Gulf Coast Ecosystems (live-plants.com) Review

[grmoore]

Early last week I had sent a general inquiry to the folks at Gulf Coast Ecosystems asking about their macro algae collection proceedures and what they currently had in stock. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much since their site at live-plants usually shows most things sold out. Surprisingly, I quickly got a call directly from Russ there and we discussed what was in stock and what they had small pieces of that could be included as samplers. We also discussed the coming hurricane and the possibility of algae being broken loose that could be collected. Russ said to hold off until Sunday to place an order to see what additional algaes became available because of the storm. They got a solid +1 for calling me directly, and so quickly.

 

Come Saturday it was pretty obvious the hurricane had little impact on Florida and Russ sent me an email as such but said he would send another on Sunday to see if he had any additional wash-up algaes. As promised, he wrote me back Sunday afternoon - nothing new from the storm, so I placed an order with him for 1 Corky Finger Gorgonian, 1 Purple Rod Gorgonian,1 Cymopolia Barbata, 1 Acetabularia, 1 Halimeda Sampler and 2 Red Sampler Packs (Russ said he would put in small pieces of whatever he could find into the sampler bags). Each item averaged about $10, and shipping was $15. I got a notification early Monday that the package had shipped, and he even sent me the Acetabularia free. I was pretty pleased at that point, another +1 for the emails and the free macro.

 

Come yesterday, Wednesday, I recieved the package. Heavy and not crushed. There were sheets of insulation on all 6 sides, and 4 cooling packs on the sides. Everything was further insulated with newspaper. Impressive packaging for the low cost of shipping. Another +1 there.

 

Shipped in a Priority Mail box.

 

 

Wrapped in newspaper.

 

 

Now, mind you, I'm used to getting small pieces of algae from vendors, and usually not in the greatest of shape. I figured that was the norm. That certainly didn't prepare me for what I was about to find...

 

Each item was double bagged in foot long tubes filled with water. And it wasn't just water - these tubes were absolutely jam packed with algaes.

 

Double bagged tubes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought to myself, 'ok, self... this is a lot of algae'. I put the bags in my larger tank to acclimate for a few hours before I unbagged them and put them into my display tank. Well, there were literally dozens of various macros in there, and they were all way bigger than anything I've ever gotten from other sources. One of the bushy red macros has to be a foot in diameter if not more.

 

Here's a full tank shot of them all just put into the display tank awaiting final mounting and placement. This is going to take a while to do!

 

 

The only minor problem encountered was finding a pink brittle star in the halimeda sampler that I needed to isolate until I could verify it wasn't a threat. Certainly not much of a problem at all! Many of the algaes were on natural holdfasts, and the bulk of them were full plants, not just frags. There are so many different algaes that I've not identified or mounted yet, it will take days just to get it all sorted out. Please visit my build thread ( http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=279382 ) to see what I find.

 

I'm extremely happy with Gulf Coast Ecosystems. They were professional, courteous and provide an absolutely fantastic product. I wholeheartedly recommend them and will definately be a repeat customer.

[NinjaBum]

Yeah, I was surprised when I received my Caulerpa from them as well. It was a massive amount.

[got2envy]

Thaey are the bom diggity

Just orerd some macros from them and they arrived in the same condition as yours

[calvin]

I placed an order with them tonight before I saw this thread. I'm almost afraid of how much algae I'm going to get now