What characteristics do you look for in acros

[TMB]

BoomCorals, that sounds like fun!! When you get them in I'll order a few, and then post progress pics here. (As long as it turns out well - otherwise I'll deny trying) I also need that Rose Garden, bad.

 

[BoomCorals]

BoomCorals, that sounds Ike fun!! When you get them in I'll order a few, and then post progress pics here. (As long as it turns out well - otherwise I'll deny trying) I also need that Rose Garden, bad.

Will keep you posted. I have 1 frag of the rose garden that's pretty decent size right now in general stock and 1 that is available in my "build your own" sps pack in case you were interested.

As to brown frags, they are definitely fun to try on the cheap.

 

[Hausser]

We always see these grow out threads for named pieces and I say we start a grow out thread for browned out pieces. I would be down to try it and I have a buddy who would as well when his s tank is finished. Boom corals should be the one we get our browned out corals from.

 

[BoomCorals]

We always see these grow out threads for named pieces and I say we start a grow out thread for browned out pieces. I would be down to try it and I have a buddy who would as well when his s tank is finished. Boom corals should be the one we get our browned out corals from.

We can call it the "boring brown grow out thread move along nothing to see here "

 

[TMB]

@BoomCorals, order placed!

 

[BoomCorals]

@BoomCorals, order placed!

Got it thanks!

Also I've got brown frags Just arrived to me as well. I have to QT them first so it'll be about another 2 weeks before I can offer them. Gotta try a few myself too!

 

[BoomCorals]

Ok so the browns I got yesterday - most did not survive. Got credit from the vendor fortunately. But we aren't off to a good start lol! One of my other wholesalers has colored down frags / brown acro frags but they are too expensive for this experiment. I'm trying to find some larger maricultured/wild pieces on the cheap that I can chop up into frags and offer up so we can move forward with the brown frag experiment grow out thread lol.

 

[BoomCorals]

Hey guys so as to not derail this thread I've created a "brown acro" thread in my forum. I need your feedback here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-brown-acro-grow-out-experiment.319449/

 

[shubunk]

Alive

 

[BoomCorals]

Alive

Ok I admit. I snorted out loud.

 

[Biggles]

Thought this might interest some of you guys who actually buy wild collected branches exported overseas so you can compare the condition of what you are seeing arrive there to very fresh and as least stressed as you are likely to see new acros. Hopefully you'll find it useful if you're considering wild collected Aus pieces, i know they cost you guys a lot so everything that helps you avoid wasting big dollars on a dud helps.

A shipment of about 130 pieces which arrived at my LFS yesterday from Sustainable Reefs in Cairns Qld. So only a few days off the reef and still looking pretty much how they did in the ocean except they are now about 10 - 15% lighter and brighter than they were when still in the ocean.

One of the most important things that is missed by most reefers who are trying to select one or two expensive

I grabbed some pics off the Deer Park aquarium FB page which is the only LFS i've been to for years now since it's the only store that actually specializes in SPS rather than mainly LPS etc like most aquariums. The tank is 10' x 4' x 16" from memory and is lit with 2 x 400W Radiums and a heap of T5's and LED's. Because the lighting is very similar to my display lighting i can wait 3 - 4 weeks and actually see what an acro would have done to some extent if i had taken it home. Sometimes i see things go from ordinary at arrival to beautiful after weeks under artificial lighting conditions etc. Most times the reverse is the case and eye catching things show their true drabbier aquarium look.

If you want to see a lot of nice fresh collected acro pics go look at the Deer Park aquarium FB page photo section and go back over the last couple of years coral shipments. Dave who owns the store treats the SPS sale tank like his baby lol. Calcium reactor, KH Guardian, AF auto dosing.......... the tank has better gear running it than most of our reefs. Broken branch ends heal completely in weeks and the acros grow slowly when the system is humming.

Still sliming fresh out the bag, all bags have carbon granules in them.

