Garf Grunge

[ab420]

Some of you may remember me asking about Garf Grunge, well Leroy called me a few days ago, and before I spoke with him, I had made up my mind to just skip it. But, he was very nice on the phone and talked with me for a while about my tank, and offered to send me 4 pounds shipped to my door for $21. I figured I'd give it a shot, at the very least, maybe it would help my coralline growth, and get some new colors in there.

I have heard so many people for it and against it, so I thought I would share my experience as well.

I got the package today, it was packed well and had a heat pack in there, and was of a decent temperature when I opened it.

First thing I noticed: I have read many people complain that the grunge was made of large rubble... I can't speak about the quality control, as this was the only time I have purchased it, but I had very little large pieces mixed in. In fact, the majority of it was a nice, light colored, very fine sand.

There were some small shells and tiny bits of rock mixed in here and there, but for the most part, it was all small stuff.
However, two large pieces stuck out immediately...

1) was a coral plug - no feelings either way on that really...
2) was a small rock, with 10-12 zoanthid polyps on it!!!

AND THEY ARE ALIVE

Right there, in the middle of the grunge, a rock with living coral on it!

They are not too happy yet of course, so they haven't opened yet, but I am fairly confident that they will make it.

There was a TON of small bits of coralline all over, which I was pleased with. Very nice colors too, lots of different shades of purple and pink.

It did of course cloud my tank like crazy when I first added it, but it cleared up for the most part within a few hours.

So, all in all, I got:
~ 3 pounds of fine live sand
~ 1/2 pounds very small rubble / shells
lots of bits of coralline algae
a few small bits of rock rubble
1 coral frag plug
10-12 zoa polyps

all for $21 shipped to my door!

So, that's one more vote FOR Garf Grunge. All in all, I was very pleased with my purchase, and if I was setting up a new tank, I'm pretty sure I would order some grunge again to help get things going.

 

[ab420]

A couple things I forgot:

I wasn't sure what to expect, but was pretty cautious due to things I have heard in the past, so I carefully sifted through it in a big bucket before adding it to my tank.

I have to say, that was pretty fun! There were a few small old coral skeletons that were cool to look at, as well as a few snail shells that were perfectly split in half, which was kind of cool to see the inner structure of it.

I didn't find anything that doesn't belong in a reef tank, so that's a plus, however I did not see all that much moving around in the sand.

Now, I wasn't under the best lighting when I was looking through it, and I've heard from other people that 2-3 days later is when they really noticed all the new life, so I will post an update if I see new stuff popping out.

 

[Glenn E King]

Thanks- GARF Grunge

Discussion removed

 

[ab420]

A little update:

2 of the zoanthid polyps that I found in the grunge are just BARELY peeking into the tank now...

...and what's this? One of them looks like it's purple with a white/cream center, and the other looks like its green with a yellow center!

Looks like there's some variety in there!

And... I was able to take a better count of the polyps... there's actually about 23 of them!!!


Also... the water is completely clear now... however, last night my skimmer started rattling and sounding pretty rough. The foam prefilter on the intake pump was CAKED with junk. (I only turned it on abuot 2 hours after putting the grunge in)

It was so caked, it could barely suck water in, so that's something to keep an eye on when adding grunge.

Something else to note:
most threads I have read about using grunge, were from people who were setting up a new tank

this tank was originally a 10 gallon for about 8 months, then about 4 months ago, I moved it into a 20 gallon, and had to add a lot more sand, which is why I'm trying to reseed some more life into it.

From some bad advice (thank God I found this site, this happens a LOT less now!) I put zeolite (ammonia removing crystals, not the ZEOvit products) in my filter, which crashed my alkalinity, and killed off most of the coralline algae. Everything is fine now, that was a while back, but I needed some more coralline to seed the tank with, so that was another reason for wanting the grunge.

Most people (from what I have read) dump it right onto their rocks, to help get the coralline going. Since my tank is established and has coral all over the rocks, this was not an option. I had to put it all on the sand area in the front of the tank, and push it around the sides and under the rocks and stuff to cover the rest of the sand.

So, it will be intersting to see how well this helps the coralline growth on my rocks as opposed to the people who dump it right onto the rocks.

 

[Scott]

Discussion removed

 

[ab420]

Discussion removed

 

[ab420]

So...

The zoanthids are still recovering from being in the grunge... but they look like they will make it.

Keep in mind... when I spoke with them on the phone, I started off saying I changed my mind after speaking with some people... so they offered me a very good deal, and I took it. I recently had an alkalinity crash, and lost most of my coralline, so I figured at the very least, the grunge would help out with that.

BUT... they knew I was skeptical, and also knew I talk to other reefers, and said he wanted me to try it out and tell people how it went... so the zoa polyps may or may not have been an accident...

As far living stuff:
I have seen nothing but a couple bristleworms. I seriously did not find 1 single pod of any kind in the grunge, and haven't seen any in it since...

As for coralline, it's way too early to tell if it will help, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

All in all, because of the deal they offered me, and the free zoas, it worked out pretty well, but like I said, I can't be for sure if those zoas were added in there on purpose with the hopes of me telling other people...

 

[Cardiak]

Discussion removed

 

[ab420]

Well at least your upholding your end of the bargin after recieving that gift

Yea, and honestly, I don't care what the reason for them being in there was... I'm glad I got them, and they are looking better everyday!

There's about 6-7 polyps opened that have yellow centers with green skirts, and 3-4 opened that have a white center with a purplish/maroon skirt. They are very small polyps, but nice looking!

 

[vinny]

Discussion removed

 

[ab420]

My camera is dying, and wasn't good to begin with, so I can't get any shots that are even remotely visible lol. I'm moving up to a 38 gallon early next week, and soon after, my friend is coming over with his Canon Rebel to take some pics for me, then I will post some up.

 

[Jeff.:P]

Discussion removed

 

[custom reef]

nothing but good to say about garf placed many orders with leroy very nice guy the grunge works well lots of coraline alga great for new tank set ups or a crashed one nothing but good to say great web site to lots of info

 

[JohnK]

Several posts were edited to remove discussion. Only first hand experiences with the vendor in question are allowed in the VE fourm.

John K
Moderator

 

[JBendel]

When I moved from my 30 gallon to 180 I more or less followed Garf's new tank ramp ... started with Marco's dry rocks (soak and rinse a lot ... thank you MikeG) , dry sand ......grunge ... then a week or so later added grunge's clean up crew.

This was the easiest cycle / tank ramp I have experienced and with no algae blooms ever (outside of the very early one that the clean up crew takes care of). I also mixed salt with RO at the start, which I think help's the algae bloom/startup issues as well.

Due to sloth and laziness, I did not add any fish or inverts to the 180 gallon for 6 months (didn't plumb a skimmer for at least 3-5 months) , and during that time built up a good size collection of mysis and copepods ... the odd feather duster ... coralline spread across the dead rock ...tank parameters stayed in line, and the tank more or less ramped as advertised.

I would take garf grunge over the live sand bags sold in stores (I also used live sand from the 30 gallon, which had been seeded by other BRS members).

If you call Leroy ... he is good on the up-sale, so be prepared.

Regards,

J.B.