How to ID LPS before having to come on here and ask for ID

[PotatoPig]

What type are they I have no clue they were on the $15 rack I thought they looked cool so I bought them.

This is the way.

Some general comments:

1. How corals look at home vs the LFS can vary considerably. For one the LFS probably has a very good handle on lighting, I suspect they run UV a bit high, and also normally have much dimmer room lights than you might first think and frags are in tanks without sand and so on so aren’t being lit by light reflected off other surfaces- they’re very good at getting colors to pop. Buying online is that but dialed up to 11 because of image processing and zoom lenses…

2. Even lighting spectrum aside, color expressions can change depending on water chemistry, microbiome, feeding, flow, lighting schedule and so on.

3. These names are marketing tools and not every coral has a name. There’s “green torch”, red-green acan, etc. Stuff from the $15 rack probably falls on this category.

4. While there are certainly some cool looking corals (albeit being cautious about lighting tricks….) a lot of the expensive corals are expensive because they’re in fashion and are relatively new in the market and possibly are hard to keep. A lot of cheap corals aren’t cheap because they’re ugly or boring, but because they have been kept in aquariums for a while and are fast growing, hardy and do well in aquariums so there’s a huge supply as people are fragging them all the time. IMO this category has a lot of positives for beginners.

 

[H-TownMike]

This is the way.

Some general comments:

1. How corals look at home vs the LFS can vary considerably. For one the LFS probably has a very good handle on lighting, I suspect they run UV a bit high, and also normally have much dimmer room lights than you might first think and frags are in tanks without sand and so on so aren’t being lit by light reflected off other surfaces- they’re very good at getting colors to pop. Buying online is that but dialed up to 11 because of image processing and zoom lenses…

2. Even lighting spectrum aside, color expressions can change depending on water chemistry, microbiome, feeding, flow, lighting schedule and so on.

3. These names are marketing tools and not every coral has a name. There’s “green torch”, red-green acan, etc. Stuff from the $15 rack probably falls on this category.

4. While there are certainly some cool looking corals (albeit being cautious about lighting tricks….) a lot of the expensive corals are expensive because they’re in fashion and are relatively new in the market and possibly are hard to keep. A lot of cheap corals aren’t cheap because they’re ugly or boring, but because they have been kept in aquariums for a while and are fast growing, hardy and do well in aquariums so there’s a huge supply as people are fragging them all the time. IMO this category has a lot of positives for beginners.

Yeah I can see the difference in 3 of the small hammers I bought late last week. One I thought looked more blue in my LFS one was most defiantly more green and one I thought was more white turned out to be white with yellow tips.

I know where I am in the hobby and know that I need to stay in my lane when it comes to growing corals. I will get there eventually and I am sure at some point I will have some more advanced corals but only in time.

 

[Joe462]

Ok Maybe the biggest noob question ever but as someone new getting into LPS coral how is someone supposed to be able to ID coral to know whether or not its a good deal bad deal what kind is what ??I see way too many post where i bought this type of coral from my LFS said it was this and then on here they tell them nope its a this kinda of coral. Is there a guide that says a blue green HG hammer should have this appearance or a firework torch should have these colors ?? Or is there just too many variants to be able to do something like this ??

yes, lol. just google the name or whatever and then you can look at several examples and decide if you agree with the name and price in question. if you google the name and not much comes up you know they just made up the name. and use your own valueation, people will slap these mostly meaningless names on everything (95% of lps you see for sale is just imported) and tell you because of that its worth a certain amount, but the reality is that its worth how much you are willing to pay based on how much you like they way it looks.

but the best policy for a noob is just don't buy expensive coral, so if it has a fancy name and a big price tag, don't buy it. and when you aren't a noob you will know enough to not get taken advantage of (hopefully).