Hermie
Valuable Member
something cool is happening with my sponge, it looks like it's developing temporary osculum via a transparent film on the surface of the sponge, it's on two of the sponges in my tank,
Sponge Reef at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center
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Sorry for the late reply! Been super busy with work and trying to graduate. If the sponge has a rock I will mount it with epoxy and super glue. Without a rock I will usually just try to wedge it in a hole in the rock.Thanks Brandon, and your thread here is great! I find it intriguing that you are mixing "methods" with the tank system in that you have Zeolite and a refugium/algae export and a skimmer (basically mixing Triton and Zeovit from what I gather).
This past week I introduced two orange ear sponges (Agelas clathrodes) to my main tank, using gel superglue on their holdfasts attached to pieces of PVC for mounting. A question, how do you mount the sponges?
I'm trying to place them in the part of the tank's water movement that best suits their current shapes. I'm assuming the water is supposed to move from the bottom and fan out to the top according to their shapes, but I could be wrong... I don't see any osculums on their surfaces. I tried to put them in shadier spots (to limit algae on their surface) and somewhat perpendicular to the water flow.
The ones I have are basically shaped like this photo below, except the holdfasts are not buried. Alternatively, I could place them so flow enters from the top and out through the bottom, or from 45 degree angles either from the top or the bottom.
However, they're now oriented like this:
Also, I'm feeding now with Seachem Reef Phytoplankton 5ml every other day, but the tank also has a puffer whose food contributes to excess nutrients. I'm not sure where silica is coming from besides fish food, but there is definitely diatom growth (not microscope confirmed) so I assume there is enough silica to host sponge lifeforms also.
Thanks Again!
As for flow, I just aim for random turbulent flow across as many surfaces as possible. What is the approximate turnover for your flow? What kind of powerheads do you have?
As per your video, I’ve noticed that the sponges will extend their oscula when they are happy and actively feeding. Could be just an observation though.
Silica typically comes from food or top off water. Do you use RODI?
OP
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Just a few updates:
Some really nice growth on our photosynthetic sponge.
And the camera hogs
Some really nice growth on our photosynthetic sponge.
And the camera hogs
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OP
A current FTS and a few close-ups:
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Been a while since I’ve updated this thread but the tank went through some ugliness and then we decided it was time to upgrade! So we had a custom aquarium made from Exotic Aquariums in Miami. The footprint is the same at 24” wide and 18” deep but the height is now 30”. We also upgraded the equipment with a new Vectra S2, 2 Vortech MP40’s and a Radion XR15 and redid all of the plumbing. The tank is finally what it should be!
We also got some nice live rock from KP Aquatics to help bring in some beneficial bacteria and other critters to aid in the vitality of our sponges and soft corals.
Ill update with pictures of the full tank shortly, but for now, enjoy! And let me know what you think!
We also got some nice live rock from KP Aquatics to help bring in some beneficial bacteria and other critters to aid in the vitality of our sponges and soft corals.
Ill update with pictures of the full tank shortly, but for now, enjoy! And let me know what you think!
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The redesigned sponge tank fully stocked (with a bigger emphasis on gorgonians). Turned out better than I was expecting! 
fishybizzness
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Definitely looks exactly like alot of the local reefs I dive on! I'm definitely taking ideas from this one!!
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Thanks for the compliment! We were going for as natural as possible so I’m glad it came out that way.
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Long time since I’ve updated here, so I will try to take more pictures soon but here are two that turned out nice today.
Pterogorgia citrina
Beaugregory Damselfish
Pterogorgia citrina
Beaugregory Damselfish
TexasReefer82
Active Member
Could you comment on how all the sponges have fared over the last couple years? Did any survive? Grow? Die?
Do you believe that your feeding regiment of zeovit and phytoplankton was adequate and appropriate?
Thanks
Do you believe that your feeding regiment of zeovit and phytoplankton was adequate and appropriate?
Thanks
OP
OP
Sorry for the delayed response! Things have been a little different lately LOL. Some sponges did better than others, many did not make it and the ones that did usually just persisted longer than the others. As of right now we have no sponges in the tank, just gorgonians. We redid the tank in January with live rock from KP Aquatics in the hope that the more natural approach will help keep the sponges healthier once the tank has matured. The ones we had did not handle the stress of the transfer and once things get back to normal in the world we are hoping to try some more. I think the phytoplankton was a decent option and I like the zeovit sponge power but I pulled the reactor offline because I wanted to focus more on the refugium. I will definitely post some pics when we finally get some new sponges!
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