Love rocks with encrusting sponges, how can I aquascape underwater?

[Kyuubi]

Hi everyone, I have an aquarium with live rock in it that came with some awesome sponges on it!
Right now The rocks are sitting in the empty tank as it cycles.
What I’ve been wondering, is how the heck am I supposed to scape it with sponges!! I can’t take the rocks out of the water since I’m sure it’ll kill them.
Does anyone know a great adhesive to scape this under water? I have about 50lbs of this sponge encrusted live rock. Any advice and tips you know will help me so much! Thank you!!

 

[Kyuubi]

Title is supposed to be Live Rocks with Sponges! I wish we could edit titles

 

[Miami Reef]

Would stacking the rocks via gravity underwater be an option for you?

 

[Kyuubi]

I am getting an eel so no unfortunately

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hi everyone, I have an aquarium with live rock in it that came with some awesome sponges on it!
Right now The rocks are sitting in the empty tank as it cycles.
What I’ve been wondering, is how the heck am I supposed to scape it with sponges!! I can’t take the rocks out of the water since I’m sure it’ll kill them.
Does anyone know a great adhesive to scape this under water? I have about 50lbs of this sponge encrusted live rock. Any advice and tips you know will help me so much! Thank you!!

Love the title

I'd use a reef safe 2 part epoxy like AF Afix Glue which is mixed outside the aquarium but will set underwater.

If it doesn't hold firmly - once set apply superglue gel to the moulded epoxy which will give a perfect fit.

 

[powers2001]

@Kyuubi where did you get the rock and pictures please. If I had fifty pounds of good sponge rock I would definitely skip the eel. I would never have an eel in anything other than a one species only tank.

 

[Paul B]

Are you sure you want encrusting sponge? My tank is full of the stuff. All available real estate is sponge. It's the light blue stuff here . It slowly covers my corals and very hard to get rid of.

 

[Kyuubi]

@Kyuubi where did you get the rock and pictures please. If I had fifty pounds of good sponge rock I would definitely skip the eel. I would never have an eel in anything other than a one species only tank.

I got it from KP aquatics I’ve got a shrimp trap at the moment but have only seen a porcelain crab so far. I’m getting a banded eel so it won’t be a big boi. I’ll try to get some photos of some of the encrusting sponges, sorry for my camera skills my first batch of live rock I didn’t know had the sponges so I lifted them from out of their bag water and lookedfor hitchhikers like that. What I thought was red turf ended up being red sponges and they died the next day :,( my other orders I’ve directly placed the rocks in water without exposing them to air and the sponges have been living for months now!

 

[Kyuubi]

Are you sure you want encrusting sponge? My tank is full of the stuff. All available real estate is sponge. It's the light blue stuff here . It slowly covers my corals and very hard to get rid of.

The red ones I have on my rock look like like little pieces of fire, it’s difficult to catch on camera but in person I think they look pretty.
After some Google searching they most closely resemble a red beard sponge, I don’t have a great camera to zoom in on textures but that’s the closest sponge texture that it looks like.

 

[Doctorgori]

sponges are sooooo underrated…I applaud your effort# to keep them alive ..
If accidentally exposed I’ve usually noticed they survive somewhere or somehow comeback …so if you have to expose the rock it’s not always a total sponge loss
Edit add @Paul B …I’d bet a large part of your tanks success is those sponges. sponge growth is a great indicator of tank health IMHO

 

[Kyuubi]

Love the title

I'd use a reef safe 2 part epoxy like AF Afix Glue which is mixed outside the aquarium but will set underwater.

If it doesn't hold firmly - once set apply superglue gel to the moulded epoxy which will give a perfect fit.

Would I have to lift the rock out of the water to apply the superglue after the epoxy? Or are there specific nozzles to apply underwater?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Would I have to lift the rock out of the water to apply the superglue after the epoxy? Or are there specific nozzles to apply underwater?

Just use a $1 tube from the grocery store and apply underwater. Then toss the tube.

it'll set in no time to the mold created by the epoxy. Just apply firm pressure for 30-60 seconds.

 

[Paul B]

Edit add @Paul B …I’d bet a large part of your tanks success is those sponges. sponge growth is a great indicator of tank health IMHO

I doubt it because for the first 40 years, I didn't have that sponge.
Kyuubi, your sponges are not photosynthetic like mine so they won't over grow your tank. Your good to go.

I also have many of those which I also can't eliminate but I don't want to.

The vast majority of life in my tank is sponges.

 

[damsels are not mean]

I doubt the sponges will live long in a fish only TBH. It's hard to say because we don't know much about sponge husbandry. That's some good lookin rock though and good luck with your eel.

 

[Doctorgori]

I doubt it because for the first 40 years, I didn't have that sponge.
Kyuubi, your sponges are not photosynthetic like mine so they won't over grow your tank. Your god to go.

I also have many of those which I also can't eliminate but I don't want to.

The vast majority of life in my tank is sponges.

You mean all this time you didn’t have any of those yellow or purple spongy tunicate looking things growing under rocks?
Anyway tell us a lil more, no “sponge power” or additives like phyto or whatever..

And to the OPs original issue, Paul what’s your take on exposing sponges to air? Survivability et

 

[damsels are not mean]

You mean all this time you didn’t have any of those yellow or purple spongy tunicate looking things growing under rocks? Anyway tell us a lil more, no sponge power.
And to the OPs original issue, Paul what’s your take on exposing sponges to air? Survivability et

Survivability in air must depend on species. There are intertidal sponges so clearly not all are vulnerable to air.

 

[Mikedawg]

Hi everyone, I have an aquarium with live rock in it that came with some awesome sponges on it!
Right now The rocks are sitting in the empty tank as it cycles.
What I’ve been wondering, is how the heck am I supposed to scape it with sponges!! I can’t take the rocks out of the water since I’m sure it’ll kill them.
Does anyone know a great adhesive to scape this under water? I have about 50lbs of this sponge encrusted live rock. Any advice and tips you know will help me so much! Thank you!!

I've used Two Little Fishies AquaStik by mixing it and then applying underwater to rockwork; works pretty well but you need to work fast.
Good luck

 

[Paul B]

And to the OPs original issue, Paul what’s your take on exposing sponges to air? Survivability et

The sponges in my tank that grew all over the place don't care if they are exposed to air. As a matter of fact, I think you can pack them up in dry saw dust and bring them on a long ride on the back of a Vespa Motor scooter to the middle of the Mojave desert and lay them in the sun for two maybe three days, then run them over with a school bus with snow tires installed.

When you put it back in your tank, they will double in size.
Some sponges will probably die if you dry them out but I think almost all of them can be transferred from a bag to a tank with no problems.

 

[BanjoBandito]

Epopoxy (sp?) works and sets under water

 

[Miami Reef]

As a matter of fact, I think you can pack them up in dry saw dust and bring them on a long ride on the back of a Vespa Motor scooter to the middle of the Mojave desert and lay them in the sun for two maybe three days, then run them over with a school bus with snow tires installed.

When you put it back in your tank, they will double in size.

lol