Garf

[Nemain]

First off, HELLO! After 6 months of reefing I finally found Edmontonians!

Secondly, does anyone know where to find GARF grunge in Edmonton, or in the least Alberta?

Thanks in advance =)

Beth

[Aquattro]

Beth, welcome to Canreef. GARF grunge is a trademark name for sludge off the bottom of GARF's tanks. It is only available from them (thankfully). I'm sure you can find someone in edmonton to share some livesand and rubble with you to get you going. Maybe trade a cookie or something for it, but you shouldn't need to pay for "grunge".

[kuatto]

WELCOME

Jim

[littleboyblue16]

welcome to Canreef

[Nemain]

Here is my problem :

I have a 92 gallon, and about 20 lbs of sand. Doesnt seem like too much of a problem, other than that I also have 100lbs live rock, 3 chromis, 1 anthias, a star fish, mushroom coral, dragon goby, a couple of zoos, a couple thousand baby snails, hermit crabs, and an emerald crab.

I need to increase the sand bed without disturbing anything TOO much. My hope was that I could get live sand that is free of badsies in small ammounts ( IE: 3-5 lbs) at a time, and slowely pouring it onto the bottom of my tank.

I think when I aquired this tank (already started up - and incorectly to boot) I made just about every newbie mistake in the book. I want to improve and fix this tank the best I can without hurting the livestock in it.

SO ( I am just a TAD long winded - you would think with how much I type I could spell better o_O) I supose my dilema is that I just dont want to a) be a leach =( or b) be a burden twice a week on some poor sap. I do however make great cookies =)

I guess I should refrane my question to be: Is there some place in close proximity to Edmonton where I can get small amounts of live sand at frequent intervals?

Thanks Again =)

Beth

PS: Thank You all for the Welcoming =)

[Aquattro]

Beth, if your rock and sand have a decent amount of life in them, they will seed any new sand you add. So just get a bag of new sand and add up to a half inch at a time. Give it a few weeks and add another half inch until you get to the depth you want. The life will get there all on it's own. Honest!

[Nemain]

I dont want to say that the sand is "devoid" of life, but it certainly isnt crawling. I have yet to see any sort of worms/pods and the like, and I think that is my main concern with just adding new bulk sand. Of course, I suppose I could add most of my desired quantity through that means and then just get some live sand.. I astound myself with my lack of prethought sometimes. Thank you for the suggestion.. =)

I am sure I can pick up a small amount of live sand from a lfs here somewhere =) *crossesfingers*

beth

[Aquattro]

Also, check with your LFS to see if they can give (or trade for cookies) you some grunge from their liverock bins.

[christyf5]

Beth,

Its funny how that happens. I thought my sand was devoid of life for quite some time, after adding a few batches of sand from a few people (we're talking handfuls here) and "patiently" (read impatiently) waiting, my sandbed is full of life! Its great! Here I thought I would never be able to say I had all sorts of critters thriving in my sandbed but here I am. It took awhile though for them to get to a population that I could actually see. Seriously, try adding the fresh sand first and then just add a bit of the good stuff. Chances are if there isn't all that much sand in there to begin with, your critters are hanging out in the rock and will come out when you add more sand (just an idea).

Good luck

Christy

[jgoldsney]

Something else that you could try is to phone around to the local salt water store locations and find out when their next shipmant of live rock is.

Then make sure that if possible you are there when it arrives and ask to buy a bag of the rubble that is left in the boxes

I did that a couple of years ago when the "Family Pet Center" in sherwood park was getting a shipment. I got a bag full of rubble for $2 and within a week of adding it (I piled it in a back corner behind some LR) there were pods all over the place.

Just my $0.02

Joel

PS
Welcom to canreef