Cryptic zones vs Skimmers

[92Miata]

In order for a cryptic zone/sponges to keep up with a skimmer - they need to keep consuming nutrients - which means they need to keep growing. IE - its a weird dark refugium. Either volume needs to keep expanding, or you need to be harvesting.

Most of us don't have the space for an enormous ever expanding cryptic fuge - and 'harvesting' sponges is riskier than harvesting chaeto.

 

[Tankkeepers]

In order for a cryptic zone/sponges to keep up with a skimmer - they need to keep consuming nutrients - which means they need to keep growing. IE - its a weird dark refugium. Either volume needs to keep expanding, or you need to be harvesting.

Most of us don't have the space for an enormous ever expanding cryptic fuge - and 'harvesting' sponges is riskier than harvesting chaeto.

Havesting sponges is actually not hard at all just rip a chunk out and they will recover very fast heck u can even put a sponge with tank water in a blender let the water sit for a day or to and most of it will reform the sponge and jf you go with types that can be exlosed to air jts even less risky

So this very riskys is compleatly untrue and exposing the cryptic zone to light momentarily does not hurt anything at all the light void is mainly to keep algie etc out alittle light every now and again does not hurt anything at all

I originally got most of my info from
Steve Tyree also thats a great starting point

Lastly I belive a low light area where light meats dark and is not enoff to grow anything is called a benthic zone (probly spelled that wrong)

 

[Tankkeepers]

Perhaps not really pertinent to your question but some great responses and insight.

Cryptic zone - do you believe in it ?

Hi friends, I have been thinking of writing this topic for a while now after my short 8-9 months of experience with it and tons of reading on it . Never managed to write it until now as i felt I do not have enough data points to support it . But what the heck !! Its R2R and we have friends to...

www.reef2reef.com

Thank you for this and everyone interested in maintaining a natural healthy heavily feed tank like I do should take a look at this I have a 32 biocube with 6 clown sized fish a cleaner shrimp and to many snails and hermits to count I feed 4 times a day 1/2 cube of mysis and spiralina brine then a pinch of new life specktrum small fish formula and 1/32 tsp reef roids I do not rince the frozen food just thaw in tank water mix and throw it in the original zoas and palys have went from 1 to 3 heads to 30 plus in 8 months the photo gorg has dubled in size and the finger leather has had to be cut way back 2 times now as it was as big as my hand (iv got big hands) and started from less then a finger I now also have a Duncan(cracked skeleton in shipping a week ago still alive and hoping it makes it) 2 florda ricordias pink tip fireworks clove polys and working on some type of plate coral for the sand all under the stock biocube led lighting

 

[Tankkeepers]

Also one last cool thing I'll add is sponges make their own current not stinger granted but in an tank entirly void of any other form of water movment and a sponge living in it there will be water movment the holes are an in and out with little hair like things that moved similar to swimming to creat mater movment threw out the sponge which is why some types dye when exposed to air the air gets traped and the sponge dyes of starvation some however live in tidal areas and are exposed to sun and air for up to 12 hours a day the splashing keeps them wet enoff to live and then when they go back under water they can get rid of the air traped and start eating again

 

[Tankkeepers]

Hence how scientists know a golf ball spong will filter 10 gallons if water an hour thats hiw much current is moving threw them

 

[Tankkeepers]

Also sponges trap just about everything they eat so to speak and lock it away using it for structural building blocks

 

[CMMorgan]

Tankkeepers... this is a fascinating thread. I am soaking in all of this knowledge ... like a sponge.

 

[Tankkeepers]

Tankkeepers... this is a fascinating thread. I am soaking in all of this knowledge ... like a sponge.

