Questions about Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (IPSF)
- Thread starter WheatToast
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OP
OP
WheatToast
2500 Club Member
Well, I just answered my own question by taking a closer look at the website. Though not displayed on the homepage, "Sargassum sp. MacroAlgae" is present on the ordering page. Yay
!
jhuntstl
Valuable Member
I've been looking into ordering the Live Sand Activator Plus package, baby bristles, brittle stars, mama mias and anything else that can help manage my sand bed. I've been gravel vac'ing for a while, but want to get out of that habit.
afrokobe
Valuable Member
I was moving some rocks around this weekend and let's just say when I stirred up the sand bed there were quite a bit of stuff. The spaghetti worm got huge, gave me some nightmares lol.
I guess my ipsf order is working
jhuntstl
Valuable Member
Well I ordered the 9 for $99 + the $19.99 mama mia worms w/ free shipping. Got everything you'd get in the live sand activator package plus some micro hermits, nerites, littorinid, baby bristles, and a their coral food. It feels weird introducing bristle worms. The last one I remember having was near 2ft long in a 40 breeder. I did not like putting my hands in that tank.
OP
OP
WheatToast
2500 Club Member
Update:
I finally ordered from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms and was incredibly pleased with what I received! See my build thread for more details:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/w...-40-gallon-breeder.852228/page-5#post-9462424
I finally ordered from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms and was incredibly pleased with what I received! See my build thread for more details:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/w...-40-gallon-breeder.852228/page-5#post-9462424
The snails I received in my Live sand Activator were Hawaiian Littorinid Grazers (Littoraria sp.), otherwise known as Periwinkles. Perhaps this was different for your order.
t5Nitro
Valuable Member
You guys running UV sterilizers doing the same as dosing live phyto after adding the live sand activator and mud? Few hours off after adding or leave it off for longer to let this stuff establish itself? Just added to my tank today.
OP
OP
WheatToast
2500 Club Member
I don’t use a UV sterilizer and have no experience with them, though to preserve biodiversity, I would be tempted to turn it off for about 2 days (the time it took for my water to completely clear after adding IPSF sand and mud).
t5Nitro
Valuable Member
Do you also notice the turbo grazers and nerites dislike water? I think this is the second time I've had them shipped to me. They inevitably end up on the outside glass or on the carpet, haha. Can watch them cruise up the glass and right out of the tank.
OP
OP
WheatToast
2500 Club Member
Oh, I the snails I received in my Live Sand Activator and WonderMud (these were the only snails I received) were Hawaiian Littorinid Grazers (Littoraria sp.) (I emailed and apparently, these are the only snails that are packaged with the LSA and WonderMud). However, they do enjoy venturing beyond the waterline in my refugium and entering other chambers in my sump
. However, I have never caught them outside the sump (waterline is too far from the curved rim).
jhuntstl
Valuable Member
Anyone get the micro hermits? They tend to climb all over my SPS, which is no big deal. But I did notice one hanging out in the same spot for quite a while on my flower pot monti. I noticed some missing tissue in the same location this morning. I'm sure it'll regrow in no time, so not too worried. I will be keeping an eye on those little guys, though.
BaghdadBean
Active Member
I had them in my tank for years, the only times they really hung out on any of my sps was when there was already some tissue dieback from other causes. I had a massive pocillopora colony that had shaded itself out pretty bad, and started getting hair algae on the understory. Added some extra micro hermits and they cleaned it right up, but the tissue never did grow back over those parts. Taught me some lessons about only having a single point source of light.
I loved IPSF, and I’m kinda amused that their website is still just the same. These days with the Hawai’i ban in place, it’s really comforting to know that you can still benefit from some Hawaiian biodiversity thanks to their offerings. When it comes time to get my new tank wet, I’ll definitely be ordering from them again.
I do have this to say though: the feather caulerpa was a freaking NIGHTMARE to remove when I lost the tang that used to eat it. I will never, ever, ever again use feather caulerpa in a display tank, or even in an attached refugium that doesn’t have a sponge over the return intake. It was amazing for nutrient export, performed better than chaeto for me back in the day, and absolutely made a great home for all sorts of little pods and worms. Such a great home, that I had to put on two sets of super thick rubber kitchen gloves to harvest it unless I wanted to look like a porcupine from bristle worm bristles. It grew fantastic under a crappy compact fluorescent light (do those even exist anymore?) and pulled nutrients out of the water like crazy, I was harvesting about a pound and a half per week, but it also really made the water yellow, and one time when I was late with harvest it all turned clear, made the water milky, and my corals all retracted. Fast water changes made it good again without any loss of SPS or fish, but feather caulerpa is not a good nutrient export for lazy reefers, because when it starts to shade itself out, it milk bombs your tank. It spread like crazy throughout my system, and the tiny root like structures it makes will sprout new “leaves” if you leave even a tiny bit behind. Effective strategy, but not that many tangs I had would actually eat it, and it is super aggressive. This time around, I’ll probably separate the feather caulerpa out and use it in a completely separate pod grow out tank, at least until I get the more desirable macros going.
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