like that Goldrush! Beautiful pieces!!!

It freaks me out every time I see it, Kris! It glows!

 

[oceanreefer]

I really like your stuff but it is hard for me to purchase anything because of the blue in the pictures. I understand that it is hard to get good pictures with t5 or LED but when I am looking to buy corals online I look for what looks realistic to me.

 

[revsgirl]

Stunning!

 

[uniquecorals]

I really like your stuff but it is hard for me to purchase anything because of the blue in the pictures. I understand that it is hard to get good pictures with t5 or LED but when I am looking to buy corals online I look for what looks realistic to me.

Hi oceanreefer,

Thanks so much for your honest feedback. We greatly appreciate it and are right there with you on the subject of colors in photos. When we first started, photography was one o the things that literally kept us up at night- still does. We try very hard to provide the most accurate portrayals of our coral that are possible. I personally, am in complete agreement that there is just too much of the absurdly blue-shifted, highly oversaturated, excessively post produced photography on websites all over the industry. As a lifelong hobbyist, consumer, and 6-time MACNA speaker, I told myself that I would not want to tie my reputation to a product or process that I couldn't feel proud of.

We have spent a great deal of time working on the accuracy of our photos, and we truly believe that we are providing photos that are very representative of the actual appearance of the corals when you see them in real life. We illuminate our 29' propagation raceways with 400 watt Radium metal halides on light movers for our "SPS" and clams, and a balanced mix of T5 lighting for our "LPS", softies, and Zoanthids. Our photography is done with minimal post production work, mainly done to sharpen the images and crop to size. We strongly dislike the over saturated colors and excessive blue that you see everywhere these days. We tend to use measures such as the color of the frag plug, etc. as color gauges. When we start seeing blue frag plug, we know something is probably not right!

When we first started our company and website, we employed photography that, although crisp and sharp, was shot against a very bland white sand background, with a bit of overexposure, producing a rather washed out appearance that, according to most everyone we talked to, did not do our corals justice. In fact, we frequently received feedback from customers that our corals were WAY more colorful in person than they were in our website, and that we were doing our business- and our customers- a disservice by not portraying them more accurately. ("Awaken your corals from their haze", one customer admonished us. "They are far to beautiful in person to be trapped by bland photography.") We thought we were right on, so we were a bit taken aback!

With this customer feedback, and consultation with photography and other industry professionals, we decided to shoot our corals against dark backgrounds. Lo and behold, our corals really began to pop. The colors were richer and far more accurate than before. We keep post production to a bare minimum (mainly just to crop, size, and sharpen the images), and avoid crazy color manipulation/saturation at all cost. The result has been a higher level of positive feedback from our customers, who feel that the colors are more accurate than previously presented.

Regardless, we're still never completely satisfied, and we'd be dishonest if we said that we were 100% thrilled. We are quite happy with the progress an level of the photo work thus far. There is room for improvement everywhere, although we feel pretty good about our pics these days. We're going to continue to work on the photography, as well as every level of our customer service, to assure that everyone who does business with Unique has the best possible experience. There is so much to do to build a company and a brand that customers feel comfortable doing business with. I am so thrilled that you are providing honest and straightforward feedback. That is the purpose of this forum. Although we spend a lot of time posting stuff that we are offering for sale, the best part about this forum is the opportunity to receive honest feedback like yours from our customers-our friends- so that we can improve every level of our business. Never hesitate to contact us via this forum with questions, concerns, criticisms, or even the occasional compliment if we earn it! We value everyone's input, and vow to take every criticism into consideration to help make us your go-to company for boutique reef livestock.

Thank you once again for your helpful feedback! Please feel comfortable to give us a try. I believe that you will not be disappointed.

Regards,

Scott Fellman
Unique Corals

 

[buddythelion]

If you are a fan of the Acans, you'll be stoked! We've been growing out some choice Acanthastrea frags for some time now, and they're really starting to look good! And we've got some killer WYSIWYG pieces, too! Always attractive, always colorful, Acans are a great choice for livening up a mixed reef system.

Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

"Ultra Rainbow" Acan (WYSIWYG Specimen)
Acanthastrea lordhowensis - Ultra Rainbow Acan - 3 Polyp WYSIWYG Specimen

Really dig this acan! Is that a ruby red with orange? How long have it's been under your care and under what lights? The left of it also looks a tad damaged.

 

[uniquecorals]

Really dig this acan! Is that a ruby red with orange? How long have it's been under your care and under what lights? The left of it also looks a tad damaged.

