My zooplankton population is entirely from GARF grunge. My first tank was started with a 100% Grunge substrate and my DIY rock. I let my tank cycle with GRUNGE and homemade rock for about 4 months with no skimmer. I used actinic, 420nm, at 14 hrs./day for light. At first the life is slow to appear. After a month and a half, the new inverts were all over. By the time I actually put coral in the tank, it was completely overrun by a large variety of life forms. Some of the things I can see and identify are : several species of "pods", mini brittle stars, spaghetii worms, chitons, ctenophores, several different species of soft bodied worms and calcareous tube worms, rotifers, mysis, a variety of colored and clear sponges and several different species of coralline (dark red, purple, orange, pink).
Since my first tank, I have bought GRUNGE 2 more times. I have always been pleased with it. When you receive it, it has very little noticeable life in it. Amphipods or rotifers are the first things I see. If you let it sit in your tank and allow all the dormant life forms to develope, you will see it is not just a bag of sand, rubble and crap (tough it may appear that way). If you already have mature live rock or substrate in your tank, this life explosion will not see as dramatic. Also, running your skimmer during cycling with GRUNGE may remove many gametes from your water column and grunge; thus preventing, or slowing the development of your newly added plankton population before they have a chance to settle.
I still have my origional tank setup. I still find new creatures I have never seen in my other tanks with bought live rock. I hypothesize that some of the dormant organisms may take a year or two to develope into noticable creatures.
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