Recently Used John's Custom refugium mud that he uses for well ... Refugiums. It also works VERY well for sea grass beds.

I 've been now using this mud for a few months and comparing it to a section of the tank that is filled with walt smith's fiji mud.

I can say hands down, that john's mud has far superior growth for my sea grass bed vs the regular fiji mud.

I even ordered a few different rooted macros which all have taken off with unprecedented speed.

I would HIGHLY recommend his mud for any type of marine planted setup as well as for tank stability. it just adds another layer of protection and encourages the right type of growth.

cheers to Reefcleaners and john maloney, you cant go wrong with him.

thanks Sbcaes! Glad to hear it is growing well for you.

I just received my shipment, and I must say that I'm very pleased. The plants are looking good and the snails seem very healthy! Shipment was packed very well, including a heat pack, and there were no leaks in any of the bags.

A few minutes after they were added, the nassarius uprighted and went about burying themselves.

As an added plus, I found a three inch long(when stretched out) apodid sea cucumber(aka "medusa worm") hitchhiking along in the halimeda! This is the second one I've had come along in an order from reef cleaners(unfortunately the first one met the powerhead; security has been improved since then) and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll survive the drop into the tank. Though, if it could take nearly 48hrs out of water, it's chances are looking good if the hermits don't bother it.

::edit:: Make that two cucumbers. A smaller 1.5" one just crawled out of the base of the halimeda.

Just got my CUC, it's awesome as usual. Almost everything survived shipping (minus one tiny hermit, his body was floating in the water upon arrival R.I.P.) and I'm sure I got more than I paid for. The penny algae is a cool feature and definitely worth it. I can't wait to order some macros once I save up a little bit. A+ service and the price can't be beat. If you're debating on whether or not to order from John, stop thinking and click Order already!

good to hear. every so often one particular breeding invert takes over in the tanks, it was caprellid amphipods once, dwarf pheasants, and even some common doves and mini porcelains, but they seem to be doing pretty well now. I notice them more often on the branching macros, not that I have many. I think I would be more popular though if there were a bunch of mini brittles.

save your money i hatesears, macro season is a few months away still.

Pictures or it did not happen!

Received my shipment today (it actually arrived yesterday but the shipping dept messed up in our office!). Regardless, everything was still alive, in great condition, and I'm sure more than what I ordered was shipped. DAMN SOME OF THOSE BROWN STRIPE HERMIES WERE GYNORMOUS ! I shoulda done more research before buying 8 of them for my Solana 34g LOL, I may have some free brown stripe hermits for free local pick up once my tank is nice and spotless.

oh yeah, they only get bigger too. donate them to an lfs, LFS donations today bring frag hookups tomorrow.

just got my order John and as always never a problem!!!! u da man!!!!

glad to hear it! USPS killed me on a rock shipment 2 weeks ago, so it is always great to hear when the other packages are arriving on time. Everyone waiting for the rocks though was very patient with us though, we are very fortunate that way.

great guy great products!

John's service is second to none. 2 orders and nothing but good things to say.

DAMN JOHN! You sent me like 1,000 snails! LOL!

I've said it multiple times before - John and Reefcleaners is UNMATCHED in the biz. Thank you for the amazing Christmas present man. My algae problem doesn't stand a chance.

-Daniel

oh good to hear! keep me posted with your progress against it, i like stories about that cyano dying.

Will do - the top tank is actually almost eradicated. The hermits and nerites up there really pounded the stuff back.

well you know how it will be with that stuff right? leave a little bit and it comes way back. Before you trade the excess cleaners make sure it is absolutely gone.

oh, they're staying in there for a good long time, lol.

John is awesome.
I ordered a CUC for a 10g tank, and I think he sent enough for a 30g tank.
But that's not the really great part.
Wanna hear the really great part?
Here it is-- the snails were shipped Priority, but actually took 4 days to arrive, because of Holiday Shipping I'm sure.
However, I would say that at least 90% of the bajillion snails he sent survived, which is just crazy.
I now have so many snails I could start a Species Tank just for snails.
THANK YOU JOHN!!!!

snail tank?!? knowing when you have gone too far with a reef addiction is the first step....

