Any tips on acro collection process?

[Charlie the Reefer]

These are awesome tips...! Thank you everyone. Much appreciated.

 

[kenchilada]

Completely agree. It's extremely difficult for acro noobs (speaking for myself) to differentiate between the same (or similar) species vs vendors' marketing and their setup. Let's not forget about their "enhanced" photo-editing techniques - What You See Is Not What You Get! WYSINWYG -- is that a thing?

Question: is there a comprehensive "master" list out there that will let noobs know?

Start out buying frags locally from other reefers. Check facebook and see if you have a local group. Lots of $10 acros to be had that way, and they will usually be big frags and you'll know what they look like in a real tank. Those live sales are for suckers.

 

[kenchilada]

Calcium reactor would have been your friend

On a 30G? I think a 100G sump to increase total water volume would be a better friend to start.

 

[backbayreef]

Start out buying frags locally from other reefers. Check facebook and see if you have a local group. Lots of $10 acros to be had that way, and they will usually be big frags and you'll know what they look like in a real tank. Those live sales are for suckers.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I would like to know if a particular SPS stick marketed by various vendors (and local reefers) are the similar/same. Is there a list somewhere that this community can put together? Something like what @Epic Aquaculture mapped out:
"MC Prom Queen = CC Pink Highlighter, Rainbow Loom = Banana Hammock = ARC Master Yoda, etc."