Tidal Gardens

[TTown918]

This is just a curiousity of mine, and is not a slight at all (TD seems to be a great vendor, well regarded, and I was pleased with my one order last year) -- but, given the size/scale/quality of the TD operations, why does TD always seem to have such a very narrow and limited selection and quantity of SPS corals for sale at any point in time (relative to other vendors)? I'm speaking only as to SPS acropora (yes, there many other corals for sale). Any thoughts?

 

[PhishEDELIC]

You’d think that they are a large facility but in reality it takes an enormous amount of space to satisfy a market like corals. I’ve watched YouTube videos of their greenhouse in OH. Compared someone like ORA they are like a mom and pop shop. They also grow all their corals under light fixtures while someone like ORA in FL can actually use the sun to grow corals.

 

[Waters]

They have just recently started moving into acros. They have kept predominately LPS in the past. The last time I was there (and talked with Than) he mentioned they had a hard time keeping acros, and until the new facility was built they could not reliably keep them (greenhouse offered difficulties due to the changing seasons in Ohio). I know the new facility has been there for a while now but they still don't dedicate a lot of space to SPS.

 

[TTown918]

They have just recently started moving into acros. They have keep predominately LPS in the past. The last time I was there (and talked with Than) he mentioned they had a hard time keeping acros, and until the new facility was built they could not reliably keep them (greenhouse offered difficulties due to the changing seasons in Ohio). I know the new facility has been there for a while now but they still don't dedicate a lot of space to SPS.

Interesting.

 

[black dragon designs]

This is just a curiousity of mine, and is not a slight at all (TD seems to be a great vendor, well regarded, and I was pleased with my one order last year) -- but, given the size/scale/quality of the TD operations, why does TD always seem to have such a very narrow and limited selection and quantity of SPS corals for sale at any point in time (relative to other vendors)? I'm speaking only as to SPS acropora (yes, there many other corals for sale). Any thoughts?

I’ve been in that facility quite a bit(15-20x) over the last year so
I primarily keep sps/Acropora so that’s always my main interest
He has several very large tanks that are all Acropora/sps and the last conversation I had with than he told me he doesn’t bring in very many corals at all. They primarily sell what they grow, so if I understood correctly he sold more than he bought last year .they are a farm vs store/wholesaler

And they have started to upgrade/modernize the greenhouse, to be more inline with what the main building is more like
Plus I know not everything is always listed on his website they seem to rotate what’s listed

 

[exnisstech]

Just speculation but they probably ended up growing what they had the most success with and grew the quickest. Some of actual farm type of setups tend to favor a certain type of coral maybe because it's easier to grow one only vs many kind like a mixed reef is more difficult than an acro tank at least for me. Many places that offer everything are not growing many of the coral but just selling them. Adam at Battle corals comes to mind. He offers mostly all SPS and some nice stuff. I imaging trying to propogate LPS and SPS would be challenging.