What can "brown" do for you? A lot, actually! The UC "Ugliest Coral Contest is BACK!"

[uniquecorals]

Okay, gang… It’s been about 3 months, so it’s time for the return of our most popular contest EVER!l

We’d like to see who has the UGLIEST coral around! That’s right, let’s see that “golden” Acropora, the “Rainbow” Efflo that isn’t, the “earth-toned” Fungia, the Chalice that looks more like a paper cup, the torch that looks more like a match flame...you get the idea.

Do your best with the photography, okay?

We want to see an ugly CORAL! And we aren’t going to judge on just the pic alone..We need to hear a bit of the story behind it! Often times the stories are even more funny than the coral! Besides, it’s a prize package worth over $100.00, so you’re gonna have to WORK for it a bit, LOL.

We also don’t want to see sick and dying corals. That’s not cool. We want to see the most mundane, the most...boring, the most dull example of a HEALTHY coral. You know the one...That coral that, for whatever reason is just thriving in your reef...but it’s just friggin’ UGLY!!!

We all have that one...Some of us have more than one! That brown “Blue Tort” that just never colored up...Or, “how can that Nepthia be so darned GREY?” The one that, despite its ugliness, you just can’t bare to take out.

For your inspiration, here are some faves from the last contest:

Who can forget the last winner? Marquiseo for his uber brown "Mr. Invincible!"


And, of course, there was the unforgettable (or "forgettable") "Classic Brown" Lobo (that we affectionately called "The Steaming Pile") from Coraloliseffect (my personal fave, but the crew overrode my vote on this one):

And, who can feel anything but love for c_healy's super-mundane earth-toned "Tricolor" Acro?:

Once again, you can get some good out of having something bad! We want to reward those of you who show the true dedication to the downtrodden that only a reefer can.

What will you be playing for? Well, how about some things of beauty?

I mean, if you win this contest, you DESERVE it! We’ll give the lucky winner a couple of my very favorite frags: The insanely neon UC “Teal Tango” Acropora, and the the uber cool “UC Funky Watermelon” Chalice!

Seriously hot corals to make up for your seriously ugly one!


**Okay, some final tips/requests...Again, I’m the worst photographer in the world, so I get it...I can’t get a pic in focus if my life depended on it. However, since we’re trying to judge your ugly coral on its own merit, please do your best to get accurate focus and color. (LOL, I can just see a reefer doing a “reverse saturation” Photoshop edit to bring down the color...Arrghh REEFERS!)

Remember, we want more than just a pic and a one line description. We need a bit of background. You just can’t get by on your ugly looks alone, LOL!

Also, we want to end this contest on SUNDAY NIGHT by midnight PDT, so please make sure that all of your entries are in by then. We will announce the winner and be shipping the winner his/her prizes on MONDAY! (I always say by a certain time, and I never seem to hit that deadline…not sure why that is…LOL)

So there you have it...bring on the ugliness!

Have fun! We know that we will judging this one!

Remember, it’s not “brown”, it’s “golden” (at least, that’s what we say...)!

Thanks for playing!

Scott Fellman, Joseph Caparatta
And the UC Crew

 

[revhtree]

LOL! LOve this!

 

[Jlobes]

awesome! i have some uglies in my tank...not quite brown/golden, but not really what I want in my tank.

 

[jservedio]

I'll kick this off. This is the very first acro I ever bought so when I got it, I really knew nothing about them and grabbed the only acro they had at my LFS at the time - luckily it wasn't too much of a rip off: around $30 for 2.5" tall single branch frag.

They told me that under better light, it would color up very nicely and would be a very bright deep red with a neon green shimmer to it. I was very excited and took the best care I could of it. Fast forward about 10 months and it was doing great and growing like a weed, about 6" tall and 7-8" or so wide with a bunch of branches - unfortunately it wasn't that "intense red" I was promised and there was certainly NO hint of green whatsoever... Try as a might to get it colored up by putting it at top of the tank, the middle, and on the sand under both T5HO and Radion Pros, it wouldn't budge from it's lovely brown. Even with no nitrates, phosphates under 0.02ppm, perfectly stable Alk in a tank full of other super colorful acros (none from that LFS...mostly from Unique :bounce, it would simply not color up. I tried my best to dress this baby up for it's picture day, but even under nothing but UV and Royal Blue it looks worse than the coralline algae in the background....

This is the ugly duckling of my tank - can't sell it, nobody wants a frag, I couldn't even give it away... If I had to put a name to this beautiful earth toned color, I would have to call it "Clay" or "Brick". I'll call this the "Fire-Brick Stag".

