Best Places to buy Decorative Macroalgae?

OHaley · Aug 15, 2020

I am looking for suggestions on places to purchase decorative macroalgae! Hopefully, I can compile a comprehensive enough list for a stickied thread. There were one or two similar threads but they are many years old. If you are suggesting a place you have already bought from please include a star rating review

!

Places I have found so far (but haven't bought from)
Gulf Coast Ecosystems, live-plants.com
Liveaquaria
Algae Barn
Indo Pacific Sea Farms (more so tang food than decorative specific)
On the marketplace here, though nothing currently

harrylikesfish · Aug 15, 2020

I think algae barn sells macros.

Fezbearer · Aug 15, 2020

Indo Pacific Sea Farms

ichthyogeek · Aug 15, 2020

Gulf Coast Ecosystems: 4.5/5 stars, for three packages of Hypnea algae. Only reason that it's a half star off, is because the hypnea came attached to some gravel to weigh it down, which might be okay for some.

AlgaeBarn: 4/5 stars, for multiple species, but focusing on their Macro package of three types (Red Ogo, Ulva, Chaeto), as well as Hypnea. They give you a LOT of clean macros (Ogo, Ulva, Chaeto) in those tiny jars, which is pretty worth it. Sometimes the Ogo comes in green and not red, but it does color up, and they're pretty good at replacing the orders. I'm not sure what's going on with their Hypnea production though. I definitely feel like I overpaid for it, and it melted away both times (the second time as a replacement) on me, not due to lack of care though. Customer service was ok, but not 100% stellar (I had to keep badgering them to make sure they gave me a refund about the Hypnea....). Also Customer service apparently doesn't accept .HEIC files?

Ebay: 3/5 stars, for multiple orders of Caulerpa over the past few years (it's so hard to find C. prolifera....). Hit or miss with this one, sometimes it comes in really nice. Othertimes you realize you paid 7$ for 5 tiny blades of macroalgae.

OHaley · Aug 15, 2020

Okay so for some reason I can't edit the main post anymore? So I guess this will be more of an info collecting thread, and I will eventually make another post when I have collected all sites/ratings.

danieyella · Aug 15, 2020

I haven't ordered macro algae from them, but i just placed my 2nd gorg order with liveplants.com since the first came in such great quality

creativeballance · Aug 15, 2020

I know reef cleaners sells macros. I haven't gotten any from them yet.
I've bought CUC from them and its good, so I would trust them.

Got a caluerpa and calcified sampler package. Got an unknown crab hitchhiker (probably a mithrax) and pods.

Good quantities of both samplers. Arrived healthy looking.

NashobaTek · Aug 15, 2020

Gulf coast ecosystem sells large amounts of it per bag for a decent price. Ships fast and well packed. The only issue is you need to check it all for hitchhikers. Mostly good ones, micro Stars, bristle worms, feather duster, and I think I found a couple of curly que nems. But I removed the nems. Everything else went in the tank. So my rating for them is 5/5.

IPSF, I have ordered from but it wasn't for the macroalgae, however every bag of snails, stars, pods, toadstool coral had several pieces of macroalgae in them. Again well packed and shipped fast. 5/5 for them as well.

creativeballance · Aug 15, 2020

creativeballance said:
I know reef cleaners sells macros. I haven't gotten any from them yet.
I've bought CUC from them and its good, so I would trust them.

Got a caluerpa and calcified sampler package. Got an unknown crab hitchhiker (probably a mithrax) and pods.

Good quantities of both samplers. Arrived healthy looking.

I forgot to say that the macros I got from Gulf Coast ecosystems. Sorry about any confusion!

samnaz · Aug 22, 2020

Reef Cleaners

Plants/Macroalgae

Whether you want to setup a refugium, or add diversity to your display tank, plants and macroalgae are an excellent addition if you want to mimic nature at home. They are also a cost effective way to dress your tank with living organisms.

www.reefcleaners.org