Where to buy sponges for cryptic zone?

Wrasse-cal · Jul 25, 2018

I'm looking to seed a cryptic refugium with sponges. The goal would be to add a supplemental filtration zone.

1. Where should I buy them? I see some (old) references to reeffarmers.com, but not much else and google has not been too helpful.

2. Any specific recommendations on type of sponge I should be looking for?

Thanks!

mcarroll · Jul 25, 2018

@Steve Tyree?

shred5 · Jul 25, 2018

Wrasse-cal said:
I'm looking to seed a cryptic refugium with sponges. The goal would be to add a supplemental filtration zone.

1. Where should I buy them? I see some (old) references to reeffarmers.com, but not much else and google has not been too helpful.

2. Any specific recommendations on type of sponge I should be looking for?

Thanks!

Why not just buy from Steve on reef farmers website you posted...

Wrasse-cal · Jul 25, 2018

shred5 said:
Why not just buy from Steve on reef farmers website you posted...

It looked like the site was shut down for retail. Am I wrong about that?

shred5 · Jul 25, 2018

It says email [email protected] to inquire about ordering a cryptic seed pack on the cryptic seed pack page.

hatfielj · Jul 25, 2018

Just get some good pieces of live rock that are actually from the ocean (maricultured is fine). You'll get TONS of sponges (and lots of other filtering organisms) as the rock matures in your cryptic zone. I bought rock for my tank from liverocknreef.com. Their GMP premium rock is stellar. It's flown directly from Jakarta. It's one of the last true live rocks from the indo-pacific still available to the hobby. It's pricey, but for seeding a crytpic zone you wouldn't need much.

shred5 · Jul 25, 2018

hatfielj said:
Just get some good pieces of live rock that are actually from the ocean (maricultured is fine). You'll get TONS of sponges (and lots of other filtering organisms) as the rock matures in your cryptic zone. I bought rock for my tank from liverocknreef.com. Their GMP premium rock is stellar. It's flown directly from Jakarta. It's one of the last true live rocks from the indo-pacific still available to the hobby. It's pricey, but for seeding a crytpic zone you wouldn't need much.

I just bought some rock from liverockandreef a couple of months ago both GMP and Buna Ultra Live Rock and both were horrible and void of even coralline... Second worst rock I ever bought....

Also with Fiji shut down it will be hard to get live rock since allot of the rock comes through Fiji. GMP comes from Indonesia I believe and I do not know how the shut down there affects live rock.

Gulf aquaculture rock can have lots of sponges.

Instigate · Jul 25, 2018

I'm planning on ordering some LR from here: http://www.gulfliverock.com/premium-decorative-rock.html Suppose to be very good and is definitely one of the cheaper options.

sundog101 · Jul 25, 2018

https://www.live-plants.com/
I've heard good things about liveplants.com. I don't see the hitchhiker sponges availabe, but they have some other types and interesting things for a fuge.

Instigate · Jul 25, 2018

sundog101 said:
https://www.live-plants.com/
I've heard good things about liveplants.com. I don't see the hitchhiker sponges availabe, but they have some other types and interesting things for a fuge.

That's awesome! Lots of cool stuff there.

hatfielj · Jul 25, 2018

shred5 said:
I just bought some rock from liverockandreef a couple of months ago both GMP and Buna Ultra Live Rock and both were horrible and void of even coralline... Second worst rock I ever bought....

Also with Fiji shut down it will be hard to get live rock since allot of the rock comes through Fiji. GMP comes from Indonesia I believe and I do not know how the shut down there affects live rock.

Gulf aquaculture rock can have lots of sponges.

That's too bad. Must be hit or miss. The stuff I got was incredible. Super lightweight and porous, interesting shapes, etc. It was so heavily encrusted with coraline it looked like it had been matured in a tank for years already. I had zero die off and zero algae blooms in my new set up. I do wonder if they are affected by the Indo ban though, so it's possible they sent you left overs from previous orders or something

Barry_Cuda · Jul 25, 2018

Instigate said:
I'm planning on ordering some LR from here: http://www.gulfliverock.com/premium-decorative-rock.html Suppose to be very good and is definitely one of the cheaper options.

If you do order from them, I'd be really interested in hearing about what you get - how much life is on the rock, how much die-off, etc.

