My questionable desicison on buying garf grunge. (Pics)

[Joshua2598]

So. After hearing so much bad and good about garf grunge, I decided to give it a try. It arrived today and I was pretty excited to see what came with it. There was plenty of good packaging and the box was not wet. Grunge came double bagged and the first bag was punctured. I ordered 3 lbs. There were heating/cooling packs. and over all, packaging impression

10/10

After opening the garf grunge i notice a sizable amount of cheato (no pic yet).

There are large chunks of coral skeleton bits and what looks like dark, gravelly Monterey beach sand. I didn't see any live "macro" organisms just with the bag out.


Looks: 5/10


So now is the part when I dumped it in the tank. I didn't do any acclimation at all as I recall that's what others seemed to have done. After dumping it looks like a black snow storm. I see a 3 gallon water change in the near future

Tank: fluval evo xxii, already established with fish and coral (mostly softies with one torch as the only non softie)

Now I see a thin silty layer on the sand which I will clean very soon.


Impression from this above: 4/10

I'm sure conditions will improve. Update on if my tank crashes soon

 

[WV Reefer]

So. After hearing so much bad and good about garf grunge, I decided to give it a try. It arrived today and I was pretty excited to see what came with it. There was plenty of good packaging and the box was not wet. Grunge came double bagged and the first bag was punctured. I ordered 3 lbs. There were heating/cooling packs. and over all, packaging impression

10/10

After opening the garf grunge i notice a sizable amount of cheato (no pic yet).

There are large chunks of coral skeleton bits and what looks like dark, gravelly Monterey beach sand. I didn't see any live "macro" organisms just with the bag out.


Looks: 5/10


So now is the part when I dumped it in the tank. I didn't do any acclimation at all as I recall that's what others seemed to have done. After dumping it looks like a black snow storm. I see a 3 gallon water change in the near future

Tank: fluval evo xxii, already established with fish and coral (mostly softies with one torch as the only non softie)

Now I see a thin silty layer on the sand which I will clean very soon.


Impression from this above: 4/10

I'm sure conditions will improve. Update on if my tank crashes soon

I love the idea of garf...... when I ordered the grunge it was full of Aiptasia. The free live rock they gave me was full of Aiptasia also. Sadly I chucked it all after she tried to convince me that Rose Anemones are not a problem...... they would never even use the term Aiptasia.

 

[Joshua2598]

I love the idea of garf...... when I ordered the grunge it was full of Aiptasia. The free live rock they gave me was full of Aiptasia also. Sadly I chucked it all after she tried to convince me that Rose Anemones are not a problem...... they would never even use the term Aiptasia.

Yikes let's hope that doesn't happen to me [emoji33] now you got me all scared

 

[WV Reefer]

Yikes let's hope that doesn't happen to me [emoji33] now you got me all scared

Sorry

Hopefully you’ll be good. I’ll send you good vibes. ~~~~~

I love the idea of what they are doing but that website is terrible. I’d love to organize everything. lol

 

[Joshua2598]

Sorry

Hopefully you’ll be good. I’ll send you good vibes. ~~~~~

I love the idea of what they are doing but that website is terrible. I’d love to organize everything. lol

I know right! It took me forever to realize that those tiny boxes were what I was supposed to type in (on mobile) they REALLY need to update their profile

 

[WVNed]

I did it too. What I received looked like concrete slurry with a handful of shells from a gift shop all perfect and clean.. I did get some bristle worms and pods in the cheato.

It didnt kill anything.

 

[Joshua2598]

There wasn't a ton of moisture in the bag, so I hope that its fine. I believe it will be

 

[Joshua2598]

This could be a problem! Possible nudi on the chaeto area?? I messed up the collection so hes still in there

 

[Joshua2598]

Everyone is alive and well. Lights just turned on. It REALLY dirtied the sand bed it was all white 24 hours ago

 

[Joshua2598]

Also: noticeable increase of pods scuttling across the bottom of the glass and the black panel. Along with other junk I dont recognize. Also something weird is that brown thing isn't there this morning

 

[Joshua2598]

It was fun watching the firefish hunt pods and eat them on the black panel [emoji2]

 

[William Buchanan]

It was fun watching the firefish hunt pods and eat them on the black panel [emoji2]

Its been about six months now. Was it worth it? Have you been infested with anything bad? I am looking to diversify my microfauna and was considering Garfgrunge.

 

[Johniejumbo]

I would like to know too

 

[Silver14SS]

Its been about six months now. Was it worth it? Have you been infested with anything bad? I am looking to diversify my microfauna and was considering Garfgrunge.

I have no experience with GARF, but have used Live Sand Activator and WonderMud from IPSF. I have not seen any pests in it, no aiptasia or flatworms as others have posted with GARF.

 

[wangspeed]

There was random garbage in mine. Erasers and other stuff that I’ve long since forgotten about. I personally would not advise buying it.