Can you have too much sponge?

[Runningfanatic]

A few months ago, I posted a picture of something growing in my 75 gallon tank. Everyone that posted a reply came to the conclusion that what I have is a sponge of some kind. Ok...no big deal. Fast forward to today. I now have these things growing everywhere! I had to clean out my skimmer the other day because one had grown into the pipe regulating the water level and was causing a problem. They are definitely out of control in their proliferation, not only in my sump, but in the tank as well.

I've been pulling it out when I clean my tank. But that's getting old, and I can't seem to keep up with it. Does anyone have any suggestion of what to do? It's getting ridiculous how much is in my tank! It is growing on my rocks and in the substrate. Is there some kind of critter I can get that would eat the sponge? Is there an additive I could use to kill it all off? (Btw, I would HATE to have to add any additive to my tank; but I'm getting desperate!)

Thanks for any advice offered.

 

[Dan_P]

A few months ago, I posted a picture of something growing in my 75 gallon tank. Everyone that posted a reply came to the conclusion that what I have is a sponge of some kind. Ok...no big deal. Fast forward to today. I now have these things growing everywhere! I had to clean out my skimmer the other day because one had grown into the pipe regulating the water level and was causing a problem. They are definitely out of control in their proliferation, not only in my sump, but in the tank as well.

I've been pulling it out when I clean my tank. But that's getting old, and I can't seem to keep up with it. Does anyone have any suggestion of what to do? It's getting ridiculous how much is in my tank! It is growing on my rocks and in the substrate. Is there some kind of critter I can get that would eat the sponge? Is there an additive I could use to kill it all off? (Btw, I would HATE to have to add any additive to my tank; but I'm getting desperate!)

Thanks for any advice offered.

Are they little pineapple shaped sponges?

 

[taricha]

Show us pics of this sponge material that is overgrowing your system.
Rare problem to have.
There are animals that like to eat sponges, but they won't keep it out of your pipes.
You might be a good candidate for Silica removal.

 

[Runningfanatic]

Are they little pineapple shaped sponges?

Nope. These are not pineapple sponges. I've had those before. They're weird looking, but not even close to what I have now.

 

[Runningfanatic]

Show us pics of this sponge material that is overgrowing your system.
Rare problem to have.
There are animals that like to eat sponges, but they won't keep it out of your pipes.
You might be a good candidate for Silica removal.

This is a piece growing on an old coral skeleton. It shows up pretty well against the red background. There is a lot of this stuff growing in the substrate, which is harder to see on camera.

 

[Vested]

I have the exact same sponge absolutely no problems, seems to be dying off after about a year and flow changes. Grows like crazy though but super easy to remove if it rubs up against coral etc.

 

[Runningfanatic]

I have the exact same sponge absolutely no problems, seems to be dying off after about a year and flow changes. Grows like crazy though but super easy to remove if it rubs up against coral etc.

You're right about it growing like crazy!

 

[Vested]

You're right about it growing like crazy!

It definitely does not like flow, if you can increase yours a bit might help get rid of it but I really dont think it does anything bad if anything helps filter stuff out. I have done a few ICPs and others are right about silicates

 

[Runningfanatic]

It definitely does not like flow, if you can increase yours a bit might help get rid of it but I really dont think it does anything bad if anything helps filter stuff out. I have done a few ICPs and others are right about silicates

Looks like I'll need to test for silicates and see where I stand.

 

[pecan2phat]

My tank was infested with this type of sponge for years before I broke it down. Tried scheduled manual removal, added a rock beauty angel, nothing really worked to eradicate this type of sponge and it will stifle out some corals like zoa colonies if left unabated. I will say that this tends to come on from wild LPS colonies like Lobos, at least that's where my infestation came from.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Manual removal (my recommendation would be scraping and suctioning it out) and figuring out why the sponges are doing so well (silicates, organic nutrients, algae/microbiome, etc.) would be better for removal purposes than trying to get something that eats them, so I agree that looking for silicates would be a good place to start.

Just to put this out there - the problem with using biological controls (i.e. something that eats it) with sponges is that there are a ton of different sponges, some of which look indistinguishable from others. Some of these sponges are inedible or extremely undesirable foods to some species (either because of chemical defenses* or just because of taste preferences) while being highly desirable to other species. So, even if you pull in a known sponge-eating species of fish/starfish/whatever, there's no guarantee it will eat the sponge you want it to eat. Also, many of these sponge-eating species eat other things (like coral) that you might not want them eating.

Long story short, manual removal is probably your best option for sponges until more study has been on both specific sponges and specific sponge-eaters, but you can try it if you want.

*Just as a note on the chemical defenses of sponges, many sponges produce chemicals to avoid being eaten. Some of these chemicals are more generalized, some of them are specifically anti-fish, some are specifically anti-echinoderm (starfish, urchin, etc.), etc. So, again, some things might eat one sponge but not another, and because of the whole indistinguishable thing mentioned above, the sponges that are and are not being eaten may look pretty much identical (some may be distinguished/ID'ed under microscopic investigation, others may need to be DNA tested to be distinguished/ID'ed).

Just my two cents here.

 

[Runningfanatic]

My tank was infested with this type of sponge for years before I broke it down. Tried scheduled manual removal, added a rock beauty angel, nothing really worked to eradicate this type of sponge and it will stifle out some corals like zoa colonies if left unabated. I will say that this tends to come on from wild LPS colonies like Lobos, at least that's where my infestation came from.

Not sure where mine came from. I haven't added anything to the tank for 2 years, except a few nassarius snails. Maybe from them???

 

[pecan2phat]

Not sure where mine came from. I haven't added anything to the tank for 2 years, except a few nassarius snails. Maybe from them???

I started an additional tank with new dry rock and the tank was fine for 10 months until I ordered 50 snails, 2 ricordias and a sea whip from reeftopia. Everything looked fine, even lightly scrubbed the snail shells but after 4 months I see that dreaded sponge appearing so yes it's definitely coming from livestock.