The Great WD SPS Debate - Battle ZONE!

[JBNY]

I think these kinds of threads are worthwhile discussions. While there are certainly corals that seem to command and hold a high prices, those corals that that don't seem to be showing the kind of coloration that was expected people should be made aware of.

I have yet to see anyone posting pics of this particular coral that looks like anything the original pic, rather it look more like an ordinary A. tenuis coral. For those who claim that it is normal for a frag to brown out and take months or years to look like the mother colony, I think that is nonsense. The occasional coral might brown out maybe, but that is a rare occurrence. I have grown well over a hundred colonies out of frags over the years and the times that I have had a frag not color up to the original very quickly, I can count on one hand. And the rare times I had a coral that didn't color up, most time the person told me flat out, it probably wouldn't look like that in my tank.

If you are buying frags of some very expensive coral and it shows up brown, I think you have every right to be upset. SPS generally don't brown out in 24 hours during shipping, unless something went wrong. Maybe it will turn brown in your tank because of the conditions it is in, but at the very least it should show up looking like the promised item.

 

[scardall]

Ok, I understand that.
What I don't understand is "No offense Mr. Diesel"
If I'm the owner of a baseball team and the team isn't doing great and I buy myself into a awesome ball player but he's aint giving me the return the team deserves than he will be on the next trade list, period.
I know it needs time but I know also when a coral never get there no matter what you do.
I have ppl looking at my tank and on most corals they all in AWE (not mentioning any names here as this is about the WD) but when they ask about the WD and I show them, I get reaction like "Uhmm Oh" or "oh ok I see" or I prefer the honest guys....... "That's it.......??"

I do support your excellent assessment here. I saw the WD in a display once and while it did look nice, I was disappointed as I saw pics online that looked better. Plus I can say the same for the Orange Passion Acro. I would still like to have them but not for what is being asked for. Thumbs up from me!!

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Looks like people are getting really good at using yellow or orange barrier filters.

Whats a filter?
Check the attachments.

Bounce mushrooms under led with and without an orange filter using an iphone. If i had a wd tenuis id post a pre filtered and post filtered shot

Magic right?

Bingo.

 

[gcarroll]

If you are buying frags of some very expensive coral and it shows up brown, I think you have every right to be upset. SPS generally don't brown out in 24 hours during shipping, unless something went wrong. Maybe it will turn brown in your tank because of the conditions it is in, but at the very least it should show up looking like the promised item.

No truer words have been spoken in this thread!

 

[tchan]

WD = overpriced, over hype. And no, I do not have this frag.

TCK comparable to ReefRaft, but better value. And yes, i do have both vendors acro frags.

I do believe all these vendors pics have a little photoshop in them. But i can forgive a vendor/s that gives the value of their corals in the process. Any acro frag that costs more than 300, IMO, is overpriced.
For around 600/frag. I would rather buy a coral thats proven colors like Jarbreaker, wwc bounce, any rainbow chalices.

On ppl that paid/owned this WD, nothing is wrong with u guys. We all loved colorful and unique corals. But prob will have to wait a yr or 2 to see some colors of the op, maybe less saturated in colors.

Reason why so many ppl against/bash this WD is the price.

 

[Rasengan]

In my experience, rainbow acros always take a long time to get it's colors, especially when you're coming from a 1" frag. Some never do. I've only had my WD for 3 months and it's just finally starting to color up. When I first got it it had a pinkish brown base with bright green polyps. Now some of the polyps are turning more yellow/orange while some are still green. The base is going more blue and hints of red and orange are popping up. It looks like any other acro in daylight but looking more and more incredible under blues every day.

In comparison, I have an RR Asia Orange Passion that I've had for about a month longer and it started out as a larger 2" frag. The base is still greenish blue but the polyps are only barely showing hints of orange. It's taking it's sweet time to color up as well.

I also have this incredible no-name piece that I bought on a whim from an LFS. They just told me it's some red tabling acro, maybe a rose hyacinth. It came brown and stayed brown for practically 2 years. Only the last year it's all of a sudden turned bright pink with blue new growth tips. Some of the polyps are white while others are bright yellow. Seriously, it took 3 years to get comfortable in my tank.

Just the progress I've had in 3 months with the WD is showing me hope that it could potentially look like the mother colony after some time. I'm not going to cut off little nubs here and there to try to recoup the loss, I'm going to let it grow. I don't care about the money, I never did or I would have never bought this guy.

As for TCK - I have a bunch of their frags. I saw the pictures before I bought them and what I got was very comparable if not exactly like what I got. My gold rush looks exactly like all the pictures they've posted. I can't complain about their acros.

 

[Diesel]

IMO a lot of the post can be deleted as they have nothing, I mean nothing even in common with the OP original thread name "The Great WD SPS Debate" we're heading more towards "How to and not to Photoshop" or "Who's photo shopping?" we have to stick to our guns on this.

@Gonzo, I did post a pic of mine WD and I always had hopes (like we all do on many SPS to be honest) that you get some what of the color into it, but after a year+ or so and with no results than a little growth I gave up on it.
Again am I upset??............. not at all, I'm not even disappointed.
We all are grown men should carry the responsibility at your self if you bought a coral that was over hyped.
It's the nature of the hobby.

The fact is that still a few hobbyist out there that own one or two hoping that it will get better but without 20K of 4000W LED's you have no chance at all to get even close.
All I know and we can all agree on that the value of this so called WD dropped to a year low of $40 for a inch, if your lucky.
That said I will ship mine out to a Vendor who can do his magic on it and give us some real feedback in a few months.

