Start 'Sterile' or Live Rock SPS Tank?

[BigMax]

Soliciting opinions:

I have a 350 gallon fish only tank that I was going to upgrade it to FOWLR tank. I bought 150lbs of live rock about 5 years ago when Live Aquaria was still selling it, as stated shipped wet right from where it was collected. I put all the rock in a covered 50 gallon barrel, no light, cycled it with a protein skimmer, heater and a little carbon for 50 days. I then placed it temporarily in a 70 gallon tank but got the itch to try a few corals, and got the bug for a reef tank . I'm in the process now of setting up a very large primarily SPS tank, but thinking I need to start 'sterile'? It's interesting to see all the hitchhikers that came in with the rock, but there is my concern. I have aggressive sponge I don't want, and a ton of brown zoa's that didn't even show up for 2.5 years.

So, finally, to my question obviously this is well seasoned rock, but I'm afraid to move it to my SPS tank because I believe it will create far more problems than the gains I receive. What would you do?

Picture of the my 70 just for a little perspective.

 

[Super Fly]

tank looks great. If it was me, I'd reuse the old rocks because they contain tons of beneficial bacteria that would take years to build up from scratch. Most folks would love to have sponges on their rocks, may I ask why you prefer to remove them?

 

[vetteguy53081]

As in the case of my 669g, I mixed both live and dry.

 

[BigMax]

tank looks great. If it was me, I'd reuse the old rocks because they contain tons of beneficial bacteria that would take years to build up from scratch. Most folks would love to have sponges on their rocks, may I ask why you prefer to remove them?

Thanks for the reply(s)...much appreciated.

The sponge didn't appear until several months ago, and there have been no new additions to the tank over the last 2 years. The sponge is white and grows about 1/4"-1/2" every couple of days, it eats tissue as it goes and has killed several heads on my hammer coral, that's how I first noticed it. (It may not be sponge? but based on texture etc. it's my best guess). I remove it every few days, but it comes back. I've tried using epoxy to snuff it out, but it actually bored a hole through it after about a week. I've tried injecting it with hydrogen peroxide all to no avail.

Attached is my attempt at a photo of the 'critter':

 

[DJF]

+1 for live rock. Sponges are great until they get where you don’t want them. Sometimes air & a toothbrush is all you need for that battle. Other times targeted fresh water on the sponge and a toothbrush will get rid of it- it’ll take years for the dry rock to catch to what you have in the LR. If you start with dry, you may end up missing that sponge

 

[Super Fly]

Thanks for the reply(s)...much appreciated.

The sponge didn't appear until several months ago, and there have been no new additions to the tank over the last 2 years. The sponge is white and grows about 1/4"-1/2" every couple of days, it eats tissue as it goes and has killed several heads on my hammer coral, that's how I first noticed it. (It may not be sponge? but based on texture etc. it's my best guess). I remove it every few days, but it comes back. I've tried using epoxy to snuff it out, but it actually bored a hole through it after about a week. I've tried injecting it with hydrogen peroxide all to no avail.

Attached is my attempt at a photo of the 'critter':

not a sponge expert and hard to tell from the blue pix but that doesn't sound like a sponge esp if it's growing that fast while harming corals

 

[BigMax]

not a sponge expert and hard to tell from the blue pix but that doesn't sound like a sponge esp if it's growing that fast while harming corals

Thanks.

Yup, I'm having hard time figuring it out what it is? definitely at a loss. The blue tint is the lights, it's as white as can be.

 

[Foneman02]

I am having the same problem. I started out with yellow sponge growing under rocks gave the tank some nice color. Didn’t realize how invasive it was. Eventually growing on my frog spawn and I started losing heads. I thought they were dying due to a low alk problem. Then a more invasive sponge started growing. It started to grow over the yellow sponge. The white was very aggressive. I was able to take out the rock the white was growing on and expose it to the air. I used pair of tweezers and small scalpel and did surgery for about a 1/2 hr. Occasionally pouring tank water over the GSP so they wouldn’t die. The yellow sponge turned black, but the white I had to remove by digging away at it. The black dead sponge I used a tooth brush to remove it. The white sponge I removed was like a thick skin. Being exposed to air didn’t seem to affect the white. I managed to remove all the yellow from the frog spawn since I was able to remove it for the tank. I hope this helps someone.

