Sponge Reef at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

[Brandon McHenry]

Hi guys!

I work as a graduate student assistant and aquarist at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center. We are a small educational facility designed to showcase all of the research being conducted by the marine scientists and engineers at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, which is located in Fort Pierce, Florida. We have recently renovated the visitors center to include several aquariums that highlight some of our research areas. As a long time hobbyist and member of Reef2Reef I wanted to show everyone here some of the aquariums we have built.

The aquarium I am going to show in this thread is a sponge and soft coral tank. This display is part of our Marine Drug Discovery Exhibit (Biomedical and Biotechnology Research). This program was one of the Institute's first research areas dedicated to discovering new medicines from deep sea sponges and soft corals. This research was made possible through our use of the state-of-the-art Johnson SeaLink submersibles, which were in operation from 1971 until 2010. These human operated vehicles were capable of taking 4 scientists down to 3,000 feet for a total of 4 hours.

During their operation, the Johnson SeaLink Submersibles conducted over 9,000 dives and were used by approximately 3,000 scientists. They were also integral in establishing our Biomedical Research group by collecting over 32,000 different organisms to fuel our search for new drugs.

Today we focus on finding new medicines from the sea including antibiotics to treat diseases like MRSA and tuberculosis as well as novel cancer therapies for ovarian, breast and pancreatic cancer.

Because most of our visitors have never seen a live sponge, we set up a tank as part of our exhibit. There are over 7,000 species of sponges and they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. While they make a beautiful display, as filter-feeders sponges can be tricky to keep. Feeding mostly on bacteria and phytoplankton in the range of 1-2 microns, providing the appropriate food source has been an essential part of this system. This tank has been up and running for over a year and has gone through several upgrades in that time.

Current System Set-up:
40 gallon cube
Hydra 52 LED
Jebao PP-8 Powerhead
Eshopps 1000 HOB Overflow
Trigger Systems Ruby 30 Refugium
Reef Octopus Classic 150 INT Protein Skimmer
Aqueon 1700 Return Pump
Two Little Fishes Reactor with Chemi-pure Blue
Zeovit Bubble Magus Reactor with Zeobak, ZeoFood and Sponge Power
Cheatomorpha in Refugium

I would like to thank CaribSea for sponsoring the live sand, live rock and mineral mud for this aquarium.

We used:
80 lbs CaribSea Bahamas Oolite Sand
60 lbs CaribSea Shapes Liferock
1 lb CaribSea Mineral Mud

I currently run the aquarium with these parameters:
Ca -440 ppm
Alk - 8 dkh
pH - 8.2
NO3 - 5 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
NH4 - 0 ppm
PO4 - 0.25 ppm
Temp - 77 F

Livestock:
1 Royal Gramma
1 Blue headed wrasse
1 Chalk Bass
1 Lanturn Bass
1 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Red Coral Clinging Crab
1 Long Tentacle Gorgonian
1 Purple Sea Fan
1 Purple Sea Whip
1 Yellow Ball Sponge
1 Orange Finger Sponge
1 Red Ball Sponge
1 Red Beard Sponge

Feeding:
Fish get fed once per day with a mix of Hikari PE Mysis, Hikari Spirulina Brine, Hikari Krill and Hikari Coral Food. The Sponges get a generous helping of Brightwell's Phytogreen S on a daily basis.

So with that, here is our tank. I hope you guys enjoyed this write-up and if you have any questions or comments please post them, I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

For more information on our Biomedical Research Program please visit our website at
http://www.fau.edu/hboi/mbbr/

 

[o00brandon00o]

@Brandon McHenry Absolutely incredible work! Thank you for sharing, excellent post!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

@Brandon McHenry Absolutely incredible work! Thank you for sharing, excellent post!

Thank you so much! They have been quite a challenge to keep happy because of how much water they filter and how much food they consume. If this post interested you I will be rolling out several more posts about our other live displays that highlight the research at HBOI so stay tuned!

 

[NY_Caveman]

I love the sponge tank idea! Great job! Definitely will be following this.

 

[Sallstrom]

Great job! Would be nice to hear more about your feeding regime and results with keeping sponges. Following
/ David

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I love the sponge tank idea! Great job! Definitely will be following this.

Thanks! I’m glad you liked it! I figured this would be a cool first tank to highlight.

Great job! Would be nice to hear more about your feeding regime and results with keeping sponges. Following
/ David

Thanks for the compliment! As for feeding I use the Zeovit system solely to keep up a large bacterial population. I use approximately 500mL of the Zeolite mixture and I dose 3 drops of Zeobak and Zeofood daily as well as 6 drops of sponge power. I shake the reactor once in the morning to feed the bacteria to the sponges and then I dose approximately 100mL of the Brightwell Phytogreen S in the afternoon. The fish are fed once a day with a mix of frozen food and I count on the poop as some additional food for the sponges. Sponges, as we were told by our sponge biologists, are notoriously difficult to keep happy. After running this tank for over a year I 100% agree. You need pristine water quality, strong turbulent flow and a near constant food source which can be tough. I have gone through various sponges and the few I have in there currently are holding up nicely. I am hoping that they will continue to thrive and eventually start growing for me!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I’m addition to researching sea sponges, our scientists also do work with soft corals like this gorgonian. This is our purple gorgonian sitting happily towards the bottom of the rock structure in strong random flow. Be sure to check out the photo bomb by our chalk bass!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Just wanted to share a video showing how much water these little guys can pump!

