Sponge Reef at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

[Scrubber_steve]

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.

Thanks very much Brandon for that info. I'll have to get some of those goodies for my cryptic sponges

 

[taricha]

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

This is a collospongia auris. I love the way it grows in my tank.

Another Q. Do y'all do anything with Silica in the system?
Thanks for this thread. So good.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Another Q. Do y'all do anything with Silica in the system?
Thanks for this thread. So good.

Sponge Power

 

[Brandon McHenry]

This is a collospongia auris. I love the way it grows in my tank.

Another Q. Do y'all do anything with Silica in the system?
Thanks for this thread. So good.

Sweet! Thanks for the name! I definitely think that is a sponge that would look great in this tank. As for silica I don’t add any pure silica through a supplement. The sponges get whatever silica they can through fish food and sponge power.

 

[sundog101]

Awesome tank! How do the royal gramma and chalk baslet get along?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Awesome tank! How do the royal gramma and chalk baslet get along?

Thanks! All fish are model citizens. No aggression that I’ve witnessed and hopefully it stays like that!

 

[taricha]

Sponge Power

Sweet! Thanks for the name! I definitely think that is a sponge that would look great in this tank. As for silica I don’t add any pure silica through a supplement. The sponges get whatever silica they can through fish food and sponge power.

Do we actually know that Sponge power has Silica in it?

I dose and test Silica, and here's my reason to think it doesn't:

I couldn't find anyone actually silica testing Sponge Power, so I did and after a search, this old thread seemed the most on-topic.


You were right. A sample of 500mL of tank water tested at 0.24 ppm SiO2 (Hanna hi705) before adding a drop of Sponge Power. After adding a drop and mixing for a few minutes, it tested 0.20 ppm SiO2.
So no appreciable Silica (within test uncertainty).
The recommendation is 1 drop per 25 gallons, so whatever is in it, it's pretty concentrated. It has seemed to help sponge growth, but things that don't tell me what's in them annoy me.

"charged specifically with the task of maintaining and boosting the growth of all your filter feeders including clams, feather duster worms, sponges and tunicates. As an added benefit, you will notice much clearer water due to this increased sessile biomass and diversity!

Use Sponge Power to:
Safely accelerate the growth filter feeders
Increase the occurrence of new ‘growth tips’ on all SPS corals
Massively strengthen the proliferation of all soft corals
Promote vigorous polyp expansion from corals
Intensify coral colors, especially blues and purples
Encourage healing of damaged corals
Shorten the ‘cycling process’ in new systems
Dose: 1 drop | 25 gallons per day"

Impossible to say for sure, but any guesses what's actually in it? something to spur bacterial growth in the water?

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Do we actually know that Sponge power has Silica in it?

I dose and test Silica, and here's my reason to think it doesn't:

My bottle of Brightwell Sponge Excel says "high purity silica solution" & " ingredients: sodium metasilicate".

I can't see why it wouldn't contain what they state?

 

[taricha]

My bottle of Brightwell Sponge Excel says "high purity silica solution" & " ingredients: sodium metasilicate".

I can't see why it wouldn't contain what they state?

Sponge Excel by Brightwell definitely has silica concentration that matches the label - I use it.
sponge power is a different product (zeo) and it does not say what is in it, and I can't detect Silica from it with my test.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Sponge Excel by Brightwell definitely has silica concentration that matches the label - I use it.
sponge power is a different product (zeo) and it does not say what is in it, and I can't detect Silica from it with my test.

Ok. I meant SpongeExcel not sponge power. Yes i agree; who knows whats in a bottle of a Korallenzucht product.
Probably no silicate.
Randy believes that silicate is important for sponges & other organisms. Good enough for me.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I agree completely that we have no real idea what is in the magical blue bottles put out by KZ. I had honestly never questioned whether or not SpongePower had silica in it or not. I feel like it is probably more organic meant to stimulate certain bacteria growth for direct sponge consumption. I did try using the SpongeExcel once and I noticed no reasonable change in my sponges during that time so I stuck to the basics with semi-regular water changes and heavy fish feedings.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Thanks! All fish are model citizens. No aggression that I’ve witnessed and hopefully it stays like that!

Proof of friendship lol

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Hi Brandon; i wanted to quiz you some regarding the phytogreen s 1 to 2 um food you recommend for your sponges. Being unable to purchase that particular product here down under i am forced to buy a phyto feed of a larger particle size. Wiki states sponges can consume food particles larger than 1 to 2 um https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge
Can i enquire on your source recommending 1 to 2 um?

Thanks

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Hi Brandon; i wanted to quiz you some regarding the phytogreen s 1 to 2 um food you recommend for your sponges. Being unable to purchase that particular product here down under i am forced to buy a phyto feed of a larger particle size. Wiki states sponges can consume food particles larger than 1 to 2 um https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge
Can i enquire on your source recommending 1 to 2 um?

Thanks

Glad you ask! Sponges vary in particle size preference based on species. However, our Sponge Biology Research Group recommends the smaller the better. They did a few studies looking at particle size and the ones closer to 1-2microns did the best. I know some sponges can consume larger but smaller particles will cover the majority of sponges comfortably. Hope this helps!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

So after much consideration, I decided to remove the Bahamas Oolite sand from our sponge reef and replace it with the CaribSea Special Grade Reef Sand. While the Oolite was beautiful it was just too fine to keep sponges and it was becoming a problem. So below is a picture of the new sand and aquascape. I think the new rock structure definitely highlights the sponges better. Let me know what you think!

And here are a few close ups.

 

[samnaz]

super super cool. love it.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

super super cool. love it.

Thanks! Glad to hear it!

 

[Subsea]

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/

What is the large bright red sponge, lettuce like form, on the front left rock? It is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Subsea]

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.

Interesting that you choose to cultivate bacteria to feed your sponge. I just did start dosing amino acids then decided to dose vinegar for the bacteria to feed the sponges. Recent friends on another r2r thread changed my wording to say I am giving Vodka to My Sponge.

I think we may be going after the same thing.
Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick

PS: You are indeed fortunate to have a job that you love. In that way, it is not WORK.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

What is the large bright red sponge, lettuce like form, on the front left rock? It is absolutely gorgeous.

It’s common name was the red beard sponge. What is interesting that I was not aware of was that it has a relationship with a certain type of clam. When I bought the sponge it had the shell but the call had died. Needless to say the sponge started to decline after a while. So if you ever get a hold of this sponge, make sure it has its clam!

Interesting that you choose to cultivate bacteria to feed your sponge. I just did start dosing amino acids then decided to dose vinegar for the bacteria to feed the sponges. Recent friends on another r2r thread changed my wording to say I am giving Vodka to My Sponge.

I think we may be going after the same thing.
Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick

PS: You are indeed fortunate to have a job that you love. In that way, it is not WORK.

I think we are definitely going after the same thing, essentially supplying a carbon source for bacteria. And yes I do love this job and definitely don’t find it to be “work”.