Ideas for January 2015 - Fiji, Raja Ampat, Maldives, Micronesia, Australia?

[Luko]

Reason I ask is, as mentioned in my OP we are revisiting Komodo in August this year. I wondered how similar the diving would be for 2 trips so close together and if another option would be preferable.

I dived both, IMO there is a little comparison between both, except for the manta ray cleaning stations, but then again, it could be anywhere else.
Komodo has more blue water and silverfish while R4 is like diving in a perpetual coral garden packed with fish, when Komodo gets colorful -and it does- it's loaded with a single color (I'm thinking of orange right now) while R4 is an array of mad colors, R4 has also magic dives in the mangrove that you won't do anywhere else.
If you're into specific critters, R4 has a much wider variety than Komodo, for exemple, you'd be hard pressed to find pygmy seahorses in Komodo while you just don't care anymore in R4 after a couple of dives, same for wunderpus that you find easily in R4 muckier dives.

In some ways Fiji is closer to Komodo (blue water, silverfish, soft corals) than Raja Ampat.

 

[Tippytoes12]

I thought that the coral was better in Komodo and so was the visibility. However the sense of pristine wilderness was greater in RA and the forests of sea fans in RA were amazing. I also loved seeing the dragons. But this is probably akin to comparing Roger Federer to Rafa Nadal playing tennis....both are truly awesome.

 

[Luko]

I thought that the coral was better in Komodo

Here are some hard and soft coralviews from Raja Ampat, and that's from Dampier's strait which is supposed to be inferior in terms of coral to Misool area :

the forests of sea fans in RA were amazing.

...And here's an image of seafans in Komodo

But this is probably akin to comparing Roger Federer to Rafa Nadal playing tennis

Yep...
Beatles vs. Stones
Magic vs. Jordan
Messi vs. Ronaldo
etc.

 

[HowDidIGetIntoThis?]

If you aren't a big fan of wrecks, scratch Chuuk off your list. The wrecks are marvelous but they are essentially the only reason to dive there. And you'd have to be prepared to go very deep to see the best stuff.