 

[BigMax]

I am having the same problem. I started out with yellow sponge growing under rocks gave the tank some nice color. Didn’t realize how invasive it was. Eventually growing on my frog spawn and I started losing heads. I thought they were dying due to a low alk problem. Then a more invasive sponge started growing. It started to grow over the yellow sponge. The white was very aggressive. I was able to take out the rock the white was growing on and expose it to the air. I used pair of tweezers and small scalpel and did surgery for about a 1/2 hr. Occasionally pouring tank water over the GSP so they wouldn’t die. The yellow sponge turned black, but the white I had to remove by digging away at it. The black dead sponge I used a tooth brush to remove it. The white sponge I removed was like a thick skin. Being exposed to air didn’t seem to affect the white. I managed to remove all the yellow from the frog spawn since I was able to remove it for the tank. I hope this helps someone.

Thanks...interesting as well. I would like to remove the rock, as you did, I may have too. Unfortunately it's the biggest boulder in the tank. The picture of the hammer is about 6 months old and the hammer goes back very deep in the tank about 40 heads, between a volleyball and a basketball in size, it's completely attached to that rock. So, sorry for the bad pun, but 'I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place' at this time.

 

[Timfish]

Regarding the original OP see this article on the benefits of maricultured Live Rock for eatablishing a healthy microbiome in a reef system.

Regarding the white sponge you're having problems with from the description my first suspicion is something changed withthe equilibrium of your system a few months ago so it's getting more food or it's food has changed causing it to be more aggressive. It's almost certainly been there since you first set up your system. For controlling it I have a couple suggestions. First is using stainless steel straws to scrap it off the rocks and siphon it out at teh same time. (I would use a 3/16" or 1/4" with a 9/16 hose to amplify the suction.) Second would be to use H2O2 in a syrenge and a slicone cup cake mold to kill off what's left. Stick the end of the syrenge through the silicone mold. Hold the mold agianst the rock covering the sponge and squirt a couple ml into it. Hold it there for a minute or so to give the H2)2 enough contact time to kill the sponge. This is a tedious method but it works well when a rock can't be removed easily to remove unwanted animals.

 

[BigMax]

Regarding the original OP see this article on the benefits of maricultured Live Rock for eatablishing a healthy microbiome in a reef system.

Regarding the white sponge you're having problems with from the description my first suspicion is something changed withthe equilibrium of your system a few months ago so it's getting more food or it's food has changed causing it to be more aggressive. It's almost certainly been there since you first set up your system. For controlling it I have a couple suggestions. First is using stainless steel straws to scrap it off the rocks and siphon it out at teh same time. (I would use a 3/16" or 1/4" with a 9/16 hose to amplify the suction.) Second would be to use H2O2 in a syrenge and a slicone cup cake mold to kill off what's left. Stick the end of the syrenge through the silicone mold. Hold the mold agianst the rock covering the sponge and squirt a couple ml into it. Hold it there for a minute or so to give the H2)2 enough contact time to kill the sponge. This is a tedious method but it works well when a rock can't be removed easily to remove unwanted animals.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

You may well be right my water changes haven't been as frequent the last 4-6 months. Although I'm running a biopellet reactor I would have to believe my nitrates are higher just based on the WC reduction. Both of your ideas are new to me. To get rid of some of my brown zoas I held a Python syphon over the zoas and used a scissors to remove them while performing a water change. I'll definitely try the stainless steel straws (Thx) as it looks to be much more effective.

Also, creating something to lengthen the H2O2 contact time makes absolute sense.

Again, nice of you to take the time to provide good advice!