Are live sponges useful?

[Ishai Thatcher]

Hey everyone, I just noticed a ton of sponges growing in my cryptic 75 gal and throughout the rest of my system. Are they beneficial? Never had so many grow in a system, the system is only a half year old, and has no actual live rock in it. There is probably 100 of these growing through the whole system.

 

[ikaros70]

I had a lot of sponges and small tube worms in my overflows, usually a sign of a mature aquarium.
I am in the process of setting up my tank again but I wouldn’t be too worried about it unless something seems off?

 

[Emanuel Refer]

Sponges are beneficial to any marine reef tank. They takeout silicates from the water and use them to grow their skeleton. Another useful thing that sponges do is acting as a nutrient buffers/filters in reefs. If there is a nutrient spike the sponges will regulate it by converting nutrients into a simple forms of of carbon that can be synthesised more easily by corals. I am planning to build a cryptic zone in my aquarium in which I want to grow a lot of sponges from different species. If you want more informations about sponges look up for the CMAT books (volume 1 & 2) by Steve Tyree. You can find them on reeffarmers.com. The books are great with a lot of info about cryptic and semi-cryptic zones and the role of sponges in the reef system. Best regards!