Hi buddy,

Yes, the "Ultra Rainbow" (Omigod I swore I'd never get inot the "name game", but we need them for reference, right? LOL) is really that deep ruby red with an orange rim. It's pretty cool looking and catches your eye from far away. We've had this specimen under our care for about a month, under a balanced mix of T5, with good water movement (we employ gyre flow in our 29 foot raceways). The photo does make it look like one side is damaged, but it definitely is not. I'll check once again when I get back to the facility, but it is in very good shape, ot the best of my recollection. We're pretty fanattical about NOT selling anything that is not in a condition that we'd accept for our own aquarium, so you can rest assured that we don't offer "scratch and dent" on our site! If it's not in top condition, it gets yanked from the inventory until it is!

Anyways, it's a really great looking coral. Just let me know if you have any further questions!

Regards,

Scott

 

[buddythelion]

Thanks for the response! It's gorgeous for sure. I'm still unsure as to how long, as in how long has the colony been with uniquecorals for? Or is the month mentioned how long the frag been healed? It's just that a lot of acans morph when brought into captivity and I would hate to see that gorgeous red disappear, as dark red is my favorite color!

 

[nmouncey]

As a Graphic Designer and Photographer who shoots product photography regularly....and knows color manipulation when I see it....I feel pretty comfortable saying your images DO NOT strike me as being pushed past realistically shot color. While they are very deep and rich colors, there is no weird color fringing that happens. Color that is pushed too far starts to break up at the edges often. I see crisp color all the way through.

Your mention of shooting on a dark background is right on target. The images I shoot in my tank vary greatly depending on if they are on the light sand bed of my reef tank or the solid black of my frag tank bottom.

Two things you may want to consider to help peoples eyes take in so much rich color that they may associate with forced color, and you mentioned one of them...showing some of a frag plug lets people see the natural white or purple coloring...and gives the eye something to compare the corals color to that their eye recognizes. We know what a frag plug should look like. So seeing one in the image....and that it is not blue tinged...is a nice reminder that we are in true color. And the other is I noticed the backgrounds behind your images while all dark...are different shades of dark and light blue. Seeing a uniform color behind the coral would go a long way towards showing exactly that...that we are seeing consistent color and not backgrounds that vary based on something being manipulated. It might not be possible due to you lighting the corals with different things? But it could help.

I think the main thing for people to remember when buying corals is that if a seller is changing the colors of the corals in their images...eventually they will get a reputation for that. If enough people open their boxes of coral and say "HEY...this is not what I saw on the web site!!!" then that seller will become known for that and lose business. It has a way of taking care of itself : )

But to my eye....it looks like people should just be totally psyched about the coral they are seeing at Unique.

N

 

[uniquecorals]

Thanks for the response! It's gorgeous for sure. I'm still unsure as to how long, as in how long has the colony been with uniquecorals for? Or is the month mentioned how long the frag been healed? It's just that a lot of acans morph when brought into captivity and I would hate to see that gorgeous red disappear, as dark red is my favorite color!

Sorry for the confusion, buddy! We've actually had this specimen in house for a little over a month, and it's color is every bit as rich s it was when it arrived! If you have an iPhone, you can always call me and I can "walk the raceways" with you and we can look at the coral together (that's always fun!). . It's really nice!

 

[uniquecorals]

As a Graphic Designer and Photographer who shoots product photography regularly....and knows color manipulation when I see it....I feel pretty comfortable saying your images DO NOT strike me as being pushed past realistically shot color. While they are very deep and rich colors, there is no weird color fringing that happens. Color that is pushed too far starts to break up at the edges often. I see crisp color all the way through.

Your mention of shooting on a dark background is right on target. The images I shoot in my tank vary greatly depending on if they are on the light sand bed of my reef tank or the solid black of my frag tank bottom.

Two things you may want to consider to help peoples eyes take in so much rich color that they may associate with forced color, and you mentioned one of them...showing some of a frag plug lets people see the natural white or purple coloring...and gives the eye something to compare the corals color to that their eye recognizes. We know what a frag plug should look like. So seeing one in the image....and that it is not blue tinged...is a nice reminder that we are in true color. And the other is I noticed the backgrounds behind your images while all dark...are different shades of dark and light blue. Seeing a uniform color behind the coral would go a long way towards showing exactly that...that we are seeing consistent color and not backgrounds that vary based on something being manipulated. It might not be possible due to you lighting the corals with different things? But it could help.

I think the main thing for people to remember when buying corals is that if a seller is changing the colors of the corals in their images...eventually they will get a reputation for that. If enough people open their boxes of coral and say "HEY...this is not what I saw on the web site!!!" then that seller will become known for that and lose business. It has a way of taking care of itself : )

But to my eye....it looks like people should just be totally psyched about the coral they are seeing at Unique.

