I got my order from Gulf Coast Ecosystems last night.
Two minor disappointments: (1) I had asked them to include some extra substrate (wanted more microbes as Sarah hinted), but there was none...probably coz the box was already full. (2) The Caulerpa sertularioides fa. farlowii that I ordered was much less than a "pint" as advertised....more like a frag about 4" x 1."
But they more than made up for it by including way more shoal grass than I ordered, as well as a nice big frag of (I think) Gracilaria, a big browny (Sargassum?) and some little bits of C. mexicana. So overall, an A-.
I thought I had this "seagrass planting" thing figured out...I cut a 4" tall ring out of a 2 liter soda bottle. The plan was to push it all the way into the substrate, then carefully remove 2-4" of sand from inside the ring, carefully put the seagrass roots into the ring, then replace the sand.
It worked like a champ, but after the first one, the tank was so cloudy that I was essentially working blind.
It didn't end up too horrible:
This is a bad pic of the C. sertuarioides fa. farlowii, worse than is on Gulf System's site:
This is the Sargassum sp. (I think) that they sent:
I added a couple of pieces of aqua-cultured Florida live rock...I think this is a Manicina, but will happily be corrected:
One more:
One last one of the Syringodium...I love its spirally twistiness:
Wish me luck!
-R