Best sps frag vendors

[justingraham]

Unless you can afford $200+ per frag, you'll need to stick to forum members and locals to buy from. You'll find many people here selling these high end frags for way way less than the source.

Matt

That's not true for a little more then the 200 dollars u say from Adam at battle corals I got 8 frags and free shipping. Don't go off his site talk to him on here and he will work with you by far the best business to deal with.

All my frags were well over an inch not freshly cut and glued and I priced out everything I got in my two battle boxes and it came out to double what I payed for them.

Adam is the man also @aquavista99 has the real deal frags and is pleasant to work with as well.

 

[bif24701]

Let me break it down.

Find a vendor that has been around and with a reputation (positive).

They will have aquaculture acros that are more likely to thrive.

Otherwise you risk your money IMHO.

 

[Mattrg02]

That's not true for a little more then the 200 dollars u say from Adam at battle corals I got 8 frags and free shipping. Don't go off his site talk to him on here and he will work with you by far the best business to deal with.

All my frags were well over an inch not freshly cut and glued and I priced out everything I got in my two battle boxes and it came out to double what I payed for them.

Adam is the man also @aquavista99 has the real deal frags and is pleasant to work with as well.

Sure, if you are after some pocilepora and some birds nests caliber corsls.

Again, my point is, that great deals can be had, right here, from our own members. I've seen the killer frags go for much less than the coral houses they all came from.

Heck, just post in the Wanted section and have several people offer you great deals on well known gems.

I'm not saying that BC and the rest have lesser corals, or that someone shouldn't give them business, I'm saying that better deals can be had here on our forum.

 

[bif24701]

Sure, if you are after some pocilepora and some birds nests caliber corsls.

Again, my point is, that great deals can be had, right here, from our own members. I've seen the killer frags go for much less than the coral houses they all came from.

Heck, just post in the Wanted section and have several people offer you great deals on well known gems.

I'm not saying that BC and the rest have lesser corals, or that someone shouldn't give them business, I'm saying that better deals can be had here on our forum.

Umm, can't agree there.

Well know vendors are great places to buy high quality ACROS.

They are aquacultured and primed to give you success. Though I'm sure persons can be found all over the place, a tried and true vendor is better option to newer reefers.

My experience says go with what works when getting started. Then try to reach out if you wish.

You won't be disappointed when going with any off the well know vendors, there is just more piece of mind.

 

[Mattrg02]

Umm, can't agree there.

Well know vendors are great places to buy high quality ACROS.

They are aquacultured and primed to give you success. Though I'm sure persons can be found all over the place, a tried and true vendor is better option to newer reefers.

My experience says go with what works when getting started. Then try to reach out if you wish.

You won't be disappointed when going with any off the well know vendors, there is just more piece of mind.

We just disagree on what "high quality" is, that's all.

Cheers.

 

[agent462]

There are lots of great vendors, many listed here and great individuals you can buy from too. There are very few I disagree with in this thread and I've bought from many of the vendors brought up. Here is the thing...and why you keep seeing Adam from Battle Corals being brought up.

Adam prides himself on selling aquacultured SPS. His corals will look like the pictures he posts. He's not going to sell you chop shop maricultured sps that looks sweet which will only have one fate and most likely brown or green out. A lot of other vendors are doing a mixture of fresh imports and aquacultured; some are plain chop shops. Unless you know what you're looking for, it's hard to determine, not with Adam. His frags are some of the chunkiest too....

Named pieces are popular and pull price because they are aquacultured vetted. Don't confuse this with chop shop named pieces. I'm talking about tried and true named pieces that are common place in for sale threads. If you can't find the piece being sold by a few people, proceed with caution. I trust very few vendors on "first/new release named" pieces.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[justingraham]

We just disagree on what "high quality" is, that's all.

Cheers.

If high quality is buying a thousand dollar frag from someone for only 800 dollars and only being a 1/4 inch frag cut yesterday in a tank u have no idea what bugs and critters are in I guess we do disagree on what high quality is.

Not all Adams corals are named but the named ones he does have are fairly priced bigger then an inch and are not clipped two hours before they ship. His success rate I bet is one of the best in the business because of his practices and won't come in with a bug that will crash ur display tank.

High quality is a frag that will grow in ur system to a colony not something u buy half off and hope and pray it makes it to u alive. Take a look at my thread all my corals are from Adam besides a couple from aquavista and besides the montis and birds nest (which I asked for as a joke) tell me which ones aren't named high quality ones.
Oregon torts
Upscale microlades
Vivid rainbows
Greg c efflo
Pc rainbows
just to name a few that anybody would love to have that came in well over an inch

So can u find better deals yea sure u can do u know what ur getting is what u asked for? Is the photo dr up to get colors u will never have without light room? And if it isn't will the seller make it right? Does this better deal come in with the plague? Do u have to set up another tank to make sure when u put this great deal in ur tank it doesn't have diseases?

