Cotton candy foam thing

[MyOtherCarIsAFishtank]

Recently, this pink/purple foam thing started overgrowing zoas in my zoa garden. What is it? What eats it or removes it aside from manual removal? Here are photos of it on zoa frags I removed to clean.

I'm thinking it is a sponge. I have been removing the impacted rocks and frags and gently brushing it off them with a toothbrush. But I would prefer a safe method that is not so time-consuming. Suggestions? Thanks!

 

[KJ]

Sponge.

 

[reef lover]

+1 manual removal is best.

 

[BellaCoop]

+1 Simple fix!

 

[Bucky14]

I have it in my tank also. Is it bad to leave in the tank?

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

I have it in my tank also. Is it bad to leave in the tank?

They are harmless filter feeders but can over grow on corals and suffocate them. It's not bad to leave them in the tank

 

[Gonebad395]

Sponge just keep a eye on it I have quite a few in the tank under my live rock

 

[MyOtherCarIsAFishtank]

Yeah, I don't mind them normally. But as the pics above show, they quickly overgrew a few whole zoa mini-colonies. They can grow quickly since very few things seem to eat sponges, so keep an eye out.