Anything grown in the ocean has to acclimate to captive conditions and that can be difficult and result in loss. While I appreciate the efforts and benefits that vitz pointed out regarding the amount of coral not taken from the wild for in ocean culture, I am a bigger fan of corals propagated in captive conditions because they do better in general because they are already acclimated to captive conditions.
I have purchased quite a few aquacultured SPS corals from DFS. I have been very happy with same. They show better growth and better color than most of the wild harvested SPS in my reef tank. I think that they are also easier to acclimate and color up much quicker after shipping than wild harvested SPS corals. Thats my .02$
I like coral frags as well and go with them as much as possible for the following reasons:
1) it's more environmentally conscious
2) you know the coral has thrived in a tank, and so it's more likely to do so in yours (provided the provideds, etc.)
3) you can find exotic frags that are far superior to most of of the stuff you'll find at your LFS.
4) small corals will grow into their environment in your tank and be most physiologically suited for their particular lighting and water flow. Large hunks of coral taken from the reef will not be as suited.
5) large hunks of coral placed in your tank look like large hunks or coral placed in your tank. Coral that's allowed to grow as a part of the tank looks far more natural in the long run.
No problem about the teasing,I wish this was my tank these pic's are Eascoastsps.com tank.I was talking to him about buying some corals and he flashed me some pic's.I asked him about the lighting he uses 250w halides on everything ,I think coralvue bulbs.