Thank you I just kept see everyone say skimmer skimmer skimmer but iv never ever used a skimmer and knew while there was alot out there about cryptic and benthic filtration I figured I'd make a new post to kinda refresh the idea

My tanks have always been overstocked over feed with no issues at all coral is always healthy and grows fast i used to have a lps sps mixed 0 water change system ran for 8 years untill kid killed it he thought becouse I fed the freshwater tank but not the reef tank they needed food to(it produced its own food I dosed micro and macros)and proceded to feed them the chili powder I left on the tabke while taking a shower killed everything in 2 minutes flat very sad day it even had a dwarf sea horse colony and breeding banghis

 

[Tankkeepers]

Ps dwarf sea horses are sooooooo cute

 

[Tankkeepers]

Current tank each of the larger colony started as 1 to 3 heads 8 months ago and the gorge has mkre then doubked in size I chose the biocube(wife said I coukd get whatever for Xmas hehe) becouse of the rear design the first chamber is blacked out so cryptic the second is fuge and the last is uv light return pump and heater I run carbon and 3 nano bags of cemipure blue and a blue bonded fikter pad in second chamber and thats it for the tank

 

[CMMorgan]

Ps dwarf sea horses are sooooooo cute

Sea horse in general are super cute... just so much work. Maybe one day.
I'm enjoying this information so much. I was an educator at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center in Buford, Ga. for 5 years. We had an educational aquarium with fresh, brackish and salt tanks. My favorite was our horseshoe crab touch tank.
As a nice perk, my colleague and I were once treated to a behind the scenes professional tour of the Atlanta Aquarium. The vastness of the sea and the amazing chemistry therein is just mind boggling.

 

[Tankkeepers]

Yes it is and ya sea horses can be alot of work if the overall tank size was not so large I'm not sure I coukd of kept them they had a 55 fuge to themselves plus what the 55 cryptic produced plus the 55 equitment red mangraove tank produced I'm not counting the 125 main fishys got most of the pods from there

 

[Double monti 61]

Hi I have ear sponges in my 15 gallon tank they are photosynthetic I have cut them away from corals that they began to overgro w and I have to remove some more, does anyone In Dutchess country NY want some?

 

[Tankkeepers]

Wish I lived closer thats pretty hipefully someone will take some

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Also sponges trap just about everything they eat so to speak and lock it away using it for structural building blocks

What makes you say that?

Sponges as important sources of nitrate on an oligotrophic continental shelf

https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.4319/lo.2013.58.6.1947

" In situ field measurements of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) release by sponges in southwestern Australia revealed nitrate release rates of 0.022 to 0.743 mmol g dry weight21 (dry wt) h21 and ammonium release rates of between 0.002 and 1.366 mmol g dry wt21 h21 "

" Taking into account the distribution of sponge habitat across the continental shelf to 100 m depth, this constitutes a contribution of 10% to 18% of the total recycled nitrogen flux required from the benthos to balance a regional nitrogen budget. "

 

[Timfish]

Sponges are essential players in the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycle(s) on reefs here's some links to research done with them.

Element cycling on tropical coral reefs.
This is Jasper de Geoij's ground breaking research on reef sponges. (The introduction is in Dutch but the content is in English.) One of the amazing discoveries is cryptic sponges remove the labile fraction of DOC 1000X faster than the bacterioplankton.

https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14555035/13completethesis.pdf

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Marine sponges are ubiquitous colonizers of shallow, clear-water environments in the oceans (1, 2). Sponges have emerged as significant mediators of biogeochemical fluxes in coastal zones by virtue of respiring organic matter and facilitating both the consumption and release of nutrients (3, 4)...

www.pnas.org

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that raise a conundrum called “Darwin’s paradox”: How can high production flourish in low-nutrient conditions? We show here that in three abundant Caribbean sponges, the granules that have been commonly observed in sponge tissue for decades are...

www.pnas.org

Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop.
Cryptic sponges treat DOC from algae differently than DOC from corals

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besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Surviving in a Marine Desert The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs
Dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen are quickly processed by cryptic sponges and released back into the reef food web in hours as carbon and nitrogen rich detritus.

(PDF) 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop

PDF | On Jun 23, 2015, Jasper M de Goeij and others published 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) - PMC

Coral-excavating sponges are the most important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs and increase in abundance throughout the region. This increase is commonly attributed to a concomitant increase in food availability due to eutrophication and pollution. ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Role of Marine Sponges in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles of COral Reefs and Nearshore Environments.

The role of marine sponges in carbon and nitrogen cycles of coral reef and nearshore environments - ProQuest

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