Best Bang for Your Buck Corals

[Ibn]

Find a quality LFS near you that offers frags. It might just be where I'm located, but there's no shortage of $10-20 frags at the 3 surrounding LFS from me which are all within 45 minutes drive. You'll be surprised at what you find in the bargain bin at times.

 

[justingraham]

Adam @Battlecorals just put up four packs for 99 dollars shipped

Great place to start

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Most vendors will do nice packs if you reach out to them. Also, I highly recommend the two vendors mentioned so far: @FraghouseCorals and @Battlecorals, and I'll add @Reef Pets as another suggestion for someone who's looking for nice corals at budget friendly prices.

It sounds like you're afraid of getting corals shipped to you, but I'd encourage you not to worry. These guys are pros! I've been having corals shipped to me for years, and as long as you have someone who knows what they're doing, you shouldn't have cause for concern.

I'll also recommend that you look for pieces like the Strawberry Shortcake, some of the more colorful millis, pink lemonade, and others that have been mentioned in this thread. There are plenty of nice pieces that don't break the bank.

@Tahoe61

 

[kevlow]

I find that the bargain shelf has been very good to me. I look for the brown/maroon colored pieces that they always say " that was a maricultured colony that we cut up". They are always $10- $15. If the plug is well encrusted then you know it is past the fragile, likely to die point. With increased light and proper nutrients they have always colored up beautiful for me. Most of my pieces are this type of purchase. $30.00 is the most I have paid for anything in my tank. Some have turned out to be designer pieces that other people gave up on. Many color up right away. some have taken longer. Quite often it is a great surprise what they end up being.

 

[justingraham]

I also forgot @aquavista99 has nice corals that ship well and are "cheap" compared to the stores he was a pleasure to order from and felt with my silly questions day in and day out

 

[Jeremy Luke]

Watch out for members posting frag packs for sale here. Some are spendy because they are frags of reef raft and such.. but some are very reasonable and filled with staples like pink lemonade. You can easily buy for ~$20 per frag shipped if you are on the lookout. Just check the seller.. look for folks that have a bit of history selling here to play it safe. and ALWAYS dip no matter who you buy it from.

 

[Liquid360]

Do you prefer buying frags or colonies?

 

[Liquid360]

If you're buying online, shipping is the problem. Liveaquaria is great with a $150min for free shipping and I like extremecorals for lg colonies, also $150min. For frags I like eBay where I get great deals on "designer" Coral. These days I find im more of a killer than a keeper and it's better to kill cheaper Liveaquaria pieces than designer coral. Both are equally upsetting, so cheaper wins. [emoji4]

 

[BoomCoralsLLC]

Do you prefer buying frags or colonies?

Frags are easier to handle losing. If a colony doesn't ship well or isn't acclimated correctly, it can be a tougher (and more expensive!) loss to stomach.

 

[Liquid360]

Frags are easier to handle losing. If a colony doesn't ship well or isn't acclimated correctly, it can be a tougher (and more expensive!) loss to stomach.

I've actually had FAR more luck with colonies than frags. I kill frags for breakfast, but colonies have lasted years.

 

[HB AL]

I'm fortunate to have many lfs here in socal with many types of corals to choose from. For my current tank I bought all kinds of different corals, and never spent more than 30$ for a frag. I like the way it turned out.

 

[Jeremy Luke]

That's terrible

 

[Jeremy Luke]

Obviously joking... Beautiful tank

 

[Liquid360]

Obviously joking... Beautiful tank

Sarcasm is hard in a purely textual environment. For a while I utilized italics to denote sarcasm, but it only confused people [emoji4]

 

[Jeremy Luke]

Right on, that's why I followed up quickly with the "obviously joking" bit

 

[sawdonkey]

I buy almost nothing from vendors except when I've bought from battlecorals twice. Most everything I have is from other hobbyists. You'll get the best deals by going to someone's house and working out a package. Does Phoenix have a local forum?

I've had most of my corals for over two years, so I have pretty sizable colonies now. I often sell packs of 10-15 named SPS corals for $150-$200 to local people. Once the corals are so big, I gotta cut them anyway.

 

[Jeremy Luke]

I recently picked up 14 frags for my new tank from a member of this forum. His packing was top notch. I couldn't be happier. Four of the frags are reef raft stuff.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I'm fortunate to have many lfs here in socal with many types of corals to choose from. For my current tank I bought all kinds of different corals, and never spent more than 30$ for a frag. I like the way it turned out.

Wow!! That's beautiful! Great job!

 

[Holy_makerel]

If this is your first tank your taste will probably change as you grow stuff out. When i started i had no interest in keeping any SPS and very little interest in LPS. As my skill and confidence in my ability to keep coral alive increased my tastes and interest has changed.

Another good option is to join a local reefing group. I highly recommend it. Make some friends and you can usually get frags for dirt cheap from members