I really hope IPSF doesn't go away. I started my tank sterile after watching a lot of videos, but after reading more, I decided that wasn't the best course of action. Since adding their amphipods, microbrittle stars, live mud, snails, tiny hermits, works, and bacteria, my tank's sand bed is spotless, and my refugium is packed with life. If I start another tank I will do it with KP Aquatics rock shipped in water. I think it'll be more fun and interesting.Deep sand beds went out of style, for valid reasons... but with them went the market for pods, worms, live sand (real live sand, not the stuff that comes in a plastic bag). Inland Aquatics is gone now, GARF is still around, but has been treading water since Leroy passed. Their web site was a sorry mess in the 90's... today, it looks the same IPSF is still around, but their selection of 'critters' has dropped dramatically. Companies like Tampa Bay Saltwater, you used to be able to buy a scoop of sand, straight off of the sea floor, overnighted in a bag of water, crawling with life, for a reasonable cost. They're not shipping. Who knows if they ever will again.
All the debate I see about 'wet rock, live rock, dry rock'. I haven't seen any REAL wet rock, overnighted straight from the sea, with years, or decades of marine growth... in many years.
The current 'popular' methods don't include bio diversity. Folks want to start sterile, adding ONLY what they wish, to a dry rock, bare bottom system. Trying to keep out undesirables. With that being the popular model, vendors of sea floor mud and critters just aren't going to make it. Add in all the 'save the planet' folks wanting to eliminate any harvesting of natural resources... I don't see that era coming back.