SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
I meant stop enabling us and tempting us with your collection!
What’s up with SPS
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LARedstickreefer
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I only use white leds to get my par up for a few hours.
That Angry Bird really comes to life. The daylight pictures look like my Cherry Bomb Acro.
The blues make it completely different in a good way.
I see crazy (what I consider crazy) expensive frags all the time. I just choose not to buy them. Each to his own. Folks have a right to charge whatever they want and, conversely, folks have a right to purchase or not.
Rukk
Active Member
I also prefer a slightly less blue tank, and as I am returning from my reef sabbatical prices have become astronomical. I miss the days where torches, frog spawns and hammers where $5 bucks a head. I’m all for someone turning a profit but you can’t tell me the cost to produce a gold tipped torch is several hundred dollars. Anyway not to rant I just wanted to share austinaquafarms.com they seem to be bucking the system.
Check this site out, they seem to use less blue light and I think his prices are reasonable.
Austin Aqua Farms: Buy Coral Online | Live Coral Store
Saltwater Coral store located in Austin, Texas. Our selection includes corals, anemones, clams, and more.www.austinaquafarms.com
I will second a thumbs up for Austin Aqua Farms. Drove up to Austin today from San Antonio and picked up a very nice goni and I would say, relatively speaking, for a decent price. My experience with Matt and his father has been pleasant. They have a nice setup and always have nice pieces. Downside is that their SPS offerings are a work in progress.
They do run some blues when they are open to the public, but in my experience, they will put it under white light if you would like to see it that way. In short, little difference between the pieces in their tanks and then in mine.
I am in the boat with folks who like to deal with Vendors that are practicing reasonable marketing efforts, versus exaggerated efforts. But, a lot of people must like the exaggerated (and possibly misleading) Vendors. Just my opinion, to each his or her own.
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TinyTinCans
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I
I look at coral al the time. Even after I got out of the hobby (because of a move) and now that I’m starting to setup my new system I’ve been full bore shopping and laying out a game plan. Just from my take on it they seem to be the most up front about everything and seem good pricing or at least fair pricing . I also like that they have larger colonies.
It’s funny but I didn’t even realize they where in Texas until I read your post. I just thought the guys name was Austin. For me that is even a greater plus as the transit times should be shorter. I’m glad to hear that they are nice people as well.
I look at coral al the time. Even after I got out of the hobby (because of a move) and now that I’m starting to setup my new system I’ve been full bore shopping and laying out a game plan. Just from my take on it they seem to be the most up front about everything and seem good pricing or at least fair pricing . I also like that they have larger colonies.
It’s funny but I didn’t even realize they where in Texas until I read your post. I just thought the guys name was Austin. For me that is even a greater plus as the transit times should be shorter. I’m glad to hear that they are nice people as well.
Look for local sellers, buy from trusted people here, and hit the swaps and meetings. I was lucky enough to find two locals that have everything from the old school standards to the latest and greatest named pieces, and at great prices.
Nutrients play a small role in coral color. High nutrients develop solid deep color and low develops brighter and lighter colors, as well as brings out more pigments in tips and coralites. Spectrum plays a role in coral colors as well but this is the first time I have heard someone claim it doesn’t. You use white light in your tank so how do you know all blue led light would color your corals the exact same way?
I have seen many friends go back to bulbs instead of leds because they couldn’t get certain colors and certain corals to color up to full potential. I would say if they were running all blue led bulbs then they would have switched way sooner.
I do agree that water conditions help develop certain colors but not that growing corals will look the same under any light.
Let’s say you grow an acro under all blue led bulbs and grow the same one under 10k halides with a bunch of blue led bulbs. Then you take both pieces and look at them under the same light and I bet they will not look the same at all. I think the spectrum part plays a larger role in certain colors like reds and blues for example. Sure acros will grow under all blue LEDs and with great water, some might look really good but 10% of the acros won’t do much without more spectrum.
TinyTinCans
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I finally had some time to read all of the thread again. (6 days a week 12+hrs a day its killing me).
It’s funny how all forums turn into some kind of argument about who is right and who is wrong and it’s like this everywhere from car forums to food forums. Got to love social media!
My last reef and the one I’m currently setting up won’t look like an acid trip or windex for most of the day. So I would love it if the Coral vendor would just do one simple thing. (really it is a simple solution to this problem.) try to represent the coral as it is under different spectrums of light. So a blue picture and a white picture. EASY!!! I think that only makes sense from a marketing perspective. I won’t get into all of the data about expanding your product line to reach the largest customer base as possible. There normally are cost analysis that goes with that kind of expansion but for coral vendors it’s simply an additional digital photo.
For all of the heavy blue Reefers out there. Blue lights agreeably do make the coral glow and I’m happy for you if that is what you love in your tank. Awesome! But just because that is what you like it doesn’t mean that everyone else feels the same. These reef tanks really are Art. Not everyone loves Picasso.
The problem for those of us who like our tanks more to the full spectrum side of things is its hard to know what the coral will look like in our tanks. It easy to know what they will look like when the lights ramp down but it’s hard to know what they will look like for the rest of the day. We just want a good representation of coral Under a fuller spectrum of light.