N

nmouncey,

Thanks so much for the kind words, suggestions, and good advice! Glad you recognize that we are trying to "do the right thing" with colors. It's just so important for us and our customers. We promise to keep refining and perfecting our photos, and we are grateful for feedback! We are really excited about the colors that we are getting with our corals. We'd like to think that its a combination of good care and good selection (and maybe some luck!). Regardless, visitors to our facility are always pretty complimentary about our inventory, so we think that were on to something! Thanks again!

Scott

 

[buddythelion]

Sorry for the confusion, buddy! We've actually had this specimen in house for a little over a month, and it's color is every bit as rich s it was when it arrived! If you have an iPhone, you can always call me and I can "walk the raceways" with you and we can look at the coral together (that's always fun!). . It's really nice!

Whoah... way cool. I think I need an iphone now just to cherry pick corals!

 

[oceanreefer]

Hi oceanreefer,

Thanks so much for your honest feedback. We greatly appreciate it and are right there with you on the subject of colors in photos. When we first started, photography was one o the things that literally kept us up at night- still does. We try very hard to provide the most accurate portrayals of our coral that are possible. I personally, am in complete agreement that there is just too much of the absurdly blue-shifted, highly oversaturated, excessively post produced photography on websites all over the industry. As a lifelong hobbyist, consumer, and 6-time MACNA speaker, I told myself that I would not want to tie my reputation to a product or process that I couldn't feel proud of.

We have spent a great deal of time working on the accuracy of our photos, and we truly believe that we are providing photos that are very representative of the actual appearance of the corals when you see them in real life. We illuminate our 29' propagation raceways with 400 watt Radium metal halides on light movers for our "SPS" and clams, and a balanced mix of T5 lighting for our "LPS", softies, and Zoanthids. Our photography is done with minimal post production work, mainly done to sharpen the images and crop to size. We strongly dislike the over saturated colors and excessive blue that you see everywhere these days. We tend to use measures such as the color of the frag plug, etc. as color gauges. When we start seeing blue frag plug, we know something is probably not right!

When we first started our company and website, we employed photography that, although crisp and sharp, was shot against a very bland white sand background, with a bit of overexposure, producing a rather washed out appearance that, according to most everyone we talked to, did not do our corals justice. In fact, we frequently received feedback from customers that our corals were WAY more colorful in person than they were in our website, and that we were doing our business- and our customers- a disservice by not portraying them more accurately. ("Awaken your corals from their haze", one customer admonished us. "They are far to beautiful in person to be trapped by bland photography.") We thought we were right on, so we were a bit taken aback!

With this customer feedback, and consultation with photography and other industry professionals, we decided to shoot our corals against dark backgrounds. Lo and behold, our corals really began to pop. The colors were richer and far more accurate than before. We keep post production to a bare minimum (mainly just to crop, size, and sharpen the images), and avoid crazy color manipulation/saturation at all cost. The result has been a higher level of positive feedback from our customers, who feel that the colors are more accurate than previously presented.

Regardless, we're still never completely satisfied, and we'd be dishonest if we said that we were 100% thrilled. We are quite happy with the progress an level of the photo work thus far. There is room for improvement everywhere, although we feel pretty good about our pics these days. We're going to continue to work on the photography, as well as every level of our customer service, to assure that everyone who does business with Unique has the best possible experience. There is so much to do to build a company and a brand that customers feel comfortable doing business with. I am so thrilled that you are providing honest and straightforward feedback. That is the purpose of this forum. Although we spend a lot of time posting stuff that we are offering for sale, the best part about this forum is the opportunity to receive honest feedback like yours from our customers-our friends- so that we can improve every level of our business. Never hesitate to contact us via this forum with questions, concerns, criticisms, or even the occasional compliment if we earn it! We value everyone's input, and vow to take every criticism into consideration to help make us your go-to company for boutique reef livestock.

Thank you once again for your helpful feedback! Please feel comfortable to give us a try. I believe that you will not be disappointed.

Regards,

Scott Fellman
Unique Corals

I really appreciate your thoughtful response. And I definitely feel more comfortable about making a purchase. Thanks

 

[CookieJar]

I got a nice Acan from Unique Corals back in March at the Orange county show (forget name) and the picture of it on the Unique Corals website matches the colors and look of it in my tank. So I have confidence their pics are representative, I likeded what I saw in this thread & as well as other pieces on their website and pulled the trigger- now i'm just looking forward to receiving them.

 

[uniquecorals]

Thanks again everyone. We promise to continuously improve and do our best to make our company your trusted source for livestock. With all of the press we have been receiving, there is a high expectation for us to excel. This is only surpassed by our own expectations, so look for continued improvements to give everyone an even better customer experience!

We truly appreciate your support, encouragement, suggestions, and constructive criticism!

-Scott & Joe