Visited Vivid recently to see if the hype was real... let’s just say I was very disappointed. Saw Coral in full spectrum and blues. The worker had trouble finding the corals I wanted to see because the colors were all off. I miss their 800 when it was MH lit and full of huge colonies.
Has an acro disappointed you?
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mannyhernz
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Filters? You mean like orange polyp lens filters?
Backreefing
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With regards to coloration I tend to look at the rack the frag is sitting in on , and the color of the plug itself to to give clues as if there is tricky lighting going on . Blue lights especially LEDs can trick us into buying a dog instead of a Fox .
DanConnor
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Forget pictures. Buy an old school name- ORA red planet, oregon tort, pearlberry, Tyree pink lemonade; or maybe something newer like SC orange passion or ASD rainbow millie. These are all proven to be awesome corals with generations in captivity.
If that's not enough, find a great seller you can work with and have a conversation about what you like. Seriously, pictures are the worst.
If that's not enough, find a great seller you can work with and have a conversation about what you like. Seriously, pictures are the worst.
My Orange Passion from Cultivated Reef looks better than the picture they have. Not sure what more I can say. 
I tend to wait until someone shows a large acro under white lights so I can see what the real color will be. Tenuis always has fantastic colors, some better than others, and there are a lot of pictures of OP under white light. Brilliant orange, no, but very unique and colorful.
I tend to wait until someone shows a large acro under white lights so I can see what the real color will be. Tenuis always has fantastic colors, some better than others, and there are a lot of pictures of OP under white light. Brilliant orange, no, but very unique and colorful.
I no longer buy any acros from online vendors. Look like diamonds online and you get coal. Doesn’t matter what vendor I get from. I even went to a reputable online guys shop and was very disappointed in what I saw and what his pics looked like.
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Man, I wish I had the money you all have for buying coral from a vendor that you have no idea what you're actually going to get. I know you guys are smart, otherwise you would not be so heavily involved in this hobby. Why are we not supporting our LFS more? Do people just not have an LFS within 50 miles of their house? Your LFS guys can pretty much order whatever you ask for or at least guide you toward a reputable vendor. Seriously people, I am all about convenience, but when you're spending so much money why would you not want to see these things in person and ask questions about them? This is what we do, we RESEARCH as much as possible in order to keep these animals as healthy as we can. I'm thinking it's aquarists' water quality and lighting that is giving these corals the "meh's" and not the original colonies that they're coming from.
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Go ask your LFS if they can get you a Home Wrecker if they can get one what’s the price for it?
If you just want no names corals or ORA Corals which there is nothing wrong with the lfs is fine when you want collection type pieces not to many LFS (unless you are in Florida) are going to be able to get them at the price you can get online.
I have a lot of LFS around me and consider myself very lucky but none of them have the amount of sps I have and even when they do have a “named piece” that I have they want crazy money for it
Backreefing
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My LFS is expensive as hell wants $100 for a single head of frogspawn, $74 for a Oregon blue tort and it’s fake . Once I sold him bunches of pulseing zina , he gave me $5 each store credit, I came back in a week and my old zina was $59 each and half sold . He pumps up so much blue atinic lights you can’t see anything else but blue. Don’t worry because it’s shurly bleached or brown when you get it out the shore . I could go on . That’s why I turned to online .
Actually I have a lfs that has high end corals.. He sells the latest and greatest too and at decent rates.
I know it is not the norm though, we are just lucky.
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This is where I would be scared that(and this is just my dealings with some of my LFS) any tenuis is a Walt Disney or homewrecker for half off!!!
If you have a LFS that sells high end acros for a decent price
1 good for you your very lucky
2 do they sell online? If not I find that odd
3 can they show lineage? This part means nothing for most people but for people who want to sell online it means everything people won’t buy it without some proof it’s a shame but the world we live in
Actually they buy from a very respectable place and collector that is actually known here on R2R very well, I will not mention who that is though... So I have no doubts they are what they say they are.
They actually support a lot of local people. Some of their tank raised fish are from a local place.
Honestly I have been to allot of smaller LFS around the country and they are one of the best.
The only place I have seen better was Menards Reef Dwellers in Chicago that was closed along time ago.
On top of that we also have Boom Corals and Battle corals local even though they do not have store fronts or allow walks in that I know of.. I have known Adam from Battle Corals for a long time, before he was even in business.
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We have one LFS that is only open a few days a week (mostly does maintenance), that is really good with acropora, keeps them well lit under Halides with some XHOs for illumination. This one shop has nice stuff at market price - they do not over charge or under charge. Even they cannot get everything and do not have too much of the super-trendy stuff... have to have the hobbyists do that. Once you get all of the variety that they have, then you have to go elsewhere for more.
There is about 20 other good shops, but they all are windex blue with fragged up mari colonies that are just garbage. Even a middling level SPS aficionado would not be happy with these shops.
It is hard to find a LFS that can do acros really well. Even the highly talked about coastal shops are not as great as you think when you go there... there are hobbyists that are much better.
There is about 20 other good shops, but they all are windex blue with fragged up mari colonies that are just garbage. Even a middling level SPS aficionado would not be happy with these shops.
It is hard to find a LFS that can do acros really well. Even the highly talked about coastal shops are not as great as you think when you go there... there are hobbyists that are much better.
I gotcha. That makes sense to me. I guess it just depends on how willing the LFS folks are willing to do for their loyal clients. It's also just a sign of the times with all of the bans on coral in the indo world. The backwater collectors over there ignore the laws of their own government and we're the ones that are suffering for it. Stuff needs to change over there, quickly.
rickzter01
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You guys are so gullible. I dont blame the new generation of reefers though. If any newbie knew about how difficult it it is to consistently color and keep acros, youd know that those pictures are outrageous. It's not that I dont think it's possible, it's just when I see the stupid price behind it, my "snake oil" flag goes up.
Dont mean to offend anyone or flame anyone, but u the buyers are whom encouraged these guys in the first place. Because u want cotton candy corals to show off on fb. It's the truth for most but not all.
I've posted an acro I still currently own. That picture I included is color balanced. When u saw this acro top down, u could see some of the colors, but not all. Some of the ones that popped were the colors that were more dim from eye. Should I try selling it for 1000.00 1/2" to see who bites? Hahaha.
That frag is dead but I have the og mom ... still hasn't caught up to that frag to this day.
Dont mean to offend anyone or flame anyone, but u the buyers are whom encouraged these guys in the first place. Because u want cotton candy corals to show off on fb. It's the truth for most but not all.
I've posted an acro I still currently own. That picture I included is color balanced. When u saw this acro top down, u could see some of the colors, but not all. Some of the ones that popped were the colors that were more dim from eye. Should I try selling it for 1000.00 1/2" to see who bites? Hahaha.
That frag is dead but I have the og mom ... still hasn't caught up to that frag to this day.
brianspider
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Were you looking at their main display? Some of the signatures are there but most are actually kept in the back.
Brandon needs to be around to take you through those private grow out tanks. And they are the most glorious collections of coral I have ever seen.
I visit Vivid regularly. The corals in person are like the photos. They are the pinnacle of what aquacultured acropora looks like. I see no reason to go anywhere else.
So wait I'm confused...... @Reefnjunkie is @Battlecorals but as a regular user and not the shop? Nice to know when looking for info on SPS. BTW, love the battlebox, and will be buying another very soon!
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