Sponges - what can I do chemically to wipe them all out

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Reefer1978

Reefer1978

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How bad is the plague? Looks like only one spot on that rock? Have you tried scraping off and covering the area with epoxy or cyanoacrylate?

They stay small. but I am finding them all over the tank. I think they ended up sending spores - thus this thread - tank-wide treatment.

Have you tried any predators? Box fish and some sea stars will prey on sponges I believe.

I am still doing research in this area. Looked into a Nudi - which I heard are hard to find, went to a few stores yesterday and they haven't see any in a while. Heard and read about angels and results are inconsistent. I am not sure if predators would work as the sponges I really want to nuke are under mushrooms feet.
 
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Very interesting and unusual.

If it is a silicate-containing sponge, you might deter growth by excessive use of silicate export and minimizing inputs. GFO or aluminum oxide (or maybe soluble iron) might be hard to manage not lowering phosphate too much, but dosing phosphate will help. A more biological export might be by growing a benign but fast growing silicate-requiring sponge elsewhere in the system. I think there are some blue sponges that grow fast and become pests, but might work well in a refugium or something for this purpose.

One could possibly determine if the pest is silicate containing by removing some sponge, bleach away the organic matter, leaving solid structures (spicules). If those dissolve in acid, they are not silica but are calcium carbonate. if they do not dissolve in acid, they likely are silica.

Thanks Randy. I actually have a pretty standalone one that just went through Bayer. If it lives in a few days, I will bleach it to give it a go.
 

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Folks, please keep this on topic. I don't want thread to become an identification thread, or a "benefits of sponges" thread. I am asking how to fully get rid the tank of sponges. If you don't have the know-how, or ideas, please refrain from commenting.
I can tell you how I got ride of a tank full of pineapple sponges they were everywhere they were even clogging up all my filtration systems it was horrible you need to buy water from the Lfs store make sure their filters are new and even your top off water needs to be from the store becouse of all the silicates in the tap water then make sure to clean your filters and not feed your tank butt much over a 4 month period buy buying my water from the store and cleaning my filters and adding new filters and all that the sponges just died out but you have to clean all the time and do water changes 10% atleast once a weak and not feed your tank too much they will literally go away buy themselves after the silicates die down in your tank you will se they will compete with each other for food and just die off
 

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48-hour update:
* 50/50 Peroxide 10 minute bath - no impact. Mushroom bleached.
* Peroxide injection - Little bit more dead tissue around the point of injection, but the rest looks fine.

24-hour update:
* Bayer bath - no impact
 

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Bump!
Does anyone know or have experience of something that you can dose to kill sponge?

there is this invasive orange keyhole-type sponge in my rockwork that I’ve been killing back for a long time via kalk paste, uv pen or by supergluing over it - if that fails even taking entire rocks out to prevent further spread. I always end up thinking I got it all, and it eventually returns as it grows into the deep pores of the rock or reappears elsewhere. “Injecting with h2o2 or exposing it to air” does not work.

it’s extremely aggressive growing and will take over a rock and coral quickly if left uncheck.

Having something to dose could be what’s needed to finally knock this out. I saw the azythromicine report but that is an isolated report.

thanks all
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Bump!
Does anyone know or have experience of something that you can dose to kill sponge?

there is this invasive orange keyhole-type sponge in my rockwork that I’ve been killing back for a long time via kalk paste, uv pen or by supergluing over it - if that fails even taking entire rocks out to prevent further spread. I always end up thinking I got it all, and it eventually returns as it grows into the deep pores of the rock or reappears elsewhere. “Injecting with h2o2 or exposing it to air” does not work.

it’s extremely aggressive growing and will take over a rock and coral quickly if left uncheck.

Having something to dose could be what’s needed to finally knock this out. I saw the azythromicine report but that is an isolated report.

thanks all

I think if there were such a thing, it would have already been posted here. .

There are some sponges that are bad pests. One is blue, as I recall correctly, so many folks let it go then it becomes problematic.
 

mfollen

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Thanks Randy,

this sponge is very nasty and aggressive, and it just survives no matter what I do to blast it back. I wish there was something I could do. Otherwise I may be forced to take down some nice aquascape and coral to remove deep “infected” rock if it re-emerges.
 
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