Enjoy!

 

[samnaz]

Very interesting. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Here’s a shot of our yellow ball sponge. This is one of the hardier sponges, able to survive being covered in sand as well as tolerating anaerobic conditions!

Of course it’s not all about the sponges. This is Pierre, our coral banded shrimp and he is definitely a crowd favorite!

 

[mta_morrow]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing this thread from your other post to get me here!

As I said, I worked on the boats and submersibles there several times in the mid 80’s.

A very cool memory for me!

Thanks so much for sharing it[emoji2]

Mike

 

[Triggreef]

I have a great sponge for you if you would like one. I generally sell them for 20 per frag but I'd like to donate one to you if you pay the shipping. Generally east coast shipping is around 25 and West coast about 40. It's a blue photo Synthetic plating sponge and grows very well under leds. It also can be exposed to air although I still try not to. Send me a pm and we'll set it up if you want it. Here is a pic of the biggest one that I've grown thus far.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing this thread from your other post to get me here!

As I said, I worked on the boats and submersibles there several times in the mid 80’s.

A very cool memory for me!

Thanks so much for sharing it[emoji2]

Mike

Glad to bring back some good memories! It my pleasure!

I have a great sponge for you if you would like one. I generally sell them for 20 per frag but I'd like to donate one to you if you pay the shipping. Generally east coast shipping is around 25 and West coast about 40. It's a blue photo Synthetic plating sponge and grows very well under leds. It also can be exposed to air although I still try not to. And me a pm and we'll set it up if you want it. Here is a pic of the biggest one that I've grown thus far.

Super cool sponge! Thanks for the offer! Do you know the name of it?

 

[revhtree]

This is amazing stuff!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

This is amazing stuff!

Thank you! I’m glad you found it interesting! We do some really cool and amazing marine science research here at Harbor Branch and I just wanted to showcase it through our displays. I’m lucky enough to experience the research as both a student/scientist as well as reef hobbyist. It makes me happy to see how well received my threads have been and I look forward to highlighting our other displays!

 

[Triggreef]

Super cool sponge! Thanks for the offer! Do you know the name of it?

I don't know the name of it or if it has one, I just call it the blue photosynthetic sponge.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Hi Brandon; magnificent thread, aquarium, & work you're doing.

Feeding mostly on bacteria and phytoplankton in the range of 1-2 microns, providing the appropriate food source has been an essential part of this system.

From what I understand an important part of a sponges diet consists of disloved organic compounds (DOC). Steve Tyree, who came up with the concept of cryptic zones to promote the growth of non photosynthesising sponges believes they can replace the use of DOC adsopting activated carbon.
You use Chemi-Pure Blue which removes DOC. What is your view on this?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I don't know the name of it or if it has one, I just call it the blue photosynthetic sponge.

No worries just curious!

Hi Brandon; magnificent thread, aquarium, & work you're doing.


From what I understand an important part of a sponges diet consists of disloved organic compounds (DOC). Steve Tyree, who came up with the concept of cryptic zones to promote the growth of non photosynthesising sponges believes they can replace the use of DOC adsopting activated carbon.
You use Chemi-Pure Blue which removes DOC. What is your view on this?

First of all thank you for the compliment! As for DOC I hadn’t really looked at it from that angle to be honest. The Chemi-Pure Blue was to help keep nutrients down to replicate the oligotropic conditions found on many reefs. I think that supplementing the sponges with controlled food like bacteria and phytoplankton while allowing them to get whatever dissolved fish waste they can is the most successful for this tank. I believe wholeheartedly that “what works in one aquarium might not work in another”. I think it is a valid point to ask about the Chemi-Pure. However I have gone through a few iterations and struggles with this aquarium and I think I’ve had the best luck using it versus not. I hope this answer made sense and I really appreciate the question because it makes me think critically!

 

[Scrubber_steve]

No worries just curious!


First of all thank you for the compliment! As for DOC I hadn’t really looked at it from that angle to be honest. The Chemi-Pure Blue was to help keep nutrients down to replicate the oligotropic conditions found on many reefs. I think that supplementing the sponges with controlled food like bacteria and phytoplankton while allowing them to get whatever dissolved fish waste they can is the most successful for this tank. I believe wholeheartedly that “what works in one aquarium might not work in another”. I think it is a valid point to ask about the Chemi-Pure. However I have gone through a few iterations and struggles with this aquarium and I think I’ve had the best luck using it versus not. I hope this answer made sense and I really appreciate the question because it makes me think critically!

Thanks for the reply Brandon.
Could you provide some more specific info on how you feed the sponges. e.g. do you manipulate bacteria type & population in the aquarium for sponge food specifically, or dose it directly? and what is the source of your phytoplankton?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Thanks for the reply Brandon.
Could you provide some more specific info on how you feed the sponges. e.g. do you manipulate bacteria type & population in the aquarium for sponge food specifically, or dose it directly? and what is the source of your phytoplankton?

I’ve actually been using the Zeovit system to grow the bacteria. I used the reactor which I shake every day and I dose the Zeobak, Zeofood and Of course Sponge Power. It funny that I don’t culture it since I work in the Marine Microbiology lab and I have access to all of the media and equipment lol. Anyways I also use Brightwells Phytogreen S which contains phytoplankton in the 1-2micron range and that is dosed every day as well.