info on garf grunge

[fishonms]

WANTING INFO. ON GARF GRUNGE THINKING ABOUT PURCHACEING SOME ANY INFO WOULD BE APPREACIATED

WWW.GARF.ORG

AND INFO ON THEIR CORAL

[pearl]

http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=30283&highlight=grunge

http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=14381&highlight=grunge

http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=1812&highlight=grunge

[Snailman]

fishonms



<img src="http://www.reefcentral.com/images/welcome.gif"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>





I bought 50 pounds of GARF Grunge when I set the 400 up because I was looking for all of the diversity I could find. They packed it in two boxes. The Grunge (sand and rock rubble) were single bagged. :( Both boxes leaked all of the water out because the single bag got punctured by the rock. The boxes were so mushy that the carrier had bagged the whole box. If there was anything alive when it left GARF it was not when it got to me. Dr. Ron says that most live stuff in sand gets "ground up" in shipping. You are far better off to seed you sand bed with several local sources and/or get one of the sand bed boosters from ISPF and/or InlandAquatics. Get you keyboard fixed too. :)

[bf]

I added three pounds of this stuff to my DSB in a few patches in my 50 gal tank. I think it did great things but I can't really substantiate that. I did get plenty of pods and worms hanging out in the patches I placed it in. I also think it brought in a wide range of bacteria and coraline spores. But like I said, it's hard to know if it was the rock or the grunge, but I think it was the grunge.

[Snailman]

bf




[welcome]

[king1522]

I added some about a year ago. Must have had something dead in it. Had big ammonia spike. Didn't notice it until things started buying the farm.:mad: Must have been my fault though. GARF seemed to think so. :D

[Bubafat]

I got some also in my nebie days, and overall, I liked it. The people who say they can't see anything are the same who look at any live sand and can't see any. I got a couple different species of copapods, amphipods, and some mini brittle stars too. Overall, I liked it. I don't really like garf as a whole, the only good coral that they do have is their green slimer (which is WAY COOL), but i don't think I'd order again from them. Like it was said, just get a good detrivor kit. I think inland aquatics has some good ones. Wondermud from www.IPSF.com is WAY cool and very nice.

Whatever you get, get it from several sources. I've found that buying a pound or two from several places (petstores, other people's tanks, etc) is just as good as any GRUNGE or Wondermud.

Buba

[Bubafat]

Hehehe, forgot to add.

Snailman, you are one busy guy. Keep up with the good work.

Buba

[Terra Ferma]

I have never ordered "Garf Grunge," but I have heard the grain size is too big to look good mixed in a sand bed (Shimek style). If you want to seed your sand bed, you might just try getting the stuff at the bottom of your LFS's live rock tank-it seems like the same stuff IMO, and you won't run the risk of a horrific shipping experience like Snailman had.

[biomekanic]

Okay, given all I've read, this actually sounds pretty good for a mantis setup: pieces bigger than sand that it can move around and use as building material with mucking up the live rock. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gene Brewer]

I can't vouch for the Grunge. I have spoke to Lionel at GARF and he was really helpful in answering questions and such. I was going to get some grunge but ended up setting up a 4" DSB with Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand and seeding it with some sand from a local source and also adding some sand from a live rock buyout on another tank.

If you can get a little sand/bed material from locals it will save you a bundle in shipping. Also if you can get a well coated piece of live rock and crush it into small chunks (pea to marble size) use this to seed the sand you have.

Just some thought and info I have seen in other posts.

Gene

[biomekanic]

Actually, that sounds like a good idea. I'll check with the LFS's when I move, and see if any might be willing to give or sell me any small rubble that comes in. Failing that, I'll just buy a few pounds of rock and have at it with a hammer. Thanks for the idea, sometimes it's the obvious that escapes me while I'm looking for the subtleties.

[smartreef]

I also bought garf grunge when first started, only life was baby brittles lots. can't say that it made much of a difference and shipping was very stiff...
I'm planning to order from IPSF, myself:rolleyes:

[rufio173]

The Garf Grunge does have a lot of life in it because I started off with all dry aragocrete and no love rock and seeded with Garf grunge and soon I had mini bristle worms, spaghetti worms, copepods, but no amphipods. I for one think that Garf grunge is great but you should definitely try inland aquatics for their detritivore kits because you know exactly what you're getting.

[Gene Brewer]

.....soon I had mini bristle worms......

Can someone explain what is the difference between good bristle worms and bad bristel worms. What I mean by this is most live rock dealers will tell you to dunk live rock in a high SG solution of S/W and remove mantis shrimp, bristle worms and other non-wanted hitchhickers when they start moving out of hiding places.

If bristle worms are bad why would a reef keeper intentionally put Grunge (or anthing else for that matter) into their tank knowing it has or may have bristle worms in it?

:confused: Am I missing something here??????:confused:

Gene

[biomekanic]

Go over to ask Dr. Ron and he'll tell you all about bristle worms. basically, they're like the earthworms of the sea. just like the land, some worms are good, and some are bad, most of the aquarium ones are actually good.