KILLER SPS in Divers Den

[sportzfish]

hey rik, when you get stuff from dd does it hold it color? and does it look like their pics. cause that is nice. I seen some stuff come into lfs right out of the boxs but they don't hold their color.

 

You mean like turn from bright blue to green? That happens to me.

[DaveS]

I have never been let down by the DD. They QT all their corals - you see them come in on their facebook page but they dont hit the site for weeks

 

Where is their FB page? I can't seem to find the pictures. I see the Live Aquaria page, is there a different one for DD?

[zygote2k]

What LFS's can we compare to the prices on Live Aquaria?

[Sikryd]

Where is their FB page? I can't seem to find the pictures. I see the Live Aquaria page, is there a different one for DD?

 

I'm not sure if they have another one. I see random pictures on the LA page. No DD updates there. I get those via email.

 

 

What LFS's can we compare to the prices on Live Aquaria?

 

Your allowed to compare them to any LFS, of your choice

I don't get the question.

 

If it is to be arguementative or a general pain the butt...I'll pass...

Edited December 11, 2009 by Sikryd

[davelin315]

Turning green in your tank can be a sign of nutrient levels. Corals can sometimes exhibit a color shift to green or brown when there is a factor in your tank that is allowing specific zooxanthellae to outcompete the colors that you saw before. This is not an atypical result when introducing a coral into a system, in fact, it can be quite common if you have any excess nutrients or different light than what it developed those colors in at first. This shift can happen rather quickly but the shift back does not exactly happen overnight, it can happen over the course of weeks or months, or possibly never at all. When you buy aquacultured - meaning it's been raised in a captive environment like someone else's tank, you have less of a chance of it browning out because it's used to captive conditions and has already adjusted its colors to what it will exhibit in captivity. Of course, this can be skewed because some of these are raised in greenhouses which have better lighting than you can duplicate in the typical home aquarium. Maricultured, on the other hand, means that it's been farmed in the ocean or a branch of the ocean. Although what we all strive for is to match the conditions in the ocean, it's not exactly the easiest thing to do in a closed environment... maricultured pieces will typically be pretty healthy and exhibit some awesome coloration and will usually go through less of a color shift because they are "farmed" and not chopped up recently, so they are a bit healthier. A wild caught piece is the most difficult of all. This means that it has most likely just been chopped off of a reef somewhere and you never really know what conditions it came from. It often will come in and after it comes in it will be chopped up and glued down to something. It has the most adjustment to go through and so is the most likely to go through a color shift or simply die. Wild caught, though, often have those colors that you can't beat, at least at first, so it's a toss up on what to buy.

 

In your specific tank, a coral that turns green may also be evidence that there are nutrients in your system that are allowing the green zooxanthellae to outcompete the rest of the colors. Have you checked into your nutrients lately? Boret also posted lately on how his colors shifted to green and he found that it was due to his lighting.

 

As far as comparing our local vendors to Live Aquaria, I don't think that you can really do that. They are completely different types of vendors and the pricing on each is fair as to what type of business they do. We have some outstanding coral prices in our area that compete with our outcompete online vendors at times, which is rare.

[sportzfish]

I think my nutrients are out of whack, trying to address it though. Thanks for the input.

[Leishman]

Where is their FB page? I can't seem to find the pictures. I see the Live Aquaria page, is there a different one for DD?

 

 

No. But the corals they post up are in the DD - never seen Aussie stuff in the CA section

[Leishman]

What LFS's can we compare to the prices on Live Aquaria?

 

None. 14 day stay alive on an SPS is unheard of.

[zygote2k]

As far as comparing our local vendors to Live Aquaria, I don't think that you can really do that. They are completely different types of vendors and the pricing on each is fair as to what type of business they do. We have some outstanding coral prices in our area that compete with our outcompete online vendors at times, which is rare.

 

 

None. 14 day stay alive on an SPS is unheard of.

 

I wasn't trying to turn this into an argument. Just simply wondering, but also wondering if an LFS could do similiar pricing and policies and still stay in business.

[magnetic1]

We could always trade frags with fellow members for free or at low cost

 

I do like some of the stuff on DD... perhaps it is time to organize a GB, or Group Trade. You buy one colony, I buy a colony, we both frag off one branch and trade!

[Coral Hind]

None. 14 day stay alive on an SPS is unheard of.

 

Absolutely unheard of!

[davelin315]

Rob, I don't think it's an argument, Rik pretty much said the same thing as me, just brought out that the guarantee is there, too. That is pretty unheard of, especially since they do it site unseen - you could have someone order some corals and put them into a freshwater aquarium without even thinking twice and still get the guarantee! Last time I made a claim they also didn't ask for any bodies or pictures, they simply credited my account for some fish. Again, though, different models allow different things to happen. I think with pure volume of an online e-tailer, you're looking at the ability to do this, which I don't think you have in our local vendors.