GARF Grunge

[fishman7us]

Has anyone used this stuff for anything? If so What was your experience? I Ordered 20 # for a refugium substrate and I was not overly happy. The product was full of a silty mud like sediment and was nearly void of the life that they claim it could have. Maybe my expectations were too high, but for $100+ bucks and a tank full of mud and dead leaves you can see what I mean.

 

[tkeracer619]

It is the stuff at the bottom of a rock curing bin. IMO its a way to make money from thin air.

 

[smatter]

I had the same experience. There was a little bit of life, but the stuff made my water cloudy for weeks and when it finally cleared there was a nice yellow tint. It now resides in my retaining wall where I needed to fill in where the chipmunks had excavated.

 

[fishman7us]

I believe that is where it come from and it is supposed to be the cats meow, according to them!

 

[CeeGee]

crap. Pure crap. Worst experience I have ever had dealing with a aquarium transaction. Service sucked and product was worse.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

My experience, if you order ANYTHING from GARF they will send you random garbage.
Some report good experience, most report bad.

 

[chaderic26]

I'd like to see a pic. I had heard it was just a guy in the back with some live rock and a hammer that makes the grunge. :eek1: If thats true what a rip.

 

[My2heartboys]

I've not had any trouble with it. Even if the stars and copepods die off in shipping, there is the benefit of bacterial diversity. I have ordered only once and have just recently reordered. I also know of a local reefer that has also had reasonably good experience with them.

Anne

 

[Nanz]

It was nothing but a black sludge with gravel. There was nothing living in my batch and it spiked my ammonia so high it killed some snails. Thankfully I had it in a refugium and was able to remove it before it wiped out my tank. Garf said I must have got a bad batch and was willing to send me replacement snails but I didn't want to risk buying anything from them again.

 

[fishman7us]

I see most share the same opinion/experience that I had. I hope others dont get scammed also.

 

[TheNomadRhodes]

Well I am glad I run across this thread! I was falling for the garf grunge hype but I see now its just that, I can get the crud out of my LFS rock bins for free.

 

[bsmith22]

I ordered 10 pounds of it... Nothing but rubble and junk. No life in it like they claimed. Emailed Leroy from GARF... he said be patient. That was in January. Still just rock crapping up my sand. Bad experience.

 

[Santoki]

I had the exact same experience with GARF a few years ago. Same goes for the "GRUNGE" stuff.
IME, GARF has some amazing photos and lots of brainwashing type hype advertising on their website. Their products and service is so-so at best.

 

[serval]

How about their cultured corals? Anyone tried those and liked/hated them?

 

[TheNomadRhodes]

I don't know, but after hearing so many peoples bad experiences with garf I'd be very weary about getting any thing from them, I'm interested to hear what people have to say about it..

 

[Marsfrogie]

A long time ago I TRIED to order some stuff from there but was never able to get them to return my emails. Seems like I lucked up

 

[newtophish]

I used the Grunge about 4 years ago and I was pleasantly surprised.

I was just starting out and had a 55 set up for my first tank. Sand and dead rock were all I had. I cycled with a cocktail shrimp.

When parameters stabilized I ordered 5 pounds of grunge. It was ugly but I dumped it behind my rocks. Within three weeks I had pods and tiny starfish and spots of coralline all over.

I have heard lots of bad things about them lately but my experience was pretty good. After hearing all the bad I kind of feel bad for everyone that are going down hill.

 

[fireman676]

I made the mistake of buying it. I bought it to seed a tank and all it did was muck up the entire thing. I ended up having to use a diatom filter to clean out all the fine sediment. I bought 20 pounds and they threw in 2 pounds of fuge mud. After adding the first 10 pounds I stopped and threw the rest out. It was full of rocks, sticks, rubber bands, and large pieces of rock (not crushed coral). I will never use it again nor will I suggest anyone else use it. I'm not trying to slam anyone, just give an honest recount of my experience.

 

[miatawnt2b]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14683088#post14683088 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by newtophish
I used the Grunge about 4 years ago and I was pleasantly surprised.

I was just starting out and had a 55 set up for my first tank. Sand and dead rock were all I had. I cycled with a cocktail shrimp.

When parameters stabilized I ordered 5 pounds of grunge. It was ugly but I dumped it behind my rocks. Within three weeks I had pods and tiny starfish and spots of coralline all over.

I have heard lots of bad things about them lately but my experience was pretty good. After hearing all the bad I kind of feel bad for everyone that are going down hill.

+1 here. Pretty much my exact experiece, except that was 8 years ago for me.
-J

 

[Nanz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14683543#post14683543 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fireman676
I made the mistake of buying it. I bought it to seed a tank and all it did was muck up the entire thing. I ended up having to use a diatom filter to clean out all the fine sediment. I bought 20 pounds and they threw in 2 pounds of fuge mud. After adding the first 10 pounds I stopped and threw the rest out. It was full of rocks, sticks, rubber bands, and large pieces of rock (not crushed coral). I will never use it again nor will I suggest anyone else use it. I'm not trying to slam anyone, just give an honest recount of my experience.

I think you and I got the same batch.. Was the rubberband green? I did the exact same thing you did but I ordered only 10 pounds and after putting in 5 pounds I got a reality check and realized this was not something I wanted in my tank. Then after a 24 hours my tank's NH3 spiked and I removed all the sludge, rocks, sticks and yes rubberbands, hehe. Thankfully mine was in a refugium and not my tank so it was easy to remove.