Everyone is going to try to dog pile on me with “well just don’t buy it then” type of comments.
Here is the problem with that logic because I don’t think any of us are buying any of that coral. That is why we are here because we can’t find a supplier in our opinion whose coral pictures are representative of the products we want to buy.
So with all of the “Just don’t buy it then” people I guess they are telling us...”Hey, there are Fish Only systems.”
It’s funny how all forums turn into some kind of argument about who is right and who is wrong and it’s like this everywhere from car forums to food forums. Got to love social media!
My last reef and the one I’m currently setting up won’t look like an acid trip or windex for most of the day. So I would love it if the Coral vendor would just do one simple thing. (really it is a simple solution to this problem.) try to represent the coral as it is under different spectrums of light. So a blue picture and a white picture. EASY!!! I think that only makes sense from a marketing perspective. I won’t get into all of the data about expanding your product line to reach the largest customer base as possible. There normally are cost analysis that goes with that kind of expansion but for coral vendors it’s simply an additional digital photo.
For all of the heavy blue Reefers out there. Blue lights agreeably do make the coral glow and I’m happy for you if that is what you love in your tank. Awesome! But just because that is what you like it doesn’t mean that everyone else feels the same. These reef tanks really are Art. Not everyone loves Picasso.
The problem for those of us who like our tanks more to the full spectrum side of things is its hard to know what the coral will look like in our tanks. It easy to know what they will look like when the lights ramp down but it’s hard to know what they will look like for the rest of the day. We just want a good representation of coral Under a fuller spectrum of light.
Everyone is going to try to dog pile on me with “well just don’t buy it then” type of comments.
Here is the problem with that logic because I don’t think any of us are buying any of that coral. That is why we are here because we can’t find a supplier in our opinion whose coral pictures are representative of the products we want to buy.
So with all of the “Just don’t buy it then” people I guess they are telling us...”Hey, there are Fish Only systems.”
Da8
Active Member
Not a problem of blue lights or spectrum. It's about we get fooled everyday in social media...
It's about reality vs idealism
Some don't buy corals, they buy a photo to prentend and show off on Internet.
And that is not what our hobbie is about....
photo credit: #the_truth_is_not_pretty
It's about reality vs idealism
Some don't buy corals, they buy a photo to prentend and show off on Internet.
And that is not what our hobbie is about....
photo credit: #the_truth_is_not_pretty
I see your point, but if you read it again I said 4500nm to 10k. 10k provides a wide range of spectrum. I should have placed SOLELY on light spectrum. Each sps has their on genetic make up and the chromoproteins in the zooxanthellae provide the colorations, and the amount of nutrients is crucial for coral growth and color. It that wasnt the case all sps will be the same color. I do agree with anything below 10k and low nutirents colors will be terrible. I do believe water conditions, nutrient load and flow plays a bigger roll in coral growth and color then light. This has been my experience, I have used a wide range of lights from MH, VHO, t5's, to Leds, if the water is right the color and growth are the same.
As someone has likely already said.. The worth of something is based upon what someone will pay. That said, I think some companies are completely predatory on people that don't know better as there pictures look NOTHING like what a coral really looks like.
I’ve been looking for divorce papers for a long time. I’m willing to part with the $300, that sounds like a bargain to me.
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
There are alot of vendors who have been doing daylight and actinic shots. Fraghouse corals, coral euphoria; then there are some who post daylight only shots like battlecoralsI finally had some time to read all of the thread again. (6 days a week 12+hrs a day its killing me).
It’s funny how all forums turn into some kind of argument about who is right and who is wrong and it’s like this everywhere from car forums to food forums. Got to love social media!
My last reef and the one I’m currently setting up won’t look like an acid trip or windex for most of the day. So I would love it if the Coral vendor would just do one simple thing. (really it is a simple solution to this problem.) try to represent the coral as it is under different spectrums of light. So a blue picture and a white picture. EASY!!! I think that only makes sense from a marketing perspective. I won’t get into all of the data about expanding your product line to reach the largest customer base as possible. There normally are cost analysis that goes with that kind of expansion but for coral vendors it’s simply an additional digital photo.
For all of the heavy blue Reefers out there. Blue lights agreeably do make the coral glow and I’m happy for you if that is what you love in your tank. Awesome! But just because that is what you like it doesn’t mean that everyone else feels the same. These reef tanks really are Art. Not everyone loves Picasso.
The problem for those of us who like our tanks more to the full spectrum side of things is its hard to know what the coral will look like in our tanks. It easy to know what they will look like when the lights ramp down but it’s hard to know what they will look like for the rest of the day. We just want a good representation of coral Under a fuller spectrum of light.
Everyone is going to try to dog pile on me with “well just don’t buy it then” type of comments.
Here is the problem with that logic because I don’t think any of us are buying any of that coral. That is why we are here because we can’t find a supplier in our opinion whose coral pictures are representative of the products we want to buy.
So with all of the “Just don’t buy it then” people I guess they are telling us...”Hey, there are Fish Only systems.”
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
maybe urine yellow 5600k to 7500k
Gross. I wouldn’t even sell 1 of my frags to anyone asking for a pic less than 14k.
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