I guess we will have to disagree on what high quality is.

Cause to me it's not about the name of the frag it's ordering and getting what u asked for and knowing it's going to survive and thrive in anything u put it thru not the next 1/4 inch frag of Walt Disney or homewrecker from someone trying to make there money back clipping and shipping and selling u it for 800 instead of 1000.

 

[Mattrg02]

If high quality is buying a thousand dollar frag from someone for only 800 dollars and only being a 1/4 inch frag cut yesterday in a tank u have no idea what bugs and critters are in I guess we do disagree on what high quality is.

Not all Adams corals are named but the named ones he does have are fairly priced bigger then an inch and are not clipped two hours before they ship. His success rate I bet is one of the best in the business because of his practices and won't come in with a bug that will crash ur display tank.

High quality is a frag that will grow in ur system to a colony not something u buy half off and hope and pray it makes it to u alive. Take a look at my thread all my corals are from Adam besides a couple from aquavista and besides the montis and birds nest (which I asked for as a joke) tell me which ones aren't named high quality ones.
Oregon torts
Upscale microlades
Vivid rainbows
Greg c efflo
Pc rainbows
just to name a few that anybody would love to have that came in well over an inch

So can u find better deals yea sure u can do u know what ur getting is what u asked for? Is the photo dr up to get colors u will never have without light room? And if it isn't will the seller make it right? Does this better deal come in with the plague? Do u have to set up another tank to make sure when u put this great deal in ur tank it doesn't have diseases?

I guess we will have to disagree on what high quality is.

Cause to me it's not about the name of the frag it's ordering and getting what u asked for and knowing it's going to survive and thrive in anything u put it thru not the next 1/4 inch frag of Walt Disney or homewrecker from someone trying to make there money back clipping and shipping and selling u it for 800 instead of 1000.

Exaggerate much? How did we get to $1k frags?

Btw-My LFS sells PC rainbow and Pink Lemondade for $20. Id like to see Adam do that. Oh yea, also got my asd rainbow from my LFS for $20 bucks. Same for a nice thick chunk of setosa.

As for bugs and crap on corals sold by people here, I have NEVER gotten a frag that ever had anything bad come off of it.

Keep going to the coral houses. I'll go to the Members here and my LFS. In the end, I get nice corals for less than all of the above named coral houses.

Matt

 

[Salty1962]

Exaggerate much? How did we get to $1k frags?

Btw-My LFS sells PC rainbow and Pink Lemondade for $20. Id like to see Adam do that. Oh yea, also got my asd rainbow from my LFS for $20 bucks. Same for a nice thick chunk of setosa.

As for bugs and crap on corals sold by people here, I have NEVER gotten a frag that ever had anything bad come off of it.

Keep going to the coral houses. I'll go to the Members here and my LFS. In the end, I get nice corals for less than all of the above named coral houses.

Matt

Wow!! Does your LFS ship?:rolleyes:

 

[bif24701]

Exaggerate much? How did we get to $1k frags?

Btw-My LFS sells PC rainbow and Pink Lemondade for $20. Id like to see Adam do that. Oh yea, also got my asd rainbow from my LFS for $20 bucks. Same for a nice thick chunk of setosa.

As for bugs and crap on corals sold by people here, I have NEVER gotten a frag that ever had anything bad come off of it.

Keep going to the coral houses. I'll go to the Members here and my LFS. In the end, I get nice corals for less than all of the above named coral houses.

Matt

I don't see PC rainbow or PL F/S anymore, everyone has them already.

Sure. I go to my clubs for the same corals everyone else has.

For the killer stuff, I'd rather not see in a friends tank, I'll shop BC, WWC, JF, and others. That's just me.

 

[Mattrg02]

I don't see PC rainbow or PL F/S anymore, everyone has them already.

Sure. I go to my clubs for the same corals everyone else has.

For the killer stuff, I'd rather not see in a friends tank, I'll shop BC, WWC, JF, and others. That's just me.

Ok, on that same note, my LFS regularly has WWC coral frags as well. Just bought one yesterday for $20.

My POINT is, is that going directly to the original source is always going to cost you MUCH MORE money! Their "killer" corals also kill many bank accounts.

People on this forum, and my LFS, which apparently is a major outlier, are ones best bet, financially.

