The New and Improved Lobster Tank!

[AydenLincoln]

Let’s just say the other tank was an impulse buy and I’m happier that this tank is more customizable! I should be getting my little guy Sunday. I had my ammonia spike/mini cycle in the other tank and transferred everything over. And now I’m broke! Does anyone want a 5 gallon tank perfect for quarantine or fresh after it’s listed on the marketplace forum?

 

[Peace River]

It looks like you are off to a good start! Congratulations on the new setup!!!

 

[AydenLincoln]

I just added some more sand, little pieces of rock, and more bacteria! It looks like the cycle is currently happening something I had hoped to avoid but I ended up adding way too much fish food oh well it should be finished very soon.

 

[AydenLincoln]

He’s in his temporarily home and he’s so cute!

 

[Smoke-Town]

Very cool. What's going in there with him?

 

[AydenLincoln]

Very cool. What's going in there with him?

Macroalgae no other fish or inverts. They do best in their own tanks and I don’t trust him lol.

 

[jimk60]

Looks like an interesting critter! How big do they get?

 

[AydenLincoln]

Looks like an interesting critter! How big do they get?

5 inches but they typically stay a little smaller in captivity. He’s around 2 inches now.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I got some more macroalgae for the lobster tank and I think someone has been munching on the sea lettuce in the tank!

 

[AydenLincoln]

My lobster now has an all you can eat buffet of sea lettuce! I hope the gross smell goes away too I know it’s normal since it was shipped.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I have an addiction and need to trim/remove some lol!

 

[AydenLincoln]

Updated shots! There’s around a dozen macros in the tank currently as well.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Updated shots! There’s around a dozen macros in the tank currently as well.

very cool, how did you grow your orange sponge so much from december to now? what are you feeding? are you dosing sponge excel or silicates or anything to keep them healthy and growing?

 

[AydenLincoln]

And in case you were wondering my care/dosing for this tank. I just removed my filter but I kept a small bag of carbon in the tank for water clarity and I am thinking about adding a skimmer instead. I dose SpongePower, both types of plankton, SpongExcel, and ChaetoGro daily. As well as Brightwell NeoPhos/NeoNitro as needed and perform weekly and bi-weekly water changes. For feeding my lobster enjoys munching on the green macros especially the sea lettuce but every few days…I throw a clam in the tank for him.

 

[AydenLincoln]

very cool, how did you grow your orange sponge so much from december to now? what are you feeding? are you dosing sponge excel or silicates or anything to keep them healthy and growing?

That’s a different one lol. The small one died on me because I wasn’t dosing the proper things at the time/didn’t do enough research but I have had the one on the right since early December. Yes see my new post.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

That’s a different one lol. The small one died on me because I wasn’t dosing the proper things at the time/didn’t do enough research but I have had the one on the right since early December. Yes see my new post.

Gotcha, that makes more sense than growing like half a foot in a month lol, very cool little tank!

 

[Miami Reef]

And in case you were wondering my care/dosing for this tank. I just removed my filter but I kept a small bag of carbon in the tank for water clarity and I am thinking about adding a skimmer instead. I dose SpongePower, both types of plankton, SpongExcel, and ChaetoGro daily. As well as Brightwell NeoPhos/NeoNitro as needed and perform weekly and bi-weekly water changes. For feeding my lobster munches on the green macros mainly the sea lettuce but every few days or so I throw a clam in the tank for him.

Looks like a good regime to me! If I were keeping sponges, I would dose a lot of silica, more than people suggest. They might have a harder time getting silica at lower concentrations compared to diatoms.

Sponges are the second largest consumer of dissolved silica in the ocean, after diatoms.14 Many sponges use silica to form internal structures, called spicules, which help them retain their shape. In the case of the sponge Tethya aurantia, these spicules are needles of amorphous silica that comprise 75% of its dry weight. These spicules are 2 mm long and 30 mm wide.15

Most frequently, the spicules in sponges are hydrated amorphous silica, and also contain collagen, an organic material (although sometimes they are calcium carbonate). In order to direct the formation of these silica spicules, sponges produce enzymes that help control the silica deposition process. In the case of the sponges Suberites domuncula and Tethya auranita, an enzyme called silicatein is produced. When the silicate concentration is increased in the surrounding water from 1 mM (0.06 ppm SiO2) to 60 mM (3.6 ppm SiO2), the gene responsible for silicatein is strongly up- regulated, along with that for collagen.16 These experiments suggest that the sponge may be able to take advantage of silica concentrations as high as 60 mM, or alternatively, may be restricted in it’s growth, at levels below 60 mM.

It has been shown that in the sponge Halichondria panicea there is a correlation between the dissolved SiO2 in the seawater, and SiO2 content of the sponge.17 Moreover, it has been shown that silica uptake appears to require energy expenditure by the sponge, and that after conditions of starvation, uptake rates were greatly reduced. The ability of these sponges to remove SiO2 from the water column is sufficient so that in the summer they may actually compete with diatoms for available silicate.

In this same sponge, the rate of silica uptake is a function of the dissolved silica concentration in the seawater, with higher silica concentrations resulting in higher rates of uptake. The concentration at which the sponges take up silica at half of their maximal rate is 46 mM (2.8 ppm SiO2).14 Further, in certain waters it is believed that the growth of these sponges is limited by soluble silica, rather than by the availability of food. These sponges are capable of taking up 19 mmol/h per gram of tissue (maximally), so at 46 mM dissolved SiO2, they theoretically could take up 9.5 mmol/h per gram of tissue (though there is no evidence that the do take up silica that fast under normal growth conditions). A 50-gram sponge would then be able to take up 475 mmol/h, or 11.4 mmol (0.7 g) of silica in a day. A 100-gallon (378 L) aquarium with a high level of silica (30 mM or 1.9 ppm SiO2) only contains that much to begin with. Consequently, the potential
silica depletion in reef tanks with actively growing sponges could be substantial. Of course, if your sponges are not growing rapidly, then they likely are not using much silica. Likewise, if there is not much silica, then they may not be able to grow rapidly, even if other conditions are good.

This reason is, in fact, why I initiated dosing of silica (0.33 mM/day or 0.02 ppm SiO2/day) to my reef tank several years ago. I had a large sponge that I wanted to survive, and I had hoped that silica additions might alter the usual course of slow death for such sponges in most reef tanks. When I initiated that study, Julian Sprung told me that he had tried the same thing. In both of our cases the sponges eventually died, in my case lasting about 18 months. Perhaps we did not dose enough silica (0.33 mM/day is a small amount relative to the uptake numbers described above, and the concentration in the water column of my tank never rose above 0.8 mM (0.05 ppm SiO2) where it could be detected with a Hach kit). Alternatively, perhaps the food sources were not right or something else was wrong.

Silica In Reef Aquariums

Why would I recommend dosing silica? Largely because creatures in our tanks use it, the concentrations in our tanks (at least in mine) are below natural levels, and the sponges, mollusks, and diatoms may not be getting enough to thrive.

reefs.com

 

[AydenLincoln]

I forgot to mention one other thing I like to stir up my sand for them. I know there’s food in it and dissolved organics sponges like!

 

[AydenLincoln]

For those of you wondering my flow situation! Strong flow pointed towards the sponges.

 

[AydenLincoln]

He’s still so tiny and cute only about 2 inches or so. He’s only molted about twice since I got him. Late last night I saw him running around the tank doing zoomies!