Got my snails for the 125g fast shipping and great communication

It's a whole lotta snails!!!

Thanks John!!

thank you got2envy! "fast" shipping was a little generous, but I will take it!

John is a pleasure to deal with! I got my 50lbs of dry rock delivered (north of the border), it took a bit longer than expected because of customs, but i wasn't in any rush. Rocks are beautiful!!

Good to hear! Rock has been slow in general lately though...we are looking at UPS. Glad the look good though, the texture makes up for the time I hope.

i just got my first order from reefcleaners and holy cow are there a gazillion more snails than i ordered!!! im super pumped! i cant wait to watch my algae on my bare bottom receed! thanks abunch john! EVERY1 ORDER FROM THIS GUY!!

i plan to definitly order again and get some more types of snails! thanks abunch john!!!

no sweat! Thanks for the very kind words.

John is teh shizz

just ordered from you!! hopefully get it soon!

thank you! & thank you! I have run out of things to say I think...

Received my order from Reef Cleaners this morning (personally delivered by John Maloney hisself, BTW!) and as everybody has said, WOW - that's way more stuff than I paid for! Thank you, sir!

The fuzzy chitons look cool!

I filled out the form for a custom crew, and got the suggestions today.. I went to the site and put all items suggested in my cart..it came to like $10 for 37 snails!! OMG! I bought 6 Nass. snails from the LFS and spent $20( and 2 of them died within the first 5 hours)! I will be ordering ASAP!

John, you are a wonderful asset to the Reef Hobby!

no problem mudfish! i told my brother about my trouble finding the place, and then where it was....he laughed so hard he almost spit out the soda he was drinking.

thanks dulcy doll, we try to keep them low if we can

Glad I found this thread. Guess I know where I'm ordering my CUC from when the tank is ready.

I had a question about the mud for the refugium though (I've never heard of it before). Do you put the mud on top of the sand bed in the refugium and then "plant" the macro algae in the mud?

Sorry if that's a stupid question but this is the first I've heard of it.

you would want to plant it the other way around. sand looks better than mud, so have that on top. plus it is usually coarser than the mud and wont be moved by powerheads as much....not that this is really compact though..

So you'd have to take your sand out and put the mud in then the sand back on top?

i wouldnt disturb a established sand bed. if the tank is the one in your avatar, this isnt right for you...the tank is too far along.

Got another dry goods order from John - i'm trying out his new freeze-dried food collection. I have it on good authority that it's all very high quality name brand stuff, it's just white-labeled. His customer service was excellent as always. I'm using the Filter Feeder formula in my tank and i'm measuring the SPS and NPS coral growth/PE/color to see how it works. I will post another review after I've had sufficient time to see results.

I should also mention he doubled my order for free, lol. Thanks John!

^^^ I'll be watching for this. I feed my tank a lot, and the damn foods are way too expensive, IMO. I just noticed John's food on his website the other day, and was very impressed with the low prices for what looks to be high-quality food. Here's crossing my fingers!

Since it's freeze-dried it takes a bit of prep (not much energy, just time). I throw a pinch in a bowl and add some tank water to re-hydrate. Give it a while to absorb the water and in the tank it goes. At the price, if this stuff works it's an incredible bargain. One bottle should last me many months.

hope it works for you!

Received 50lbs of dry rock. Despite the box looking like it had been dropped kicked a hundred times, the rock arrived in excellent condition. One more thing - compared to the marcorock I have, this rock arrived CLEAN. A quick rinse was all that was needed. With the marcorock, I had to really scrub a lot of crud off. Thanks again John.

lol...I think they rolled them down the hill last week. Glad to hear they didnt get broken up too much.