Where the heck do you think they get their corals? Most aren't out buying up mariculture colonies and chopping them all up. They either went to the original source or bought from someone who did. Instead of charging the same they paid for , they are charging much less.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

Matt

 

[BoomCorals]

Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. In this hobby what is right for one may be wrong for another. To each their own in my humble opinion.

 

[Battlecorals]

Ok, on that same note, my LFS regularly has WWC coral frags as well. Just bought one yesterday for $20.

My POINT is, is that going directly to the original source is always going to cost you MUCH MORE money! Their "killer" corals also kill many bank accounts.

People on this forum, and my LFS, which apparently is a major outlier, are ones best bet, financially.

Where the heck do you think they get their corals? Most aren't out buying up mariculture colonies and chopping them all up. They either went to the original source or bought from someone who did. Instead of charging the same they paid for , they are charging much less.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

Matt

Exaggerate much? How did we get to $1k frags?

Btw-My LFS sells PC rainbow and Pink Lemondade for $20. Id like to see Adam do that. Oh yea, also got my asd rainbow from my LFS for $20 bucks. Same for a nice thick chunk of setosa.

As for bugs and crap on corals sold by people here, I have NEVER gotten a frag that ever had anything bad come off of it.

Keep going to the coral houses. I'll go to the Members here and my LFS. In the end, I get nice corals for less than all of the above named coral houses.

Matt

Matt,

Hear me out. By your logic, we should let someone else pay the premium, and then buy it from them for less, when they finally have grown out enough to sell. Fair enough. You fully expect a hobbyist, who did pay the premium, and spent a year or so growing that piece out to sell it to you for much less that what they paid; assuming that they are actually selling what they say they are selling. Which is a topic for a whole other discussion. I get it man. I really do. It's relatively easy to seek out "collectible" frags from hobbyist who are willing to make a little extra cash fragging stuff they have grown out. It's also likely that they won't be asking as much as what they paid even. Hobbyist are not business entities, and therefore have little to no expenses by comparison. I was that hobbyist for many years before going all in. Trust me I get it very well, I took advantage of it myself, often scouring the RC classifieds for anything interesting, as opposed to shopping on vendors sites. Guilty and then some.


The flaw is that you're arguing to circumvent the vendor, who is responsible for bringing new coral to the market. If everyone thought as you did, your well of hobbyist suppliers, including your regarded LFS would get dried up pretty quickly, and the thrill of the hunt would fade exponentially, as would enthusiasm. People really want to see new coral, because we inevitably get bored by the same old stuff. This is ultimately what drives the hobby in a lot of ways. See that as a good thing or bad, it is an absolute, and if we remove vendors from the equation, what we are left with is a flea market; hobbyists, trading and selling among hobbyists. Nothing new, people simply selling what they already have. The good news about that scenario, is that in time prices would fall to almost nothing as saturation took hold, but eventually we'd all have the same stuff. Of course I'm sensationalizing a bit here and maybe even a little bit facetious, but I mean no offense in any way, and I hope you see the point I'm trying to make.


I mean I'm with you Matt. I totally get frugality and the want and desire to pay the absolute least amount possible for something, but vilifying the vendors that are the very source of the corals you yourself seek out second hand, is only self defeating at best. Your presumption that buying from vendors will "always" cost you more is simply not true. I can't speak for all vendors and will readily admit that pricing has gotten out of control, but over the years, to address a point you made specifically, I've personally given away free, thousands of dollars worth of PC rainbow, Pink Lemonade, Red Dragon, bah bah bah bah blah, and the list goes on and on. I hope that some day, you'll consider giving me a chance and have me put pack together for you. With any luck you'll be sincerely surprised, refreshed even and maybe enlightened a little, by what you receive, for the money you've spent. Believe me man, I am on your side here.

 

[Abhishek]

Matt,

Hear me out. By your logic, we should let someone else pay the premium, and then buy it from them for less, when they finally have grown out enough to sell. Fair enough. You fully expect a hobbyist, who did pay the premium, and spent a year or so growing that piece out to sell it to you for much less that what they paid; assuming that they are actually selling what they say they are selling. Which is a topic for a whole other discussion. I get it man. I really do. It's relatively easy to seek out "collectible" frags from hobbyist who are willing to make a little extra cash fragging stuff they have grown out. It's also likely that they won't be asking as much as what they paid even. Hobbyist are not business entities, and therefore have little to no expenses by comparison. I was that hobbyist for many years before going all in. Trust me I get it very well, I took advantage of it myself, often scouring the RC classifieds for anything interesting, as opposed to shopping on vendors sites. Guilty and then some.


