What's the hype with Walt smith corals?

[Proteus]

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

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Parker]

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

[Bblinks]

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.

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by Parker

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

Yep. My brown digi is unreal

[fishytime]

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

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)....

[Proteus]

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

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by fishytime

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

Ya, sorry, remembered that after I posted.

[TimT]

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

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Titus99

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

you were probably looking at the tank with all my coral in it