Bill, no need to get your panties tied up in a knot. I have never accused you of anything. I had even thank you for jumping in. No one attacked you so sit down.
I was merely saying no other vendors or other people jumping in to share their thoughts. Over all, I am still happy with the order ( well at least until now) and I didn't fault you. You completed the order with professionalism however you jumping on me and calling me out isnt. I don't need to pm you in the rr frags as I am only sharing my thoughts on RR corals and not how you do business. If you wish to take this personally then I can't help you.

Great. :big grin: You can never tell with words on a screen what is really going on.

That said, there really is no grapevine or secret to Reef Rafts SPS. Sure they get their SPS from the ocean like everybody else but that is where the similarity ends. Jay and Jenson are able to be very selective right where the collection begins and from there they do a terrific job applying the necessary conditions to bring out the colours they see. They use lots of Metal Halide and T5s.
Lucky locals get to see many of these colonies in person and for the most part they really do get amazing stuff………..seriously. Collecting them and working at keeping those colours while aqua culturing these beauties is a lot of fun and a great challenge to me.

uh-oh, now you're gonna set Wayne off :) (sorry, inside joke)

So... 5 years from now what RR pieces will stand the test of time as "must have" tried and true winners that every sps collector will have in their collection? For example, what RR piece(s) will be the next ORA Red Planet, Hawkins Enchinata, Orange Setosa or Cali Tort?

Your right.. Bill I found that the colors are very dependent on conditions. If you look at Jay's tanks his halides are inches from the water surface.

Indeed they are. That is the reason why I added IAS in front of the RR Acro named pieces on our website from day one. I can prove lineage on all my pieces, from original Colony to Frag to New IAS RR Colony/Frag but I couldn't guarantee they were going to look exactly the same after being under my lights in my water conditions for an extended period. (Or yours)

After viewing everyone's photos in here, and numerous photos on other threads (and other forums, etc), there is one thing that really stands out to me, and it has to do with the photo people post of the corals mounted in their system. In my experience, SPS coloring is HIGHLY dependent on the amount of nutrients in the water - particularly low, but measurable amounts of nitrate. We all talk about lowering nutrients all the time. However, SPS get color saturation from many things, but one of those things is nitrate from my experiences.

When I look at photos of Reef Raft corals (other SPS too generally) and I can see other corals in the system I can tell by reasonable guess how much nitrate is in the system. OR, it is a system with undetectable nitrate that is fed heavily either by high fish load (lots of fish poop) or feeding SPS directly with small micron foods (powders or liquids). My opinion, is that SPS are the most visually appealing when the tank has as much food in it as the tank can handle without having algae trouble.

Of course, I'm not always right about this, these are animals we're talking about in systems that are anything but alike, so there are MANY variables. Though in my experience, this is certainly a trend.

Here are some photos - the "low nutrient" photos were taken in spring 2011, and the "medium nutrient" photos were taken in winter 2013. These are in the same system, same bulbs (same amount of use on them at the time of photos), etc. Of course these are only a few photos, but take a look at your own tank, at others', and see for yourself.

Here is a piece in my system when the system had undectable nitrate and low fish load:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...ps94fc7233.jpg

The same exact same piece in the same system when nitrate was barely detectable, fish load was higher, and I was feeding the corals:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Jan320132.jpg




This is Acropora desalwii in low nutrients:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Apr2220117.jpg


The same exact same piece in the same system when nitrate was barely detectable, fish load was higher, and I was feeding the corals:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Feb162013.jpg

Myka's Post
 

Bingo. You said it perfectly, and that is what I like about SPS. It is all about finding that choice piece and bringing out, or keeping, the colours.
This can also be about finding a hidden gem. i.e. Taking an ordinary SPS colony or frag and bringing out more colour.

Yes. Those guys have SPS talent! I don't think the photos are adjusted significantly. I've seen some of these pieces at the Reef Raft booth at MACNA 2013 in person. Those guys know how to color up SPS. That's all there is to it. They could make a brown SPS look like the next best thing. This is the trouble with the Reef Raft stuff - most people do not have the talent they do, and thus their RR pieces just do not look like the photos.

I think if people are disappointed in their RR pieces they should be disappointed in their own ability, not the actual coral. From what I've seen, some of the RR pieces are more difficult than others - like the Diablo. If you want something easy to color up, buy a Sunset Monti. ;) I would LOVE to test my own ability with a RR Diablo in my own "medium nutrient" tank, but I don't want to pay that much for an experiment. :lol:

I definitely agree with your thoughts on colours/nutrient levels.