What's more impressive a Super Colored Frag or a Average Color Colony?

[Bruce Burnett]

Absolutely larger colonies, but it doesn't hurt if the larger colonies are colorful too.

Yes what is a super colorful coral. As frags become colonies their colos usually change and improve.

 

[TCoach]

Large colonies! Super colorful frags are very cool, but for the most part show you are new and probably have deep pockets or big credit card bills!

Too many tanks are filled with tiny frags that are fragile and tend to be unstable. Multi-headed/branched corals that are growing and adding new heads/branches show you are able to maintain a growing tank. Large colonies scream that you are a successful coral keeper.

 

[paul01]

I like to see both the old and the new color or bland! I just love corals. Maybe they are just starting out with their tank

 

[Treefer32]

There's something about larger colonies that are impressive even if their color is a bit bland. I had a brown Stylaphora that was 10-12 inches across. At the time I was thinking of fragging it up and giving it away or selling it off. However, my water quality did it for me. I didn't realize why right away, but the entire colony (which had lived over a year in my tank and grew to it's peak size) cascade died within 5 days. I discovered with an ICP test that my phosphates were .56 ppm and I realized stylphora don't like that high phosphates. I got them down and other corals that had started to look bad, colored, and grew back flesh that had started pealing off.

Only lost the large stylaphora and I still miss it even though it wasn't a pretty color. Even my hammers that have 10+ heads on them, even if they are the average normal pink color, still are pretty with that many heads filling a space moving in the water column. My Large Acros 6-8" across wow me with there uniform blue tips, but brown bases and branches. Their size and uniformity of their branches wow me and others that view my tank.

That said, I am being more picky about what I put in my tank. I'm trying to add more color to contrast what I have with more neon oranges and greens. I got a bright orange branching montipora that I hope takes off in my tank.

It will off set the browns, blues, and purples throughout the tank.

 

[Rocketfish]

I said "other" because a highly colored frag is an eye catcher for even a casual observer than a large plain colony.

That said, I have a very large, 8" span, Yellow Tips colony that has scaled up my KH and calcium use in a nano tank from 5ml per day to 25ml per day over a growth period of around 12 months under a single radion xr15 blue. Unfortunately, I had a problem with a cheap Chinese doser that allowed my KH to crater rather quickly over a week out of town only to see signs of some STN starting at the base and ever so slowly creeping upward.

If I see a large colony in my tank or anyone's tank for that matter, my hat is off to you!

Which leads me to a "do-over" on the yellow tips... I will have several very large frags of Yellow tips available soon if anyone is I interested! They will likely be 3" span and 4" tall. I should have 3 or 4.

Yes, I have the KH back under control with a bubble magus doser...

For those of you with large or extra large colonies, my hat is off to you! I am hoping to have a future tank with spectacular coral colonies, but I think I will upgrade from nano status first!

 

[ZoWhat]

A super colored colony... next question

 

[DHill6]

All about the colors and not jammed packed. Leave room between them. Jammed in looks cluttered. My vote is Impressive colonies and multiple colors!

 

[Tankkeepers]

Neither

A healthy well growing coral that lives the rest of my life whatever the color is is the best in my book

 

[Heabel7]

I chose other, after initial look at the tank, I want to see your overall setup, maintenance, dosing, etc. Then large average colony for sure.

 

[skydirt]

I think everyone is in agreement mostly, very healthy and good sized colonies show impressive skill and husbandry over the long term. Provided they didn't just buy a large colony from the start. I also like to see super colored frags, maybe in the encrusting to mini colony phase bc that also shows that you are keeping up with lighting, flow and all the trace elements and nutrition that brings out and keeps these colors vibrant and that will last into the full on colony. I myself like and have both. Some are large and old but i always make room for that next frag that catches my eye.

 

[Pyrat80]

I chose other because I think both are equally excited to see

 

[sp1187]

colony.
i once got a substitute.
paid for a ten polyp rainbow hornet. (colony?)
instead, because the basement vendor sold it to a walk in,
i got a single polyp space chaos.
vendor tells me he did me a solid as the space chaos was $250/polyp.
told him it was a canardly, as in can 'ardly see it.
super colors but lost in the 150.

 

[Drewbacca]

Yup.. colonies w average colors. (Is that average or are they all beige/peach? Still early america colonies please. Reading through has depressed me..having lost my entire 4½ year old tank last year and the instatank setup to try & save corals.. (since apex not on that one)..life & back to back to back power outages claimed them all. (1 was 4 days!) my 48 head yellow/green candy cane bouquet , giant skeleton of 42 frogspawn heads, a stunner chalice the size of a dinner plate and a giant green tip toadstool just to name the big ones.. and no job from the pandemics initial crush on my industry. ...
..But!... New briopsis proof tank finally scaped & running with ...
redundant redundanced redundancies! ...
And some... FragPlugs! I think a few have coral on them if you look closely! Ha!...*tear.

 

[Drewbacca]

Yup.. colonies w average colors please. Seriously..PLEEEEEASE!? Ha. Reading through this has depressed me..having lost my entire 5 year old tank last year and then the instatank setup to try & save fish & corals.. (since apex not on that one)..life & back to back to back power outages claimed them all. (1 was 4 days!) my 48 head yellow/green candy cane bouquet , giant skeleton of 42 frogspawn heads, a stunner chalice the size of a dinner plate and a giant green tip toadstool just to name the big ones.. and no job from the pandemics initial crush on my industry. ...
Should have given them to someone.
..But!... New briopsis proof tank finally scaped & running with ...
redundant redundanced redundancies! ...
And some... FragPlugs! I think a few have coral on them if you look closely! Ha!...*tear.

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

z

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

If you were invited over to a local reefers house what would you rather see and why?

What's more impressive a Super Colored Frag or a Average Color Large Colony?

This photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @Marco A. Martins

Should a super colored frag realistic expect to be delicious? Or is that just a made-up word?

 

[Utubereefer]

Other…. Super colored colonies