The flaw is that you're arguing to circumvent the vendor, who is responsible for bringing new coral to the market. If everyone thought as you did, your well of hobbyist suppliers, including your regarded LFS would get dried up pretty quickly, and the thrill of the hunt would fade exponentially, as would enthusiasm. People really want to see new coral, because we inevitably get bored by the same old stuff. This is ultimately what drives the hobby in a lot of ways. See that as a good thing or bad, it is an absolute, and if we remove vendors from the equation, what we are left with is a flea market; hobbyists, trading and selling among hobbyists. Nothing new, people simply selling what they already have. The good news about that scenario, is that in time prices would fall to almost nothing as saturation took hold, but eventually we'd all have the same stuff. Of course I'm sensationalizing a bit here and maybe even a little bit facetious, but I mean no offense in any way, and I hope you see the point I'm trying to make.


I mean I'm with you Matt. I totally get frugality and the want and desire to pay the absolute least amount possible for something, but vilifying the vendors that are the very source of the corals you yourself seek out second hand, is only self defeating at best. Your presumption that buying from vendors will "always" cost you more is simply not true. I can't speak for all vendors and will readily admit that pricing has gotten out of control, but over the years, to address a point you made specifically, I've personally given away free, thousands of dollars worth of PC rainbow, Pink Lemonade, Red Dragon, bah bah bah bah blah, and the list goes on and on. I hope that some day, you'll consider giving me a chance and have me put pack together for you. With any luck you'll be sincerely surprised, refreshed even and maybe enlightened a little, by what you receive, for the money you've spent. Believe me man, I am on your side here.

Well Adam you are downplaying yourself. You have given wayy more rarer ones as free rather than the common Red Dragon, Pink Lemonade and PC Rainbow like the space ghost, wild purple loripes and fire polyp tables.

Simply, I would put my money and pay premium for aquacultured frags by quality vendors knowing that i won't bring in any pests in my tank which is simply not true when you don't know what tank you are getting the frags from tanks I don't know of.
The fear of AEFW , if you ever had the bad luck of getting in your tank , would make you pay the premium.

And the stuffs you get from Adam - most of them you won't see on the market and the 24x7 support is beyond anyone's conceive unless and until you do it.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Mattrg02]

I understand the idea of having overhead and how a coral house, such as Battle Corals, can't sell frags at the price that a hobbyist can.

I'm not knocking the prices, if they can get them, they should, I'm knocking the general idea that they should be our primary source for our frags.

For the same reason that Adam should charge everything that he can, so should we look to get the best price that we can. That's capitalism.

My original comment wasn't meant to say that Adam, or any of the other coral houses, is of poor quality, but that these frags, for he most part, can and should be had from sources that are clearly selling for less.

Competition is a good thing. I'm sure that Adam would drop his prices if he saw his sales slumping. Coming closer to the prices that hobbiest are selling for would be an obvious way to regain sales.

Those $1k frags are $1k frags because they are in short supply and high demand. The only way to bring that price down is to up the supply. Now, if I want a PC Rainbow, I'd have gone this forum and expected to pay $50 or so (now that my LFS sells them for far less, I go there). A few years ago, I'd expect to pay more. If I go to a coral house and see it at $80, we'll, I just see that as rediculous.

Where I became offended was by the comment about how the Members here selling, are selling low quality, chop shopped, pest ridden, frags. That is simply untrue. I took that as an unfair scare tactic, with the coral houses being the ones to benefit from.

Adam, none of this was meant to be directed at you, you were just a name brought up by others. I'm sure that the frags that you sell for "$200" are nice enough.

Matt

 

[Battlecorals]

I understand the idea of having overhead and how a coral house, such as Battle Corals, can't sell frags at the price that a hobbyist can.


Matt

I appreciate the response. Thing is again, what you've presumed about me is not true at all. I can and do sell frags at "hobbyist" prices very often. In fact the majority of my sales are done this way. When I work with people directly on custom packs or grab bags, they generally pay 20.00-49.00 a frag on average tops, and that's for lots of my "high dollar stuff". Are there exceptions, yes and they are solely based on availability, but roughly 80% of my entire catalog is discounted heavily, and there are hundreds of my customers out there that can attest to this.

So I confess, I've looked at a couple of your recent posts, and if you'll allow me to pick on you just a little, please understand that I mean no offense here. You've lauded a 1000.00+ 3 pack of 3/4" frags in the classifieds here on R2R as a "great price". Please explain to me how this is not gouging, or how 300+ a frag is in any way, in your own words "reasonable"? And I am not calling in to question the integrity of your LFS but the reason your new "ASD rainbow" is green, is more than likely because it's not an ASD Rainbow which is exactly the problem with the "free for all" selling of branded or "named pieces". The unfortunate truth is that often you're buying an imposter, and LFS's are probably the most guilty of this one. Again I'm not trying to pick on you too badly here, but a lot of times, the actual vendor is the only place to be sure you're getting what you believe you are paying for.

