Do you keep sponges?

[WrasseyReefer]

What’s your experience with keeping sponges? Do you want to keep sponges? Keys to success? Show us your sponge!

 

[besskurz]

I always wanted to keep them. I was thinking about this pack.
I don't have mechanical filtration so... theoretically they should like.

But im curious to read more insights from the ppl who are currently keeping them.

Do you have any sponges @Subsea ?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I always wanted to keep them. I was thinking about this pack.
I don't have mechanical filtration so... theoretically they should like.

But im curious to read more insights from the ppl who are currently keeping them.

Do you have any sponges @Subsea ?

I did until they became food source.

 

[littlefoxx]

My aquarium has two different sponges, but they just grew, I never bought them. One took over my zoa garden

 

[WrasseyReefer]

I did until they became food source.

Who ate them?

 

[tREEFarm]

I have some red photosynthetic sponge that I'm using to encrust the wall of my tank, much like GSP, etc.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

I have some red photosynthetic sponge that I'm using to encrust the wall of my tank, much like GSP, etc.

What have you found to be key to your success with your sponge?

 

[tREEFarm]

What have you found to be key to your success with your sponge?

It honestly has been pretty 'set and forget' for me.

Lower light intensity, it's in a tank with minimal filtration, and it seems to shed its 'skin' like a leather to remove any algae buildup.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

It honestly has been pretty 'set and forget' for me.

Lower light intensity, it's in a tank with minimal filtration, and it seems to shed its 'skin' like a leather to remove any algae buildup.

I guess I could put one near a rock cave in my reef to give it some shade.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Who ate them?

Angels, harlequin tusk and suspected- some of my tangs. Angels were actually seen tearing at them

 

[tREEFarm]

I guess I could put one near a rock cave in my reef to give it some shade.

For what it's worth - I keep both NPS and photosynthetic gorgonians too. If you want to try a sponge species I'd recommend trying to source one that's photosynthetic as your odds of keeping it alive, generally, are far greater.

 

[dennis romano]

I have several sponges that are several years old. Their requirements are 1. a tank that is very well established (several years), 2. low light and 3. a moderate current. Being non-photosynthetic, they need microscopic food. My sponges are in a tank that is over 25 years old. I stir up the substrate to get the microfauna suspended in the water column. They cannot tolerate light. Algae will grow on them, smothering them. A strong current will blow the food past them, not allowing them to filter it out of the water. In the picture above, the ruffled elephant ear is one of the easier to keep (but still difficult). The yellow ball is also difficult but not impossible. The red tree sponge are next to impossible. The longest that I have been able to keep one alive is about six months.

 

[LadAShark]

What’s your experience with keeping sponges? Do you want to keep sponges? Keys to success? Show us your sponge!

I just don't run a skimmer and supplement the sponge to do the skimmer's job. Good news is it works, bad news is there's a sponge that likes to periodically reappear under a goniopora colony, which irritates it into closing.

I don't think you need to keep a 25 year old tank like dennis said. The tank in question is only a few months old and I get crazy sponge growth. The trick is silica dosing, diy coral snow, pns bacteria, and allowing some detritus to turn into mulm.

Stirring up the substrate works great, though my tank is a bare bottom and the accumulated coral snow is really what's getting kicked up.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

Angels, harlequin tusk and suspected- some of my tangs. Angels were actually seen tearing at them

Hmm, I hope my tangs wouldn’t eat a sponge if I got one.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

I just don't run a skimmer and supplement the sponge to do the skimmer's job. Good news is it works, bad news is there's a sponge that likes to periodically reappear under a goniopora colony, which irritates it into closing.

I don't think you need to keep a 25 year old tank like dennis said. The tank in question is only a few months old and I get crazy sponge growth. The trick is silica dosing, diy coral snow, pns bacteria, and allowing some detritus to turn into mulm.

Stirring up the substrate works great, though my tank is a bare bottom and the accumulated coral snow is really what's getting kicked up.

Where do you run nitrates and phosphates?

 

[WrasseyReefer]

For what it's worth - I keep both NPS and photosynthetic gorgonians too. If you want to try a sponge species I'd recommend trying to source one that's photosynthetic as your odds of keeping it alive, generally, are far greater.

I have a photosynthetic gorgonian that is thriving and growing, so I’d probably have luck with a photosynthetic sponge.

 

[JoJosReef]

I have some hitchhiker sponges. I'd like to get the trio pack from live-plants. Gotta make room first!

 

[LadAShark]

Where do you run nitrates and phosphates?

I don't/didn't really control them, but I used to let them run high (like 10-20 ppm nitrate, 0.5 ppm phosphate), now I'm having issues with them bottoming out. When they're available, the tank quickly consumes alk and calcium too.

 

[Uncle99]

The nice looking ones I’d love to keep, but little success more than 5 months.
The free stuff, whites, beige, is a pest to me and just uses up space, but, grows like a weed.

 

[besskurz]

Talking about sponges, I found this growing in the back of a frag rack.
I guess it's a sponge, cuz it's soft. But im still unsure if I keep it or not.
It grows a lot btw.