Instigate · Jul 25, 2018

Barry_Cuda said:
If you do order from them, I'd be really interested in hearing about what you get - how much life is on the rock, how much die-off, etc.

Np When I do, I'll make a thread.

shred5 · Jul 26, 2018

hatfielj said:
That's too bad. Must be hit or miss. The stuff I got was incredible. Super lightweight and porous, interesting shapes, etc. It was so heavily encrusted with coraline it looked like it had been matured in a tank for years already. I had zero die off and zero algae blooms in my new set up. I do wonder if they are affected by the Indo ban though, so it's possible they sent you left overs from previous orders or something

It was before the ban.

hatfielj said:
That's too bad. Must be hit or miss. The stuff I got was incredible. Super lightweight and porous, interesting shapes, etc. It was so heavily encrusted with coraline it looked like it had been matured in a tank for years already. I had zero die off and zero algae blooms in my new set up. I do wonder if they are affected by the Indo ban though, so it's possible they sent you left overs from previous orders or something

I bought before the ban... I think they do not light their rock. You get it fresh you are ok but if it has been sitting it looses there coralline. it is either that or the bottom of the vat where they do not get light.
Worst part is I was just going to buy Buna which to me is way lighter rock and better, it is so light it is brittle. Anyway he said the rock had no coverage of coralline and steered me to GMP because it was better and I heard from others it was great. That is what gets me because neither had any coverage and he steered me to a heavier more expensive rock.

I mean the rock was bare I can get pics because it is still that way. I threw some Gulfview rock in with it to hopefully spread some coralline and the organisms.

I had been buying Manado rock from Premium Aqautics till they stopped selling it. This at least had good coralline coverage. Sad what is happening to the live rock for a while. Now it is Aquacultured rock which is great for biodiversity and has allot of cool stuff but it is heavy and not very porous. I need a good place to buy live rock from now. I would even settle for some good dropped shipped rock.

Back to the topic. I am actually setting up a new aquaculture facility in my basement and going to be working mainly with invertebrates like sponges, snails, algae, crabs, shrimp, copepods, stars, worms etc.. Because of all the dead rock there has been a lack of diversity and I believe it is part of the issues with so many outbreaks of Dino's right now. Also with live rock bans more people will be moving towards dead rock. I have a few photosynthetic sponges and a few others right now but nothing cryptic. I will be looking for some of those eventually once I get farther into the build. I think sponges may even be able to filter dinos out of the water.

Wrasse-cal · Jul 27, 2018

I sent an email to reeffarmers. I'll let you all know what happens.

Chef Tommy · Jul 27, 2018

Wrasse-cal said:
I sent an email to reeffarmers. I'll let you all know what happens.

Was looking into myself and read he was still doing sponges. Reef Farmers has fbook page I had seen that on. KP Aquatics is also another cool live rock business in The Keys. They have 10 pounds FedEx too for around $100.

shred5 · Jul 27, 2018

Actually says this on FB page.

Fyi - Just updated our Buy It Now web page with the following.

Reeffarmers has made a change in our business plan going forward. We are actually stopping the Buy It Now retail sales for coral on our web page. This will last for a period of at least 2 to 4 years (2018-2020/2022). And we apologize for not having many available corals listed as we wound down the coral retail selling. We continue to operate two large raceway reef systems in our Texas facility. They are mainly used to grow cryptic filtration animals. We still sell those via this online web page. This is primarily being done to support the cryptic sponge filtration method. We will be upgrading these two racewway systems with better current, automation and lighting. This will allow us to bank more exotic and demanding seeds within our systems after the upgrade

AquaLogic · Apr 18, 2024

Sump Crab · Apr 18, 2024

Best bet to get the type of sponges you are looking for is by buying some real ocean rock, shipped in water to your door. Something along the lines of a Tampa Bay saltwater "treasure chest" might be a great way to make it affordable.

shred5 · Apr 23, 2024

Sump Crab said:
Best bet to get the type of sponges you are looking for is by buying some real ocean rock, shipped in water to your door. Something along the lines of a Tampa Bay saltwater "treasure chest" might be a great way to make it affordable.

Yea and you can request certain roc and if they have it they will ship that to you the best they can.
like you can ask for rocks with sponges or algae's etc.