What's the hype with Walt smith corals?
 

So a few lfs have Ordered in Walt smith sps saying that they would be amazing but I have yet to see a single piece that I would even consider putting in my tank. They seem very over priced for something like a plain pink birdsnest or a green pocci. Is this just me or have others noticed this to?

I have a monti. (pink with green polyps) it grows flat and but vertical creating a fan. Now it's a nice piece but nothing crazy. It sat at the lfs for a few months before I got it.
I'm not sure about any named breeder as I have some nice generic pieces.

Dont get it myself......

I think the higher price is demanded because of the better business practices of the walt smith name.

I'm willing to pay more for better collection practices but it's not worth it if they are bland pieces.

I unpacked a couple of boxes a while back, and there were some really nice pieces that I've never seen before. Unfortunately the boxes sat at the airport for an extra day, and most of the shipment died. I did get a large A. humilis, but it RTN'ed on me. I still have a piece of pink table that should end up as a nice piece.
Overall, the pieces are wild harvested, often brought up from deeper down, blanched in shallow water to really make the colors pop, then shipped. The colors tend to reverse once in a tank, and the overall mortality of the wild stuff is too high.

Yeah.. I don't get it either. Maybe its like any other coral shipment.. Hit or miss depending on what's availale and what's ordered?

all the rage in the late 90's and early 2000's, and we stood in line to pay $250 per colony.............while there are some unique colors and species they generally don't fare well in captivity long term, most hobbyists can't keep the colour also because they come from such clean water and such a high light environment. proceed with great caution...

I will say the piece I have was brown when I bought it and has colored nicely. Ive had it for about 4 months and it's in good health

Yeah I agree but the pieces I saw were pretty boring.

Walt Smith Corals
 

Hi Everyone,

Every shipment of coral will be different when you are dealing with wild collection. They collect from many different reefs around Fiji to distribute the collection pressure. Walt Smith is MAC certified.

Since the beginning of the year Fiji has been struck by numerous tropical storms. They have caused lots of flooding and siltation of the reefs. This has caused the acros to take a hit and they lose colour and strength.

Certain times of the year the water is very hot(89 - 91°f) so this tends to weaken the sps as well.

Walt goes to great lengths to provide a high quality product. He used to use 1000watt 20k Radium Halides over the holding tanks to help the corals keep their colour while in the warehouse. Earlier this year he upgraded to LED lights as power is not cheap in Fiji.

Here is a pic of an A sarmentosa that I brought in about 6 months ago. It came in this colour and has not browned out or faded. Granted a green coral is kinda boring but there are some amazing pieces as well. It is kept under a 400watt 20k Radium Halide.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8027/7...927917d9_z.jpg

Here is another pic of some WSI acros from last year.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7227/7...ec1401a2_z.jpg

Walt is putting a lot of effort into the farming of corals. These are smaller colonies, similar in size to the corals from the ocean based farms around Bali. These will do much better in captivity as they are smaller and will ship better.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7101/7...cfee4a7a_z.jpg

Cheers,
Tim

not supposed to have links to web based businesses in your signature with out sponsorship fyi

Darn good thing he's a sponsor, eh? :)

I find the really nice walt smith sps sell very quickly. I know red coral brought some in and the really nice sps sold within mintues of the store opening.

is he? oops I didnt see sponsor by his name.. stuuupid me :lol:

sorry guys

Whew.. Another disaster narrowly averted!

Thanks for that information, it is nice to know that he is collecting them in a way that is sustainable as possible. My biggest question is why do we not get corals like that in Victoria? I would pay good money for any of the corals that were in the pics, but I haven't seen any in quite a while. Is there different grades that retailers can buy or is it just luck of the draw?

There is one item for ordering wild acros and then it is what they have on hand that is ready and capable of handling shipping stress. Some times it is luck of the draw or timing with other shipments going out. I have gotten some really nice pieces and some "tourist" pieces in the same shipment. By "tourist" pieces I mean the plain green ones they should just leave on the reef for the tourists to see.