I appreciate the discussion Matt, and I agree with you on a lot of the points you've made. I understand completely that your argument is not aimed at me directly, but you've made presumptions about me and my business that are not true. Again I'll say, the next time you want to add a few pieces to you tank, allow me to show you how I do things, and truly I believe your convictions may sway.

 

[Mattrg02]

I appreciate the response. Thing is again, what you've presumed about me is not true at all. I can and do sell frags at "hobbyist" prices very often. In fact the majority of my sales are done this way. When I work with people directly on custom packs or grab bags, they generally pay 20.00-49.00 a frag on average tops, and that's for lots of my "high dollar stuff". Are there exceptions, yes and they are solely based on availability, but roughly 80% of my entire catalog is discounted heavily, and there are hundreds of my customers out there that can attest to this.

So I confess, I've looked at a couple of your recent posts, and if you'll allow me to pick on you just a little, please understand that I mean no offense here. You've lauded a 1000.00+ 3 pack of 3/4" frags in the classifieds here on R2R as a "great price". Please explain to me how this is not gouging, or how 300+ a frag is in any way, in your own words "reasonable"? And I am not calling in to question the integrity of your LFS but the reason your new "ASD rainbow" is green, is more than likely because it's not an ASD Rainbow which is exactly the problem with the "free for all" selling of branded or "named pieces". The unfortunate truth is that often you're buying an imposter, and LFS's are probably the most guilty of this one. Again I'm not trying to pick on you too badly here, but a lot of times, the actual vendor is the only place to be sure you're getting what you believe you are paying for.

I appreciate the discussion Matt, and I agree with you on a lot of the points you've made. I understand completely that your argument is not aimed at me directly, but you've made presumptions about me and my business that are not true. Again I'll say, the next time you want to add a few pieces to you tank, allow me to show you how I do things, and truly I believe your convictions may sway.

The $1k frag packs are also for frags that I've see the coral houses selling for $600 per frag. $300 for one of those is major progress towards what "I" can afford.

My asd is definitely an asd rainbow. I saw the mother colony in the LFS tank. Looks identical to what I've seen on the web, maybe even nicer. The other asd rainbow frags that were there when I bought mine are still there and still have the nice coloration as well have been growing.

I'd say my LFS is definitely a rarity out there. He doesn't seem to be a very high volume seller and most people are in there for fish, water, and soft corals.

If he doesn't have a frag ready, he goes into his main display tank and makes one for me.

If you are really selling frags for those prices, I'll definitely hit you up for some that I'm looking for once I figure out what caused my asd to go tan on me.

 

[Battlecorals]

The $1k frag packs are also for frags that I've see the coral houses selling for $600 per frag. $300 for one of those is major progress towards what "I" can afford.

My asd is definitely an asd rainbow. I saw the mother colony in the LFS tank. Looks identical to what I've seen on the web, maybe even nicer. The other asd rainbow frags that were there when I bought mine are still there and still have the nice coloration as well have been growing.

I'd say my LFS is definitely a rarity out there. He doesn't seem to be a very high volume seller and most people are in there for fish, water, and soft corals.

If he doesn't have a frag ready, he goes into his main display tank and makes one for me.

If you are really selling frags for those prices, I'll definitely hit you up for some that I'm looking for once I figure out what caused my asd to go tan on me.

Alright now you're talking my language.:) I'd be more than happy to help you troubleshoot your system and see if we can get to the bottom of any quirks or issues that may be present. Please feel free to shoot me a PM anytime and we can bounce some ideas around. If it's the real ASD, I promise we can get that thing pretty. I sincerely apologize for attacking your LFS. That was a cheap shot to be sure.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

I've personally given away free, thousands of dollars worth of PC rainbow, Pink Lemonade, Red Dragon, bah bah bah bah blah, and the list goes on and on. I hope that some day, you'll consider giving me a chance and have me put pack together for you. With any luck you'll be sincerely surprised, refreshed even and maybe enlightened a little, by what you receive, for the money you've spent. Believe me man, I am on your side here.

I can attest to this.
https://www.reef2reef.com/posts/3864970/
Paid three digits for this grab bag and easily received four's worth.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Brian Dunleavy has legit Frags and great prices... he is out of NJ. Look him up on FB "Official SPS frag Swap" page.

How do I get intouch with this Brian Dunleavy? I am in central NJ so always looking for Locally grown frags