What can "brown" do for you? A lot, actually! The UC "Ugliest Coral Contest is BACK!"

[uniquecorals]

I have recently upgraded from a 90 gallon to a 200DD. During the transition process, I had everything planned out through a very specific timeline and ensured everything was "perfect". I had (2) 100 gallon Rubbermaid containers in the basement circulating water to maintain balance to transition all the corals over. I had even sold over 75 of my corals to make sure they don't break while I'm moving and placing them.

As everyone know, nothing really goes as planned. After being behind schedule and I attempted to clean up the work area, I had removed one too many heaters in the last Rubbermaid container. I woke up the next morning and realized the water temperature had dropped to 65 degrees. Luckily, all except for 2 frags survived. However, my rose milli have been forever brown.

This is under full daylight (85%) on both white and blue Apollo Reef LEDs.

Who says you can't get Acros to look great under LED's...That Millie should silence all the critics...:xd:

 

[uniquecorals]

Alright, so, I think I will give this "beautiful brown" coral contest a shot. The story is a bit long, but this coral has a lot of history with me. So, here is how it goes. ...

I was a little over half way through graduate school and I ran into a tank for sale. It was a good deal but money was tight. I begged the wife to pick up the tank. She relented but said she did not have time to help with it, that it was mine own, and that I had to find a way to make the extra money to pay for it. I was ecstatic. I had the tank set up and true to the agreement, I worked to get it up and running and had a very basic reef with cheap coral I found here and there. Well, my wife thought that the tank was full, however, I had just met this lady with an absolutely stunning tank. Obviously, I now had a new goal. .... For my tank to look like THAT.

Well, the best way I thought to do that was to have my wife see THAT TANK! So, I brought her over and she fell in love with this lady's tank. I thought while we were there to pick up a few more frags and I had the clever idea to have my wife pick out some frags that she thought were her favorites from the tank. Naturally, one of her favorites was the green spongodes. Here is a picture of the beautiful colony from the tank that we got the frag from:

The plating and the branching is stunning and the bright green is to die for in a tank. Well, we were able to get a really nice frag from the colony. It is the one on the bottom right:

I was super excited to get one of these beautiful frags in my tank. However, the polyp extension after I got this frag in was so extensive, it looks completely brown. I tried different locations. I tried different lights. I tried different tanks. The coral grew great, but there was absolutely no beautiful green. Just the brown, brown, brown. The crazy thing is this coral has been fragged out of my tank and looks beautiful in other tanks. The picture I am showing of my brown coral is the most recent growth on a transplant to my 135 gallon tank. Well, without any more waiting, here is the coral:


Overall, my wife has fallen in love with the tank and loves it almost as much as I do. However, to this day, she still walks by the spongodes and says, "I wish this one looked like the one we got it from." LOL.

That is an example of a color change that can take this specimen from mundane obscurity to instant fame. You are in the presence of greatness with that spongodes, my friend. Kneel and weep, as did Alexander when he beheld the glories of ancient Egypt. Epic.

-Scott

 

[uniquecorals]

The brownest Waving Hand (Anthelia sp.) on the planet. Grows like weeds too.

Ahh, the first rule of Brown corals...Multiply quickly to ensure lasting attention. Solid.

-Scott

 

[casey187]

Hey Pete. Are you the Desoto Pete? Try to plast the spongode with a powerhead. The polyp will retract.

good to know. I have a giant brown spongode also.

 

[Titus]

The Dookie Brown Chalice. This frag was purchased as a Hologram Chalice several months back. It is growing nicely on the same frag rack along with several other chalices that show great color, but it has decided to slowly turn dookie brown.

 

[Beradd]

this little frag was a few polyps on a piece of egg crate glued to a frag plug....I picked em up for 5$.... the hair algae on this piece has been a pain ....its the only gha in my tank.. the polyps have taken on an almost metallic look and seem to be coloring up a little bit. but still on the ugly side. not exactly sure what they are, but they started of as 4 small polyps and in 2 month grown this much ....im sure there would be more but none of my cuc wants anything to do with that patch of hair... I trim it on occasionally but in this contest it might help me out cause its UGLY and it shows the color of the coral ....the GHA is brighter ....I still like em tho... added a fts so I wouldn't feel like so much of a scrub for showing the gha and cyno that surround is litte turd

 

[Brem]

This is my brown acropora.. I've got this coral saved from a piece of rock laying for dead in the garden of my brother in law.. I felt really sorry for the little guy and broke it of the stone where its been for about 6 hours.. I really thought he was a goner..
Placed him in my own tank and voila! After a few months there was actually growth visible!
I think he's happy now..