I think another issue of Tim's samples and whats available locally, is that Tim is well equipped to keep these in their original color, while most LFS are not. So if they don't sell quickly, they end up looking "regular". I have seen these locally, both Proreef and Japarto have had them, although Japarto typical does custom orders for clients and Proreef killed they're order.
Cost is also higher, which might make a retailer think twice about ordering. Honestly, how many expensive colonies are us Victorians going to buy?

Another issue as to why the cost is higher is that they are normally a lot larger than the corals from Bali or Tonga. Larger size = higher risk in shipping and greater cost of freight.

A lot of the time people do not recognize colonies in store that they see in photos. I have experienced many conversations with people about photos of coral they have seen online and have looked over in the store many times.

Myself have paased up on Alot of pieces that in store looked dull. In my experiences stores have had old lights and or water quality issues. I just have trouble buying a browned out piece to find out what it will be in my tank

True. And SPS keepers are, at lest here, a cheaper lot :) Spending $200 on a colony is risky, so they often sit and go brown.
That, coupled with the fact that you get what's in the box this week, it's tough to make that decision to bring a box in.

I love brown corals, white ones too! Those two colors grow best in my tank....

Brad's got a point, We(jl and oa) just got a shipment in for fiji sps and the color and size are just amazing. I mean if you buy 4 or 5 pieces for a 120 gallon tank, you would've gotten yourself an instant reef. I myself purchased a couple colonies just because you don;t get them too often. I have them under intense lighting 24 hours after introduction into my tank just so I can keep the original coloration. I had another piece a while back from fiji that browned out and brought back to the original color from blasting it with heavy light, for me this is the only way that I know to bring out the "true colors", of course your tank parameter has to be in line also. Now I was just at jl yesterday and the 2 other colonies that was on hold changed colors from light yellow and pink body with red polyps to darker brown and now 4 -5 days later they look like your normal run of the mill large brownish colonies that no one will even think twice about. I think this is the issue most lfs are concerned about. Keep in mind that JL has a dedicated tank for sps and sps frags but for some reason they just can;'t seem to keep even the frags from local tanks at the color when they first arrived. They must sell their sps within the first week or worse the first couple of days or they will end up losing money.

Yep. My brown digi is unreal

worth mentioning also is that Walt Smith isnt 100% "wild only" pieces....there is a large mariculture side to the operation as well:wink:

heres a couple "sleeper" pieces that started of as frags from a wild colony(pics taken under T5s, 50/50 mix of new gens and super blues)....


http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6180.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6182.jpg

Those are nice. But I saw some nicer colonies in one of Steve's tanks on weekend😜

Ya, sorry, remembered that after I posted.

I am in process of getting some "farm" pics and also of the holding facility so you all can see what goes on there. Stay tuned

you were probably looking at the tank with all my coral in it:wink::razz::mrgreen:

I can count the people in Victoria who are into SPS and actually have room in their tanks to buy new corals on one hand. Does that answer your question? :)

Spencer,you need to up your sales pitch into the SPS market! :) But yes, it's not the same market here that we had 10 years ago. Lots more people locally into SPS...not sure why ? Cost? Fear that it's too tough?

lol lets just say im lookin forward to frags

I was at the store today and there was a sign "Doug's coral! DO NOT TOUCH!"
Steve must have known I am coming. Those are very very nice pieces :mrgreen:

I agree with Rich about corals turning brown in Jl tank after a week, but if you keep sps then you would also agree that when you buy frags from members and stick them in your own tank then they will brown out as they adjust to your tank, so many times I buy a frAg and it's brown for several months.

Let's be realistic here, sps is not for the impatient, you have to be persitant, diligent and have a bank roll to keep it.

People say ugh they're just sticks, to me they're more than sticks with colour, more like glowing cryptonite or precious diamonds that don't last forever.

Walt smith has some tourist pieces as Tim called it but they also have some really nice wild pieces, the prices this time around for size and quality was awesome. Probally the best sps shipment this year. We are lucky to have JL and OA bring these beautiful colonies in!

gotta disagree with this comment, 100%

Ya, me too. I've never had frags (in my current system) change significantly once moved into my tank.