 

[Diesel]

Btw, don't worry I got my SWAG to wipe the tears!!

Oh and it ain't a shopped swag!!

 

[ssdawood]

Still waiting for mine. Also my free mp40qd.

 

[Reef Fever]

I think these kinds of threads are worthwhile discussions. While there are certainly corals that seem to command and hold a high prices, those corals that that don't seem to be showing the kind of coloration that was expected people should be made aware of.

I have yet to see anyone posting pics of this particular coral that looks like anything the original pic, rather it look more like an ordinary A. tenuis coral. For those who claim that it is normal for a frag to brown out and take months or years to look like the mother colony, I think that is nonsense. The occasional coral might brown out maybe, but that is a rare occurrence. I have grown well over a hundred colonies out of frags over the years and the times that I have had a frag not color up to the original very quickly, I can count on one hand. And the rare times I had a coral that didn't color up, most time the person told me flat out, it probably wouldn't look like that in my tank.

If you are buying frags of some very expensive coral and it shows up brown, I think you have every right to be upset. SPS generally don't brown out in 24 hours during shipping, unless something went wrong. Maybe it will turn brown in your tank because of the conditions it is in, but at the very least it should show up looking like the promised item.

x100000000000000

I've purchased many frags from reefers on here (not vendors) and they all AT LEAST come in looking like picture. where they go from there is entirely up to my tanks params. To say only slimers and a select few acros will be wysiwyg upon arrival is a BOLD statement

 

[Pete polyp]

For those who want to claim frags don't look like mother colonies. .... just look at Disneyland! We have all seen the mc and the frags that look identical, even after being shipped. So I'm not buying that at all.

Just using that one coral as an example of so many that fit into this.

 

[pciscott]

I am glad to be a part of the Reef Culture and live this hobby daily through my tanks, message boards, coral shows, and friends in the hobby. I support Reef 2 Reef and David's family on this awesome site. The debate here should be heard and a lesson to those that have not learned that no 1" Acro frag is worth $800 in my opinion. Not only is it not worth it, it is not friendly for a hobbyist to sell frags at this price. Most of these frags are traded for and many do not spend that amount, but this is unknown to the new guy with a full wallet that is about to be emptied. SPS is tough and can die in a little alk swing or power outage and most vendors rarely sell SPS for more than $250 for the best of the best healed and healthy frags that are colored up. When A hobbyist sells frags for $800 each on Ebay and uses Blue light and will not shoot a photo in daylight he should be called out and ran out of the reef culture. Greed is not good for the hobby, nor is it friendly. Those of you who cheerlead for these Hypsters for a coral deal are part of the problem and should be ashamed. I see other vendors bothered by the behavior of the WD guy and still cheerleaders say he is a good guy and if you do not like the price do not buy. The problem is that people do buy and they bought into something that nobody has been able to achieve. In this hobby the proof is in the pictures and I have never seen another picture of the WD that looked anything like the originators? I have got frag packs from many vendors here on R2R and most are well represented and colored up, rarely do I ever get frags that do not show some color and are representetive of what I ordered. Yes frags can loose color and take time to settle in, but most still come in with good color. This does not seem the case for the WD?????

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Okay to try to get this back on topic, here is a rough picture of mine. I purposely took a picture of my DSLR in review mode so you can see it is the original picture. There are no techniques done with my camera and I left it nice and blurry for you. I did not want to grab it out again as I am out of glue so this picture will have to do. It is roughly 6-7" under water.

* That blue hue below the image is a reflection from my tank lights on the black part of my Canon.

 

[dan10342]

Okay to try to get this back on topic, here is a rough picture of mine. I purposely took a picture of my DSLR in review mode so you can see it is the original picture. There are no techniques done with my camera and I left it nice and blurry for you. I did not want to grab it out again as I am out of glue so this picture will have to do. It is roughly 6-7" under water.

* That blue hue below the image is a reflection from my tank lights on the black part of my Canon.

Very Nice. What exactly are we looking at here?

 

[Diesel]

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I think my frag is coloring up nicely. The first day I got it - it was more dull and blueish, with a few highlights. Now, as you can see, the polyps are really vibrant and getting some decent growth from when I got it.

 

[jackson6745]

I have a red highlighted tenuis colony that I grew from a frag (not WD). IME this is a fickle coral to keep colored perfectly. I am only able to do so under a 400w radium, more importantly, in a well fed, well stocked, carbon dosed reef. No one that I sell or trade this coral to keeps the color in anything different. There's way more to keeping this color than maintaining a clean stable reef .

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I have a red highlighted tenuis colony that I grew from a frag (not WD). IME this is a fickle coral to keep colored perfectly. I am only able to do so under a 400w radium, more importantly, in a well fed, well stocked, carbon dosed reef. No one that I sell or trade this coral to keeps the color in anything different. There's way more to keeping this color than maintaining a clean stable reef .

Off subject, is that an English Shepherd?

 

[cb684]

I think my frag is coloring up nicely. The first day I got it - it was more dull and blueish, with a few highlights. Now, as you can see, the polyps are really vibrant and getting some decent growth from when I got it.

I think it looks good... I mean, its a frag with less than 1 inch added recently to your system, you are for sure doing something right!

I have a red highlighted tenuis colony that I grew from a frag (not WD). IME this is a fickle coral to keep colored perfectly. I am only able to do so under a 400w radium, more importantly, in a well fed, well stocked, carbon dosed reef. No one that I sell or trade this coral to keeps the color in anything different. There's way more to keeping this color than maintaining a clean stable reef .

I agree with that.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

@Gonzo

Where are yeee... thoughts on my frag?