 

[Brem]

This is my brown acropora.. I've got this coral saved from a piece of rock laying for dead in the garden of my brother in law.. I felt really sorry for the little guy and broke it of the stone where its been for about 6 hours.. I really thought he was a goner..
Placed him in my own tank and voila! After a few months there was actually growth visible!
I think he's happy now..

 

[Chrissy]

I bought this mille thinking that it would color up...no such luck, it's still ugly!

 

[uniquecorals]

The Dookie Brown Chalice. This frag was purchased as a Hologram Chalice several months back. It is growing nicely on the same frag rack along with several other chalices that show great color, but it has decided to slowly turn dookie brown.

Very, very impressive...Who needs another "ultra colored" chalice, anyways...Bring on the brown!

-Scott

 

[uniquecorals]

this little frag was a few polyps on a piece of egg crate glued to a frag plug....I picked em up for 5$.... the hair algae on this piece has been a pain ....its the only gha in my tank.. the polyps have taken on an almost metallic look and seem to be coloring up a little bit. but still on the ugly side. not exactly sure what they are, but they started of as 4 small polyps and in 2 month grown this much ....im sure there would be more but none of my cuc wants anything to do with that patch of hair... I trim it on occasionally but in this contest it might help me out cause its UGLY and it shows the color of the coral ....the GHA is brighter ....I still like em tho... added a fts so I wouldn't feel like so much of a scrub for showing the gha and cyno that surround is litte turd

Beautiful! You WILL get extra points for the algae- that's a given. You will get a .5 deduction in scoring because you have a nice aquascape, but hey, the fact that the coral brought with it some hair algae is a HUGE bonus...Excellent entry!

-Scott

 

[uniquecorals]

I bought this mille thinking that it would color up...no such luck, it's still ugly!

To you it's "ugly"...to us, it has Championship potential! Nice pic, BTW!

-Scott

 

[davidr2340]

THAT IS SOLID!!! I mean, really SOLID!!

-Scott

Thanks... I suppose! ;-)


David

 

[Davesgt]

Heres my Orange Lobo that doesn't like me. Its been this color from day one and refuses to color up for me. The other lobos from which this one came from were a bright orange with awesome markings. This guy has nice markings but looks like a log in my tank, and yet I still refuse to give up on it.

 

[evolved]

About 3.5 years ago, I had made several orders from an online retailer from whom I had received some great SPS frags (the retailer doesn't have much of a presence today, and is not a sponsor of R2R, FWIW). On one of the larger orders, the seller messed up and left out a couple pieces I ordered. He quickly acknowledged his mistake, and in fact still had the pieces I purchased in his system. He sent them overnight to me the next day - no charge and lots of apologies (and I was rather understanding and not at all upset - things happen). When I got the box the next day, not only did it contain my missing corals, but some very generous freebees - albeit unlabeled ones, but they were all pretty obvious with one exception. One freebee was a 1" plug which was fully encrusted (no branches) with an SPS coral. It easily appeared to be an encrusting monti, and in fact looked like a sunset monti which lacked a little light. It had a brownish-orange base, with fairly bright green polyps. Great! I eagerly placed it an area suited for such a monti. A few weeks passed, and the coral continued to encrust. Then the green polyps begin to bleach. "Okay", I thought, "too much light" and I placed it lower. Now the fully encrusted plug sat idle for weeks, having a bit of a growth stunt induced by the bleaching. And then one day, I looked at the presumed encrusting monti, and it had tips of acropora forming. So much for sunset monti... Months later, after proving to be a decent growing acro and now a mini-colony, the green polyps returned for a few weeks, but then they quickly returned to brown.

Fast forward to today. I have a brown acro colony. Somewhat large, too. And I keep telling myself: "Just wait, those green polyps will come back someday". I may be good at fooling myself. Time will tell, but time has 3.5 years on me in this situation.

 

[uniquecorals]

Heres my Orange Lobo that doesn't like me. Its been this color from day one and refuses to color up for me. The other lobos from which this one came from were a bright orange with awesome markings. This guy has nice markings but looks like a log in my tank, and yet I still refuse to give up on it.