Without further ado:

Even under actinics it looks like poo - the only acro I've ever had that looks worse than my coralline algae under actinic....

And don't confuse the tips of that acro for something resembling color - the tips were simply whitish - no blues, greens, or reds - just a nasty cream-colored brown growth tip and the clay colored branches.

 

[uniquecorals]

I'll kick this off. This is the very first acro I ever bought so when I got it, I really knew nothing about them and grabbed the only acro they had at my LFS at the time - luckily it wasn't too much of a rip off: around $30 for 2.5" tall single branch frag.

They told me that under better light, it would color up very nicely and would be a very bright deep red with a neon green shimmer to it. I was very excited and took the best care I could of it. Fast forward about 10 months and it was doing great and growing like a weed, about 6" tall and 7-8" or so wide with a bunch of branches - unfortunately it wasn't that "intense red" I was promised and there was certainly NO hint of green whatsoever... Try as a might to get it colored up by putting it at top of the tank, the middle, and on the sand under both T5HO and Radion Pros, it wouldn't budge from it's lovely brown. Even with no nitrates, phosphates under 0.02ppm, perfectly stable Alk in a tank full of other super colorful acros (none from that LFS...mostly from Unique :bounce, it would simply not color up. I tried my best to dress this baby up for it's picture day, but even under nothing but UV and Royal Blue it looks worse than the coralline algae in the background....

This is the ugly duckling of my tank - can't sell it, nobody wants a frag, I couldn't even give it away... If I had to put a name to this beautiful earth toned color, I would have to call it "Clay" or "Brick". I'll call this the "Fire-Brick Stag".

Without further ado:

Even under actinics it looks like poo - the only acro I've ever had that looks worse than my coralline algae under actinic....

And don't confuse the tips of that acro for something resembling color - the tips were simply whitish - no blues, greens, or reds - just a nasty cream-colored brown growth tip and the clay colored branches.

OMG...LOVE that story...I think that coral is a very strong contender...great back story that we just love to hear! And, the fact that UC frags dominate the tank is total extra bonus points (LOL, just kidding...gotta be unbiased!).

Seriously, with a great name, and lots of hype on the message boards, you could turn that baby into an "LE"...

Great entry to kick off...You set the bar really high...er, low...er...well, you know...

-Scott

 

[cee]

Scott,

I'd love to see some of your "brownouts". I know one of the most spectacular corals in my tank originated in your raceways as an Aussie "brown". As with most strawberry shortcakes, it probably was stressed from shipping but colored up spectacularly after a short "settling" period. I know that is a fairly "predictable" example but the "brownies" can morph into spectacular corals in the right hands or under favorable conditions. Sorry to "reverse" the request but everyone has some "hidden gems".

Dave

 

[CherryCorals]

I thought you were switching to UPS...

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

this is the only one i've got(wanted to play lol) and its a white out. no idea what happened to this beauty. whether i add to much carbon, gfo, or had a alk swing this guy went from this to that and as been for the last 2 months. the funny thing is when i would fed the tank reef roids or fauna marin ultra i could see the tentacles expand and close up and feast.
before acans

now acans bottom right

 

[davidr2340]

Here is my entry into this great contest! Can't remember what's it's supposed to be, but I can't get any color out of it no matter what! I look forward to seeing the other entries!

David

 

[Krazie4Acans]

I have three of them. They were all rescues from other tanks that have just never recovered. They all came from the same tank and I've had them for about 8 months. The first one is a green Digitata. The picture is from the day I got it.

Then here it is today. Growing good but... Well its ugly.

Then there is my lovely brown red planet. It was a 1/2 inch frag when I got it and here it is today. I fragged it to put in another tank to see how it would do under different lighting. So far is the same.

Last one is a red and green war coral that just wants to be albino. Doesn't matter if it's in light, in the shadow, or under an over hang. It stays this lovely shade of dirty snow with very pale green eyes.

There you have it. One of those should surly win.

 

[uniquecorals]

Scott,

I'd love to see some of your "brownouts". I know one of the most spectacular corals in my tank originated in your raceways as an Aussie "brown". As with most strawberry shortcakes, it probably was stressed from shipping but colored up spectacularly after a short "settling" period. I know that is a fairly "predictable" example but the "brownies" can morph into spectacular corals in the right hands or under favorable conditions. Sorry to "reverse" the request but everyone has some "hidden gems".




Dave

Ahh, I'll break out the camera and work on some gems! We've got brown...er..gold...But mine could easily win...got some really nasty ones!

 

[uniquecorals]

I thought you were switching to UPS...

