White layer on sea sponge

[MarineC]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to keep a sea sponge in an aquarium (orange encrusting sponge: Hymeniacidon perlevis). After some time, I always have a kind of white layer developing on my sponge. I wonder if it's the sponge itself that is necrosing because of bad conditions in the aquarium (I'm not very confident on the quantity of food, intensity of the current, filtration needs, and other parameters needed for this species in aquarium) or if it's something else (algae?) that is growing on it and suffocating it. Any idea?

Thank you in advance for your help,
Have a nice day!

PS: The first picture (left) is my sponge now, and the second one (right) is the same one month ago.

 

[Timfish]

Sorry! :( Your right, it's a bacterial film that's killing your sponge. I'd toss it.

 

[Timfish]

FWIW, ornamental sponges are very hard to keep long term. This is a guess but it may be in part due to the competition they get from cryptic sponges that tend to do very well in systems.

 

[MarineC]

Thank you for your answer :)