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Cultivated Reef

A Quick IPSF Review


enigma70x7

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I just received my order from IPSF today and thought I'd do a quick review of what I bought.

 

First off this is what I ordered.

  • Coral Heaven Food
  • Bristle Worms
  • Wondermud
  • Sargassum
  • Short Feather Caulerpa
  • Strombus Snails
  • Microhermits
  • Reefamphipods
  • Livesand Activator
  • Reefplankton
  • Pinkycuke

 

Coral Heaven-

Looks like some sort of extruded pellet food that has been mostly ground to a fine powder. Interestingly on the front of the package it says to "Keep Refrigerated".

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Bristle Worms-

Exactly what you would expect.

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Wondermud-

Around three cups of a really fine grain sand that had several Spaghetti Worms, Bristle Worms, pods, bits of algae, a few snails and I'm sure many other critters that I couldn't see.

 

Sargassum-

I'm really disappointed with this one. I was expecting true Sargassum algae and received bag of miss-labeled Grape Caulerpa. :angry:

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Short Feather Caulerpa-

As I was picking out the Strombus Snails and I noticed that this stuff was full of flatworms. Needless to say that this got tossed out along with the Grape Caulerpa.

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Strombus Snails-

These are actually some type of small conch that eats algae and readily reproduces in a standard reef tank environment. IPSF is the only place that I know of that carries these.

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Microhermits-

Really small white tipped hermits. I got quite a few in my order. I took a photo of one on top of a dime so that you could see just how tiny they are. I also had one running around without a shell!

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Reefamphipods-

Lots of Amphipods packaged with a bit of algae.

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Livesand Activator-

About two cups of crushed coral that is full of life. I noticed a few different types of worms, pods, algae, and other small critters in this stuff.

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Reefplankton-

As far as I could tell this was a bag of saltwater with little bits of grungy looking algae or floating detritus in it. I'm sure you would need a microscope to tell exactly what is in there. Supposedly this is strait from the ocean and full of zooplankton and phytoplankton in the 50-1000 micron range.

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Pinkycuke-

A small Sea Cucumber about two inches long. I have no idea what kind it is or if/when it will outgrow my tank. I'll update as soon as I am able to get more info on it.

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Bonus-

I also have a few of these snail that I found randomly distributed amongst the bags. I'm not sure what they are but they don't like to stay in the water.

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I'll update this later once I have more time and the cloudiness in the tank has settled a bit.

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Wow. That was a "quick" review? I can't wait for the long version!

 

I've wanted some of the micro brittle stars from IPSF, I just can't seem to ever find enough stuff to order to make the shipping worthwhile.

 

Ya know, that's something that was totally missing from the stuff I got. You would think that there would be at least some sort of small starfish in the livesand or wondermud. Especially seeing as how the wondermud supposedly comes strait from from a saltwater pond that is continuously exposed to unfiltered seawater.

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Hey, I know it's too late now... But the flatworms from IPSF aren't particularly dangerous. I've got them in my reef and have seen no harm done to anything in my tank. The mandarins think they're delicious, btw.

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xerophyte_nyc

The Strombus snails are great. I had a bunch of different snails in my first tank that I added last spring, from ReefCleaners and IPSF. As the tank matured and food sources evolved, the only ones that remained were hitch-hiker Stomatellas, dwarf Ceriths, and tons of the Strombus. They reproduce very well, and make their way everywhere even trapped in the powerhead grates.

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Hey, I know it's too late now... But the flatworms from IPSF aren't particularly dangerous. I've got them in my reef and have seen no harm done to anything in my tank. The mandarins think they're delicious, btw.

I really hate that they basically take over the tank, look like crap, and compete with other critters and corals for pods.

 

 

how was insulation etc? would it be ok ordering from him in the winter or do you think its better left until spring?

My order came shipped insulated with 1" thick foam board and had a small 24h heatpack. Despite the insulation, the water was still really cold. I would have to guess it as down around 60-65f. I had zero losses though.

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TeflonTomDosh

I'm glad this thread popped back up. I plan on trying these guys out once I decide which way I'm going to go with my next tank.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I missed this the first time around. I might do a refresh the tank order.. I for the life of me can't get spaghetti worms for my sand bed.. I have everything.. bristles, feather dusters, thos ugly spiderweb Vermetid Worms.. I hate those things and am always gluing them into their holes.

 

are the speghetti worms the same thing as their mia mia worms? Any help on that would be great.

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xerophyte_nyc

IPSF "mama mia" worms are Ciratullids or "hair" worms. The terms "spaghetti" and "hair" worms are often misused, but I think spaghetti worms are Terebellids.

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  • 4 years later...
  • 4 weeks later...
On Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 4:42 PM, Weetabix7 said:

Anyone here tried IPSF recently? 

I love all of the microfauna they have available. 

I ordered snails, macros, mini stars, and amphipods a few months ago.  I was very pleased with the order, and have another 9 for $99 on the way.  I went with more snails, crabs, and a few other things this time.  The first order was packed well, IPSF had great communication, and everything looks great in the tank.

 

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On 3/14/2017 at 4:42 PM, Weetabix7 said:

Anyone here tried IPSF recently? 

I love all of the microfauna they have available. 

I had a great experience with them.  I will use them again when I set up my big tank.  

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My IPSF order arrived yesterday, and went exactly as expected.  Everything arrived alive, and all the critters are cruising around cleaning up my tank.  This time I ordered:

Pods

Chaeto

Hermit crabs

Snails

Live sand activator 

Wondermud

 

Great vendor! 

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29 minutes ago, WRX said:

My IPSF order arrived yesterday, and went exactly as expected.  Everything arrived alive, and all the critters are cruising around cleaning up my tank.  This time I ordered:

Pods

Chaeto

Hermit crabs

Snails

Live sand activator 

Wondermud

 

Great vendor! 

 

Can you give more details on what the live sand activator and wondermud is like, and your thoughts on it?

Thanks so much for posting about them!!

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LSA is like a big scoop of sand and crushed rock out of a tank.  Snails, hermits, some worms, pods, and some pieces of macro algae were in the bag.  

 

Wondermud is more of a finer slurry, it had less snails and hermits, more worms, and probably a ton of critters not easily visible by me without magnification.  

 

Both are teeming with life,  I feel they add a lot of biodiversity to my tank, especially considering I started with dry rock.

 

I personally prefer the look of the snails from Hawaii compared to Atlantic varieties.  I hope this helps!

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5 minutes ago, WRX said:

LSA is like a big scoop of sand and crushed rock out of a tank.  Snails, hermits, some worms, pods, and some pieces of macro algae were in the bag.  

 

Wondermud is more of a finer slurry, it had less snails and hermits, more worms, and probably a ton of critters not easily visible by me without magnification.  

 

Both are teeming with life,  I feel they add a lot of biodiversity to my tank, especially considering I started with dry rock.

 

I personally prefer the look of the snails from Hawaii compared to Atlantic varieties.  I hope this helps!

 

That really helps A LOT, thank you SO much!!!! :flower:

 

I have this project in mind that I've been wanting to do for a few years now, and those 2 things are something I've had in mind to use for it. 

Really appreciate it, thx again. 

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You're welcome :)

 

Here's a pic of the LSA, I mixed it into the sand a little bit.  I like having the varying grain sizes.  I'm pretty sure the sand in my tank is arag alive special grade if that helps with a size reference.  

 

The little white speck in the top right against the black back is some poor pod getting blown around the tank.  

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