Your faith in this corals is an inspiration to all young people...LOL

-Scott

 

[uniquecorals]

About 3.5 years ago, I had made several orders from an online retailer from whom I had received some great SPS frags (the retailer doesn't have much of a presence today, and is not a sponsor of R2R, FWIW). On one of the larger orders, the seller messed up and left out a couple pieces I ordered. He quickly acknowledged his mistake, and in fact still had the pieces I purchased in his system. He sent them overnight to me the next day - no charge and lots of apologies (and I was rather understanding and not at all upset - things happen). When I got the box the next day, not only did it contain my missing corals, but some very generous freebees - albeit unlabeled ones, but they were all pretty obvious with one exception. One freebee was a 1" plug which was fully encrusted (no branches) with an SPS coral. It easily appeared to be an encrusting monti, and in fact looked like a sunset monti which lacked a little light. It had a brownish-orange base, with fairly bright green polyps. Great! I eagerly placed it an area suited for such a monti. A few weeks passed, and the coral continued to encrust. Then the green polyps begin to bleach. "Okay", I thought, "too much light" and I placed it lower. Now the fully encrusted plug sat idle for weeks, having a bit of a growth stunt induced by the bleaching. And then one day, I looked at the presumed encrusting monti, and it had tips of acropora forming. So much for sunset monti... Months later, after proving to be a decent growing acro and now a mini-colony, the green polyps returned for a few weeks, but then they quickly returned to brown.

Fast forward to today. I have a brown acro colony. Somewhat large, too. And I keep telling myself: "Just wait, those green polyps will come back someday". I may be good at fooling myself. Time will tell, but time has 3.5 years on me in this situation.

Love it! Don't you know, brown is the new "green?" Really.

Great entry- strong contender with an awesome story!

-Scott

 

[Igarc009]

Man where to start. This piece is like my holy grail haha, I went to the beach and decided to walk into a LFS and it was the first piece of coral I saw. I fell in love with it, it was a gorgeous blue pectinia with a green rim and yellow eyes. I had never loved a coral so much, it was 175, I had never even thought of paying that much for a coral but man was it pretty. It was so hard to walk out of the store that day with out the pectinia. A whole month passed and I couldn't get the piece out of my head. Finally I broke, I called the store to see if he still had it in, they said yes. So I left immediately and made the two hour drive to the store. Man was I excited, I must have been going 100 miles per hour. As soon as I got to the store it was bagged and ready to go, I couldn't wait to get home and put it in my tank. I dip it and acclimated it for an hour, I was gonna take my time with this coral because it was gonna be the prized jewel of my reef tank. Everyday I walked by my tank I looked at it, I could almost say it made my day looking at it. After about a month things took a turn for the worst it began to loose its green rim, it didn't look as blue and the hello began to dull. I kept telling myself no, its just me. It can't be loosing coral, I kept telling myself that until it was so brown that it looked red. I was so saddened by the it and every time I walked by it, it was a reminder that I had failed. I got a new tank and when it came time to pick the corals I was gonna transfer I couldn't get myself to give it away or sell it. I was determined to bring it back. Well after about a month in the new tank it began to look some what blue and you could see the paling of the eyes I was so excited but its been this color for about 4 months now, Ive had the pectin for about a year now and I still can not get myself to give it away or sell it. I am still determined to bring the color back. Now let me introduce you to the LE Sprinkled Purple Turd Pectinia

 

[Dowtish]

About 3.5 years ago, I had made several orders from an online retailer from whom I had received some great SPS frags (the retailer doesn't have much of a presence today, and is not a sponsor of R2R, FWIW). On one of the larger orders, the seller messed up and left out a couple pieces I ordered. He quickly acknowledged his mistake, and in fact still had the pieces I purchased in his system. He sent them overnight to me the next day - no charge and lots of apologies (and I was rather understanding and not at all upset - things happen). When I got the box the next day, not only did it contain my missing corals, but some very generous freebees - albeit unlabeled ones, but they were all pretty obvious with one exception. One freebee was a 1" plug which was fully encrusted (no branches) with an SPS coral. It easily appeared to be an encrusting monti, and in fact looked like a sunset monti which lacked a little light. It had a brownish-orange base, with fairly bright green polyps. Great! I eagerly placed it an area suited for such a monti. A few weeks passed, and the coral continued to encrust. Then the green polyps begin to bleach. "Okay", I thought, "too much light" and I placed it lower. Now the fully encrusted plug sat idle for weeks, having a bit of a growth stunt induced by the bleaching. And then one day, I looked at the presumed encrusting monti, and it had tips of acropora forming. So much for sunset monti... Months later, after proving to be a decent growing acro and now a mini-colony, the green polyps returned for a few weeks, but then they quickly returned to brown.

Fast forward to today. I have a brown acro colony. Somewhat large, too. And I keep telling myself: "Just wait, those green polyps will come back someday". I may be good at fooling myself. Time will tell, but time has 3.5 years on me in this situation.

I getting sick to my stomach envisioning this under 10K lighting...