 

[BoomCorals]

Here in the US there are some great wholesalers with amazing and beautiful pieces like that. I stopped buying Mari/wild pieces for the most part as they don't seem to sell very well compared to aquacultured. So far in my experience, people seem to prefer paying $50 for a 1" frag instead of $50 for a pretty wild/mari colony. I personally love the wild/mari pieces as you get incredible variety, sometimes even pieces that are identical to things like home wrecker, etc. But you have to take the bad with the good. Some pieces won't do well or may lose color or even STN.

But I do I use a lot of the same high end gear on my setup. KH guardian, 2016 apex, DOS auto water change, reactors, etc.

 

[Biggles]

Unfortunately the aquaculture scene in Aus is very low compared to wild branch collection. Because the prices are so low on the wild stuff i guess most businesses see no economic advantage to setting up and looking after frags - it bums all of us hard core SPS guys in Aus. You guys are jealous of all the amazing looking pieces we have access to but we all wish we could order frags of acros with known colors and proven captive kept health. It is always a lucky dip as to how an acro will react color wise, no matter how much experience i have i am still caught out good and bad with my choices after all these years.

I had a look at your site Boomer ( since i don't know your name) and i like the fact your pics aren't all over the top ridiculous like 99% of the vendors. I wonder if you sell many frags of the Midnight Sunrise. When you compare the pic of your piece to say a pic of WD i bet nearly everyone would spend the extra dollars and purchase the WD frag over your Midnight Sunrise.

I have personally seen WD & Orange Passion in person kept as good as they can look, not wild stuff like those pieces - the real deal, exact same lineage acros you guys buy. Under blue LED dusk type lighting they look amazing. Under full spectrum daylight which is what most of us look at most of the time they both look 'nice'. Nice means i wouldn't put either in my display because every single piece i have atm is prettier than either - under normal lighting.

The Midnight Sunrise is the same acro i posted but has a darker polyp to tissue color contrast which is always a positive. Besides that it's colored almost the same as my piece which is one of my favs already because under full daylight lighting it has bright yellow fluoro tips with that same yellow protein on the lips of the corallites surrounding each tip - like a little jewelled crown. The skin and corallite color is a beautiful rich and clean bright peach color - not sort of peachy looking, nice crisp orangey pink peach. The branch pigment carries all the way down to the encrusting base meaning it is an acro that has no drab base color. When you look at an acro that is solid colored from tip to encrusting edge it stands out to the viewers eye more so than dirty or drab colored bases that most stuff has. The darker polyps have white tips which catches the light making them brighter than most dark polyped acros.

Under blue dusk lighting it has the fluoro proteins stand out but the rest of the colors aren't particularly showy under that lighting - who cares. Under full lighting it is a very bright eye catching glowing yellow tipped shimmering peach stunner that makes the other two look like dull green dogs............. chasing things that will never be as 'real' looking as you want often means you will overlook acros that will put a much bigger smile on your dial than other more hyped pieces.

Put a frag of Midnight Sunrise aside for me please Boomer.........

 

[chefjpaul]

I look Everything.
I look for beautiful patterns, healthy polyps waving hello, their current residents.

I also love the buy 3 brown frags for $10 @LFS.

 

[BoomCorals]

Yep the midnight sunrise was one of the best wild pieces I grew from a browned out mini colony. At one point I even broke a chunk off on accident and so I actually have two colonies of it now. It's a slow grower but looks amazing. While I have blue in my lighting from running LED it looks great even under 14k. Like yours under actinic or blue UV only it has pigments that show fluorescent but it's not as pretty.

And yea that's how the coral looks to the eye. I don't do a lot of photoshop other than color correction.

I actually need to frag it again as it's starting to encroach on my Hawkins echinata and cliffs acro. I usually sell out of the frags pretty quickly when I put them up. And I say 1" on my site, but that's the minimum. In reality most of them are 1.5" or more and multi branch etc.

As for AUS vs US grass is always greener am I right? Haha.