The thought has entered our minds from time to time...but we're sticking with Fed Ex for now....

 

[uniquecorals]

this is the only one i've got(wanted to play lol) and its a white out. no idea what happened to this beauty. whether i add to much carbon, gfo, or had a alk swing this guy went from this to that and as been for the last 2 months. the funny thing is when i would fed the tank reef roids or fauna marin ultra i could see the tentacles expand and close up and feast.
before acans

now acans bottom right

It's working on a medal run, I can tell...

 

[uniquecorals]

Here is my entry into this great contest! Can't remember what's it's supposed to be, but I can't get any color out of it no matter what! I look forward to seeing the other entries!

David

THAT IS SOLID!!! I mean, really SOLID!!

-Scott

 

[uniquecorals]

I have three of them. They were all rescues from other tanks that have just never recovered. They all came from the same tank and I've had them for about 8 months. The first one is a green Digitata. The picture is from the day I got it.

Then here it is today. Growing good but... Well its ugly.

Then there is my lovely brown red planet. It was a 1/2 inch frag when I got it and here it is today. I fragged it to put in another tank to see how it would do under different lighting. So far is the same.

Last one is a red and green war coral that just wants to be albino. Doesn't matter if it's in light, in the shadow, or under an over hang. It stays this lovely shade of dirty snow with very pale green eyes.

There you have it. One of those should surly win.

Oh, man- WHAT A LINEUP! That's really sweet stuff..Judging this contest is gonna be tough!

-Scott

 

[Fengxzhang]

I have recently upgraded from a 90 gallon to a 200DD. During the transition process, I had everything planned out through a very specific timeline and ensured everything was "perfect". I had (2) 100 gallon Rubbermaid containers in the basement circulating water to maintain balance to transition all the corals over. I had even sold over 75 of my corals to make sure they don't break while I'm moving and placing them.

As everyone know, nothing really goes as planned. After being behind schedule and I attempted to clean up the work area, I had removed one too many heaters in the last Rubbermaid container. I woke up the next morning and realized the water temperature had dropped to 65 degrees. Luckily, all except for 2 frags survived. However, my rose milli have been forever brown.

This is under full daylight (85%) on both white and blue Apollo Reef LEDs.

 

[Pete H.]

Alright, so, I think I will give this "beautiful brown" coral contest a shot. The story is a bit long, but this coral has a lot of history with me. So, here is how it goes. ...

I was a little over half way through graduate school and I ran into a tank for sale. It was a good deal but money was tight. I begged the wife to pick up the tank. She relented but said she did not have time to help with it, that it was mine own, and that I had to find a way to make the extra money to pay for it. I was ecstatic. I had the tank set up and true to the agreement, I worked to get it up and running and had a very basic reef with cheap coral I found here and there. Well, my wife thought that the tank was full, however, I had just met this lady with an absolutely stunning tank. Obviously, I now had a new goal. .... For my tank to look like THAT.

Well, the best way I thought to do that was to have my wife see THAT TANK! So, I brought her over and she fell in love with this lady's tank. I thought while we were there to pick up a few more frags and I had the clever idea to have my wife pick out some frags that she thought were her favorites from the tank. Naturally, one of her favorites was the green spongodes. Here is a picture of the beautiful colony from the tank that we got the frag from:

The plating and the branching is stunning and the bright green is to die for in a tank. Well, we were able to get a really nice frag from the colony. It is the one on the bottom right:

I was super excited to get one of these beautiful frags in my tank. However, the polyp extension after I got this frag in was so extensive, it looks completely brown. I tried different locations. I tried different lights. I tried different tanks. The coral grew great, but there was absolutely no beautiful green. Just the brown, brown, brown. The crazy thing is this coral has been fragged out of my tank and looks beautiful in other tanks. The picture I am showing of my brown coral is the most recent growth on a transplant to my 135 gallon tank. Well, without any more waiting, here is the coral:

Overall, my wife has fallen in love with the tank and loves it almost as much as I do. However, to this day, she still walks by the spongodes and says, "I wish this one looked like the one we got it from." LOL.

 

[shse666]

The brownest Waving Hand (Anthelia sp.) on the planet. Grows like weeds too.

 

[Fengxzhang]

Hey Pete. Are you the Desoto Pete? Try to plast the spongode with a powerhead. The polyp will retract.

 

[Pete H.]

Hey Pete. Are you the Desoto Pete? Try to plast the spongode with a powerhead. The polyp will retract.

Hey Feng, that's me. Lol. I will have to try adding some major flow and see if that helps. Lol.