Is Reef Energy killing my sponge?

[Dolphis]

Hey guys,

I picked up two sponges 2 weeks ago - A red finger and a yellow ball.
Both have been doing well and both were completely submerged when added to the DT.

2 days ago, in the morning, I noticed some “white” fuzzies on the red finger and today in the evening, it seems to have deteriorated some more - the tips are really white and looks like the red has been scrapped off.

The yellow sponge shows no signs of any damage and is about 5 inches away.
There’s strong water flow, all water parameters are constant, the only thing I had done different, is I started dosing Red Sea Reef Energy AB+ (@10 ml - half the recommended dosage) the day before the initial damage was observed.

I skipped dosing the reef energy the following day to see if there were any changes.
The sponge didn’t seem any better, but also didn’t seem any worse.
Today in the morning, I dosed 10ml and now in the even, the damage seems to have gotten worse.

I’m stopping the Reef Energy for now, not knowing if this is the culprit or not.
I’ve never seen any of my fish or CUC pay attention to it, so I’m not sure what’s going on.

Also, is the damage too far gone or is there still hope for the sponge?
The yellow sponge is fine, as are my fish and other corals, including some fans.

Has anyone else had problems using Reef Energy?

I’ve attached 3 pictures - the 1st one shows how it was before any damage, the 2nd one was in the following morning after having dosed the 10ml of Reef energy and the 3rd picture is 3 days later in the evening after having dosed another 10ml of Reef Energy in the morning.

 

[dennis romano]

Sorry, but they are done. The white patches show where tissue has died. Looking at your pictures, it looks like a relatively new tank. Sponges need a well set up tank. My tank with my sponges has been set up for twenty years. You didn't mention if you fed them. Sponges are filter feeders and must be fed several times a day. Get some super fine food to feed the ball. Also put it in a shaded area. Algae growing on it will smother it. Best bet is to get the trees out of the tank. When they decay more, your water quality may have issues. You also mention that you have fans. Are they photosynthetic? If yes, they may be okay. If non-photosynthetic, without feeding, they too will be in trouble.

 

[Dolphis]

Sorry, but they are done. The white patches show where tissue has died. Looking at your pictures, it looks like a relatively new tank. Sponges need a well set up tank. My tank with my sponges has been set up for twenty years. You didn't mention if you fed them. Sponges are filter feeders and must be fed several times a day. Get some super fine food to feed the ball. Also put it in a shaded area. Algae growing on it will smother it. Best bet is to get the trees out of the tank. When they decay more, your water quality may have issues. You also mention that you have fans. Are they photosynthetic? If yes, they may be okay. If non-photosynthetic, without feeding, they too will be in trouble.

Thanks for the info!
Well that’s unfortunate that it won’t survive, it looked really nice

I feed them throughout the day - Phytoplankton, zooplankton, BRS reef chili and marine snow.
I’ll also add frozen daphnia and frown baby brine shrimp, that’s mostly for the fish, but figured it would also benefit everything else in the tank.


I actually have a mix of both NPS and PS. All the others, with the exception of the red one, have been doing great and look completely healthy.
I just found it quite odd that it was fine one evening and the next morning after adding the reef energy, it looked damaged, but seems to be more coincidental than anything else.

Would they benefit from target feeding? Perhaps broadcast feeding in a 125g DT isn’t sufficient, even with the return pump off for an hour

 

[dennis romano]

Broadcast feeding in that size tank is tough. You would need a tremendous amount of food to keep everything healthy. I target feed my sponges (9 specimens) a mixture of phyto, oyster eggs and liquid nutrients. The finer size food the better for them. I also stir up the gravel to release any other natural fine food. The current flow is moderate. The food mixture is squirted so that it is brought by the current to the animals. The water may look soupy for an hour but afterwards is crystal clear. That is the problem with sponges. They may look fine, but because they aren't getting enough food, they are slowly dying. What other NPS do you have? Every one likes a different food. For example, my dendros and sun corals take mysis. Good luck with the rest.