Best place to buy macros

R

rocksaus

New member
Pretty straightforward. Just wondering where everyone thinks the best place to order macros(and gorgonians) online is? I considered myself lucky just to find some halimeda at the LFS. Thanks for the help!
 
You can't go wrong with GCE. I've never had a bad experience with them, and honestly, I've never had a good experience with the other vendor I've tried.
 
Yes if your looking for good quantities of macro, Russ at GCE is a great resource. Also cruise around the forums... There's quite a few of us that trim and sell some occasionslly
 
Sounds like putting the macro algae into a quarantine tank for a brief look see would be advised. After looking around a little, everything they get is direct from the Gulf of Mexico.

Has anyone gotten their live sand for their refugium, thoughts?
 
chiefifd said:
Sounds like putting the macro algae into a quarantine tank for a brief look see would be advised. After looking around a little, everything they get is direct from the Gulf of Mexico.

Has anyone gotten their live sand for their refugium, thoughts?
Click to expand...

I haven't gotten their sand, but I start all my tanks with sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater which is also in the gulf and it's great stuff. The only thing I notice in there as far as "pests" is whelks. I just pull them out when I see them. Not that big a deal.
 
I just received my shipment of 20 Cerith Snails & cheato from Gulf Coast Ecosystems. I decided to keep it simple for now. Maybe I'll add some sand and decorative algae down the road to my sump. Hoping the cheato helps with my hair algae for now.
 
The sticky about this topic needs renewing.
I am in the process of moving my reef inhabitants to a bigger tank and reusing that tank as a planted tank. In the interim, I've bookmarked my favorites:
rock-n-reef on ebay
http://www.mysaltwaterfishstore.com/marine-plants
https://saltybottomreefcompany.com/Snails-and-Mollusks-_c_22.html
http://www.kpaquatics.com/
oh, and florida pets

Seems GCE wins handsdown for their price and selection.

Of these I've only bought from Rock-n-reef and got some gracilaria and ulva.

---
Regarding macro vs undesirable microalgae, I got Caulerpa slowing down my microalga. Caulerpa for all its crazy growth cannot compete totally howver. At any rate, I'm starting to think that I'm not a fan of tending fast growing macros anyway so that isn't a strategy I like to use.

edit: Oh and LA Reefs has a good rep I hear.

Does anyone know when the best "season" for availability is in general?
 
Last edited:
JZinCO said:
The sticky about this topic needs renewing.
I've bookmarked my favorites

Does anyone know when the best "season" for availability is in general?
Click to expand...

Do you have any experience with any of these websites or have you just found them to have a good reputation during research? Im also looking into buying some macros.

Also im not certain but with companies such as CGE that collect directly from the ocean I would hazard a guess that hurricane season (june-nov), where big storms whip through and dislodge large amounts of algae, would be "peak season".

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
 
Summer is usually peak harvest time. Calm seas and good weather are the key. Of course, a lot of macros are grown out in-shop too. It seemed like more macros were sold out than ever before, this summer. I suspect the demand has gone up, with more folks trying macros. I suspect also that most of the macro sellers are pretty small operations, unable to keep up with demand.

I like your idea of hurricane season. You'd think there'd be easy pickins' after storms.
 
michaelr said:
Do you have any experience with any of these websites or have you just found them to have a good reputation during research? Im also looking into buying some macros.

Also im not certain but with companies such as CGE that collect directly from the ocean I would hazard a guess that hurricane season (june-nov), where big storms whip through and dislodge large amounts of algae, would be "peak season".

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Just Rock-n-reef. They are a tad expensive when you want, say, just to buy Ulva but 99% of their other products (mussels, barnacles, live rock, etc) come with ulva and are cheaper. The others I have heard good things about. My LFS doesn't have much so I have been pricing things out online and looking for reviews. In a month or two when I am ready for the planted tank, I'll probably have to weigh price vs reputation vs availability when deciding what vendor to try out.

I saw Diver Tom had "plants" listed for a buck a pop. No idea what that means...

Next time I go back to Texas, I'll go scrounging around Galveston for Sargassum washed up on the beach.
 
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