Garf Grunge Good?

[carolinespine]

Has anyone used Garf's Grunge? If so, how was your experience?

 

[thorsky]

I've used it on a couple tanks and liked the life that came along with it. If you want nice white sand beds make sure you dump it in the back out of site as it has lots of little rubble and other stuff.

 

[useskaforevil]

i used it, i'd say it was favorable, i could never prove it but i never really saw any copepods, amphipods or tiny brittle stars until i added this stuff. i went way low on their estimate of required grunge, just because i used it to seed my sand bed. of course it might have just been time and coincidence too

 

[kar93]

anyone got a link to the site?

 

[carolinespine]

GARF.ORG Great site... you will learn a ton!

 

[lancer99]

A waste of money IMO. I used it once, on one tank....didn't do anything that live rock or live sand won't do.

-R

 

[carolinespine]

Lancer.... I value your opinion, are you saying it did do something then? I am trying to help my live rock grow. Did you have any of the results the others had?

Thanks,

 

[ryan_paskadi]

ehh.... It might have microscopic life with it but nothing noticable. I have some of it in 2 systems. The system that has live rock and grunge is doing awesome (amphipods, isopods, worms galore, mysis shrimp, mini brittles). The system with just grunge and homemade base rock has nothing. I say buy 5 lbs becuase it cant hurt and go with another substrate.

 

[lancer99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11753398#post11753398 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by carolinespine
Lancer.... I value your opinion, are you saying it did do something then? I am trying to help my live rock grow. Did you have any of the results the others had?

Thanks,

Spine, I just don't think it's necessary. I've set up lots of tanks over the years, with and without live sand, and it all turns live after a while...

In terms of biodiversity, a cup of live sand from another reefer's tank will do everything grunge will IMO. And some Chaeto will bring in all kinds of pods, mini brittle stars, Stomatella, etc.

-R

 

[Nanz]

I purchased some of Garf’s grunge and placed it in my DT's refugium. It created a large ammonia spike of 3.0ppm in my tank. I was not very pleased with it. The grunge was obviously waste sludge. I work at a water/soil lab and it smelled just like pure waste water sludge that we get as samples here in the lab. I was stupid for putting it in my tank but I thought for some crazy reason it would help seed my sand bed.

If you use this stuff make sure it’s a new tank because it will cycle after you use it. I would only use it to startup a tank not a DT or one connected to it.

It could also have undesirable eggs in the sludge that you don’t want in your system like ich. Its best if you just buy a detrivore kit or get some LIVE sand from another tank.

 

[gotasplinter]

I have it in my 75 and you do get all kinds of critters with it. I order accasionally just to add to the system. I would recomend. But follow the directions. Turn your sump and powerheads off and let it settle for a bit after adding to your tank.

 

[hahnmeister]

lancer is right... if you use live sand/rock, the grunge might add some critters, but a vast majority is going to be in the rock/sand already. If you read GARF though, you will see that this isnt something they claim otherwise with. The idea of grunge is that you can just buy dry live rock and sand (much cheaper and enviro-friendly), and just seed it with this.

 

[GARFVolunteer]

I have used it most tanks that I have set up. IMO it helps, but so does adding live sand from other systems.

We do a sand exchage at our local club meetings. Every one brings an 8oz cup of sand. It is all mixed together and everyone takes home an 8 oz cup of sand. The best part is it is free. The worst part is you can get someone elses pests...

Thanks,

Scott