Sponge? And sand question

SaltyGirlMom

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Someone told me this looks like a sponge - please help ID it. It killed my entire Xenia colony quickly. I took the rock out and exposed it to air for a while and brushed the remaining fragments of Xenia off, as I read to do this on R2R somewhere. I’m looking to put another Xenia frag there. Should I wait or is it safe now? Tank is five months old and started with pre-owned live rock. Could this (sponge?) have come from that?

Also, what’s going on with this sand? I think I passed the diatom stage and I got rid of cyano months ago, so is this diatoms again or maybe dinos? I did see a bit of bubbles on some brown goo on a piece of a rock but now it’s gone. I used a turkey baster to blow off some brown slimy stuff smothering some of my corals. I saw on YouTube that if you can blow it off then it’s likely not dinos. Any ideas? I added a UV light and will be adding copepods tonight to try and fix this issue. I had a few things die from a salinity or pH issue recently, including that urchin in the pic, so ignore that.

It’s been a challenging two weeks. 😅

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Gumbies R Us

God, Bouldering, and Reefing
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What are your parameters? Are you able to get a more up-close photo of the sandbed?
 
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SaltyGirlMom

SaltyGirlMom

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Temp 79
Amm 0
SG 1.026
NO3 10
PO4 0.15
NO2 0
KH 7
pH 8.15

KH a bit low and also was taken before water changes…salinity was low before I got it back up with those changes.
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