What's the hype with Walt smith corals?

[TimT]

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.


Here is another pic of some WSI acros from last year.


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.


Cheers,
Tim

[Nano]

Originally Posted by TimT

www.oceanfreshaquarium.com - Quality aquarium products make your hobby more enjoyable.

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

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Nano

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

Darn good thing he's a sponsor, eh?

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Darn good thing he's a sponsor, eh?

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

sorry guys

[Borderjumper]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Darn good thing he's a sponsor, eh?

Whew.. Another disaster narrowly averted!

[fishoholic]

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.

[windcoast reefs]

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?

[TimT]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

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.

[Aquattro]

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?

[TimT]

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.