jimfish98
Active Member
I stumbled across their name when looking for some euphyllia that would be different and stand out in my tank compared to what the LFS shops and other hobbyists in the area are fragging. Pictures off the bat are eye catching and the pieces are unique for sure. Most of the pieces are kind of small so the price for them becomes more manageable. You will see it clearly posted though when you pick out a piece as it will give an approximate size of the frag you are ordering. After reading a number of reviews praising them, I placed an order for 13 corals, all euphyllia and mostly hammers.
I set a delivery date and two days prior to the shipment going out I already had FedEx tracking information. My package was shipped on time and delivered on time. Everything was nicely packed and there was no damage to any coral and no leaking bags. Every piece came individually bagged and labeled which comes in handy given how so many torches and such look very similar. TIA had also tossed in a free coral with my order which was appreciated. Additionally I have had some vendors who use rubber bands and styrofoam for larger pieces or little condiment cups for smaller frags. TIA uses similar condiment style cups with built in cut outs for holding the frag plug. They are over sized for every piece I got so they were well protected. The only complaint I had for the shipment itself was that it could have used a heat pack. When I opened the box the bags were pretty cold. Flying from TIA to FL they did a detour by Fedex to Indiana. Between the temps up north and the plane/altitude, the heat pack would have eased the shipment a bit.
Coral wise, cleaning took some time for various reasons. All of my new coral get a dip, few coral at a time and each gets removed from the plug it comes on for direct glue to my rock or to a new plug as I am a bit type A trying to limit introducing things to my systems. The size of the frags being small, you have to take your time removing plugs or clipping stems off of plugs. The thin nature of smaller pieces is you can snap the skeleton easily with a bit too much force. I used a razor blade to slice the plug glue for these pieces. Frags and skeleton structure on the plugs were a bit dirty with a bit of stuff coming out in the dips. Nothing pest wise but detritus like waste and some Gracilaria (Red Macroalgae). Took the time to clear that out.
The corals themselves were a bit retracted and likely stress induced and some colors were dull when entered into the tank. A day later and every coral is puffed out and colored up. Of the 14 pieces, almost every one of them was true to color with the pictures online. I think my Indo Golden Suncoin Octospawn actually looks better in my tank than in the pics. Where they don't show true to color is with the corals with more blue tones. TIA notes below photos that the blue spectrum is turned down to 20% on pics which allows other colors to pop more. Its left 2 or three that are not as vibrant, but still look good.
Overall pretty good experience. Read the details before you order so your expectations match reality. These are smaller pieces that are going to take time to grow out. They will not be similar in size to the shops, but your local shops may never carry some of these varieties either. I will try and get a decent video added as I didn't take many pics when unloading all of these and another vendor's order that showed up at the same time.
I set a delivery date and two days prior to the shipment going out I already had FedEx tracking information. My package was shipped on time and delivered on time. Everything was nicely packed and there was no damage to any coral and no leaking bags. Every piece came individually bagged and labeled which comes in handy given how so many torches and such look very similar. TIA had also tossed in a free coral with my order which was appreciated. Additionally I have had some vendors who use rubber bands and styrofoam for larger pieces or little condiment cups for smaller frags. TIA uses similar condiment style cups with built in cut outs for holding the frag plug. They are over sized for every piece I got so they were well protected. The only complaint I had for the shipment itself was that it could have used a heat pack. When I opened the box the bags were pretty cold. Flying from TIA to FL they did a detour by Fedex to Indiana. Between the temps up north and the plane/altitude, the heat pack would have eased the shipment a bit.
Coral wise, cleaning took some time for various reasons. All of my new coral get a dip, few coral at a time and each gets removed from the plug it comes on for direct glue to my rock or to a new plug as I am a bit type A trying to limit introducing things to my systems. The size of the frags being small, you have to take your time removing plugs or clipping stems off of plugs. The thin nature of smaller pieces is you can snap the skeleton easily with a bit too much force. I used a razor blade to slice the plug glue for these pieces. Frags and skeleton structure on the plugs were a bit dirty with a bit of stuff coming out in the dips. Nothing pest wise but detritus like waste and some Gracilaria (Red Macroalgae). Took the time to clear that out.
The corals themselves were a bit retracted and likely stress induced and some colors were dull when entered into the tank. A day later and every coral is puffed out and colored up. Of the 14 pieces, almost every one of them was true to color with the pictures online. I think my Indo Golden Suncoin Octospawn actually looks better in my tank than in the pics. Where they don't show true to color is with the corals with more blue tones. TIA notes below photos that the blue spectrum is turned down to 20% on pics which allows other colors to pop more. Its left 2 or three that are not as vibrant, but still look good.
Overall pretty good experience. Read the details before you order so your expectations match reality. These are smaller pieces that are going to take time to grow out. They will not be similar in size to the shops, but your local shops may never carry some of these varieties either. I will try and get a decent video added as I didn't take many pics when unloading all of these and another vendor's order that showed up at the same time.
