stupid question

[nats]

why is it when i go to the local fish store to look at corals and stuff, alot of the corals seem lack color. And when I look at other peoples reef tanks the colors seem to be very intense ?

[marie]

Often the better corals have already been picked through and sometimes it's because home aquaria have better lighting

Everytime I go to vancouver it always seems like i'm there between shipments and the only corals left are brown. I took a chance on a brown acropora once that was on sale for half price and ended up with this



Unfortunately the other brown acropora I got remained brown

[Chowder]

Alot of store tanks don't have the best of water quality. They will usually try to do things as cost effective as possible. Where most aquarist will try to stay up on there water quality .Having good water quality and better lighting and flow and posibly better filtering units then what stores use. This alows aquarist to turn those brown corals into gems.

[digital-audiophile]

I think sometimes you just need to take a chance. I bought a decent sized brown acro just the other week becuase you could see a hint up purple at the tips. Now in my system the purple is spreading down the branches, it will be a really nice coral when it colours up

[bv_reefer]

ya i'm with jkhchris, they do try to often go cost effective as possible alot of times, when i got my cup coral colony a couple months ago, it was a dull brown under there lights and i really just got it for it's sheer size, but when i got him settled up high in my tank he turned an intense fluorescent green, wierd color change, by far the most intensely colored hard coral in my tank. Then again they were running 10k's, so the true color wasn't exactly shown. good question though i always wondered that too..

[untamed]

Like Greg says...if you look really closely you can get an indication of what colour a coral might go.

[globaldesigns]

In most cases it is all to do with lighting. Metal Halides give the best color, I haven't seen any LFS using that, it costs too much for them.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

I haven't seen any LFS using that, it costs too much for them.

I'd have to say most coral sellers I've visited do use MH lighting.

[Chowder]

I would say that too. Can't recall any LFS around the lowermainland that don't use metal halide lighting.

[Keri]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I'd have to say most coral sellers I've visited do use MH lighting.

yeah, regular pet stoores rarely do but I think many of the SW specialty places do, depends on where you go