BowieReefer84 October 26, 2013 Share October 26, 2013 I have not received my shipment yet, as it is not due to arrive until November 5th. However, the experience has already been so good that I am going to start my review now. I will update it once the corals arrive, and after they (hopefully) grow out for me. There are two other folks in on this order as well. A group buy of sorts. I searched relentlessly for a vendor with SPS a notch above what I have seen in my local area, and ended up on www.battlecorals.com. Did some searching and only saw positive experience from those on some of the national forums. I emailed back and forth with Adam Derickson until we decided on a pack. He cut them to order, and will let them heal a little over a week prior to shipment. Very nice guy willing to talk on the phone about his system and methodology of reefkeeping. I asked him a couple simple questions like what salt he uses and what alk he maintains, and he gave me a detailed email response with all his parameters as well as what equipment he uses, and husbandry. He just sent a quick text/photo of the corals this afternoon. "Hi mike Here is a quick pic I shot this am of all the frags but a couple of the monties. B they are in a separate system. Pic shot under 65k iwasaki. I promise you they glow under 12 or 20k. Let me know if you have any questions at all." battle corals 10.25.13 by mteske1, on Flickr Mine are the three with red arrows I drew. TOO BE CONTINUED... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime October 26, 2013 Share October 26, 2013 Wow, that's very cool. I find it hard to believe you had to go outside the area to find better corals! I'm interested to see how SPS handles shipping, and how your pieces will look in your tank. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 October 26, 2013 Author Share October 26, 2013 (edited) My area is not YOUR area (that statement was not a reflection of the vendors on this site)... For me to get to Northern VA is not easy. I have store like House of Trop and Todays Pet... Links to those three corals top to bottom: http://www.battlecorals.com/PANIC-acro-1897.htm http://www.battlecorals.com/Banannas-Banannas-Banannas-201.htm http://www.battlecorals.com/The-Purpy-Pillie-1599.htm Ps - The prices in our group buy ended up less than those prices, but I won't say how low. Edited October 26, 2013 by BowieReefer84 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime October 26, 2013 Share October 26, 2013 My area is not YOUR area (that statement was not a reflection of the vendors on this site)... For me to get to Northern VA is not easy. I have store like House of Trop and Todays Pet... Touche. I forget how big the VA/MD area is sometimes. Well played. Still following along! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM October 26, 2013 Share October 26, 2013 Werent you planning to do an entirely montipora tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 October 26, 2013 Author Share October 26, 2013 Werent you planning to do an entirely montipora tank? Yea, that changed. haha I am going to put some acros on the top peaks (7 acros total) with the montipora's all down low. I am picking up two monti from battle corals order as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsi1330 October 26, 2013 Share October 26, 2013 Adam is great! I have ordered from him before and was very happy. I am bad with names but have some of his corals grown out. Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 November 5, 2013 Author Share November 5, 2013 Order was picked up yesterday from seller at 6:22pm and at my door at 9:53am today. Had to take a day off... Here are pictures so far. Once corals acclimate and lights come on I will update. Screenshot_2013-11-05-10-22-11 by mteske1, on Flickr Screenshot_2013-11-05-10-22-00 by mteske1, on Flickr P1030221 by mteske1, on Flickr P1030222 by mteske1, on Flickr P1030223 by mteske1, on Flickr P1030224 by mteske1, on Flickr P1030225 by mteske1, on Flickr NO LIGHTS ON (2 of these in front were freebies) P1030233 by mteske1, on Flickr P1030234 by mteske1, on Flickr I'm happy. Not sure how the other two buyers corals look, but hopefully they will be satisfied as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott711 November 5, 2013 Share November 5, 2013 very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 November 5, 2013 Author Share November 5, 2013 Here are pictures I took with my samsung galaxy best I could: 20131105_152122 by mteske1, on Flickr 20131105_152106 by mteske1, on Flickr 20131105_152152 by mteske1, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt November 5, 2013 Share November 5, 2013 Nice write-up...what size did the frags come in as? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 November 5, 2013 Author Share November 5, 2013 (edited) The purple one is considered "small" per Adam's email correspondence, and the other two are as listed. I think on the site he lists them at 1" per frag or something. The monti on the right was large. The tubbs stelleta and sunset were the freebies. All prices were considerably less than listed on the site, and two freebies... I think that's good. Jason fox is charging $80 for 1/2" - 3/4" one of my freebies, that is like 2": http://www.jasonfoxsignaturecorals.com/product_p/m-41.htm Edited November 5, 2013 by BowieReefer84 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefbox November 7, 2013 Share November 7, 2013 Jason Fox is way overpriced. IMO. Battlecorals looks pretty impressive. Will be ordering Millies from him soon :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime November 7, 2013 Share November 7, 2013 What is this? http://www.flickr.com/photos/60938236@N07/10696807245/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 November 7, 2013 Author Share November 7, 2013 (edited) What is this? http://www.flickr.com/photos/60938236@N07/10696807245/ That is this http://www.battlecorals.com/The-Purpy-Pillie-1599.htm I didn't pay $100 though and my frag is larger than 3/4" that he has that listed at. I think I paid like $70 for that one (can't remember), which I am cool with assuming I don't kill it. His picture is top down of course, and mine is after being cut and shipped. I think it is very close to what is shown on his website as are all the corals I got. Edit - Post #3 in this thread has links to all my acro from his site. Edited November 7, 2013 by BowieReefer84 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime November 7, 2013 Share November 7, 2013 That is this http://www.battlecorals.com/The-Purpy-Pillie-1599.htm I didn't pay $100 though and my frag is larger than 3/4" that he has that listed at. I think I paid like $70 for that one (can't remember), which I am cool with assuming I don't kill it. His picture is top down of course, and mine is after being cut and shipped. I think it is very close to what is shown on his website as are all the corals I got. Edit - Post #3 in this thread has links to all my acro from his site. Thanks for all that. It's gorgeous, hope it grows quick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrench November 8, 2013 Share November 8, 2013 I got 10 frags as part of this group buy. All of the frags were giant by most standards. Every single one had multiple branches and were colored up very nicely. A far cry from the booger-sized, brown frags that are prevalent in the hobby today. Adam was a pleasure to deal with in every way possible. I would not think twice about purchasing from BC again or recommending him to anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefbox November 11, 2013 Share November 11, 2013 any updates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 November 11, 2013 Author Share November 11, 2013 The frags are looking good. It's only been a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefbox November 16, 2013 Share November 16, 2013 cool. I spoke with Adam . cool guy for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country November 16, 2013 Share November 16, 2013 Gotta love the box label "Please be Gentle Battlecorals Inside", wonder how many FedEx drivers think why do I have to be gentle, they're battlecorals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 February 25, 2014 Author Share February 25, 2014 I am just posting a followup that everything is still doing wonderful with exception of that sunset monti chip I received. That was a freebie though, so not a big deal really. The tubs stellata was also a freebie, and seems to be an extermely slow growing monti so far. The best of the bunch in terms of growth is the purpy Pillie. In about 3.1/2 months frag disk is completely covered. I'm not sure if this is slow, average, or fast, but I am happy it didn't wither away and die. 20140223_212505-1 by mteske1, on Flickr The deepwater and green thin branch are doing well, but not nearly fully encrusted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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