My gf did it again.

[anon9896]

Nice man congratulations brother! Are you guys going to register at BRS?

I dont get it ... bulk reef suply ?

Check out this thread about a sponge tank. It has a lot of good info on taking care of sponges.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sponge-reef-at-the-ocean-discovery-visitors-center.409311/

Thanks for the info there is not much on sponges.. I read everything I can find about them , I might take dust off my microscope for this one

 

[flsalty]

Yeah, I've been reading up on them myself. It seems all the aquarium sites are just repeating each other.

 

[Waynerock]

I dont get it ... bulk reef suply ?
Thanks for the info there is not much on sponges.. I read everything I can find about them , I might take dust off my microscope for this one

You know when you register at a store you want stuff from and your wedding guest’s get you what you want. I totally would register from Bulk Reef. My wife’s friend had there wedding registry at the ABC store( it’s a North Carolina liquor store)

 

[anon9896]

You know when you register at a store you want stuff from and your wedding guest’s get you what you want. I totally would register from Bulk Reef. My wife’s friend had there wedding registry at the ABC store( it’s a North Carolina liquor store)

Bahaha i get it we did received some gift cards at bulk barns though XD

 

[anon9896]

Yeah, I've been reading up on them myself. It seems all the aquarium sites are just repeating each other.

One thing funny , people all told me to keep the sponge out of light but the one I bough had a strange color where it was not under the light ... I fid read some are photosynthetic ... i will leave a piece in full light and one under a rock , given more possibilities I plan on making sure this strand of sponge stays alive .

 

[ThePurple12]

Ya, those are zoas on it, haha. It's doing good bit I purposely dont feed the zoas as it will choke out the sponge if they grow too much.

Sorry to hijack, but how do they grow without light???

 

[shred5]

I have grown all kinds of sponges and they can be challenging and some impossible. Not all are though.
A big part of it with many sponges is if at any point they are exposed to air.
If air gets trapped inside it will block flow causing the sponge to die. Sometimes the whole sponge or sometimes that area.
I have sponges that are just fine out of water and are not to hard to keep, tree sponges are not one of them.
They easily get air trapped, they also are easily smothered by algae.
They are not impossible to keep though.

Another issue with allot of sponges is food, allot filter bacteria and require it to survive. Some can filter stuff like phyto out of the water. The hardest part is knowing exactly what sponges eat.

Light has no affect on a tree sponge.

 

[anon9896]

Ok we are the very next day , already trouble

Yesterday I had 4 pieces but one is lost

I have 2 suspects
Lights opening there is someone right there.

Emeral crab
But I cant find the piece...
I suspect the pistol shrimp to be an acomplice

 

[muzikalmatt]

I can definitely sympathize with you on the girlfriend thing. My girlfriend is totally into the tank which is great, but she also has a fondness for the most difficult animals: filter feeders, flame scallops, starfish, etc. Luckily we've had good success/luck with most of them so far and my LFS is extremely honest with us about the difficulties of some of these animals.

However, we did try our hand at a mandarin recently and he did not make it. Even though my tank was almost 8 months old with plenty of pods and I tried spot feeding him with everything under the sun, he still didn't make it. So I'm much more cautious and less impulsive now having gone through that experience. I felt terrible and really don't want to put any other animals at risk due to my inexperience, lack of knowledge or just sheer selfishness.

As much as I would love to keep a mandarin, I don't want to risk killing it so it's best for me to leave it alone. I think that's a good rule of thumb for all reefers to abide by. If you have any doubts, at the very least do more research prior to making the purchase or just pass on it all together. Regardless, I hope the sponge works out for you and congratulations on the marriage!

 

[anon9896]

I have grown all kinds of sponges and they can be challenging and some impossible. Not all are though.
A big part of it with many sponges is if at any point they are exposed to air.
If air gets trapped inside it will block flow causing the sponge to die. Sometimes the whole sponge or sometimes that area.
I have sponges that are just fine out of water and are not to hard to keep, tree sponges are not one of them.
They easily get air trapped, they also are easily smothered by algae.
They are not impossible to keep though.

Another issue with allot of sponges is food, allot filter bacteria and require it to survive. Some can filter stuff like phyto out of the water. The hardest part is knowing exactly what sponges eat.

Light has no affect on a tree sponge.

Just so you guys know , I'm the kind of guy who goes into every pet store with salt water aquariums and buy a piece of rock just to dump it in mine.... I dont have much trouble to fight against hitchhikers but again I have a small aquarium.... I only had some problems that I could effectively get rid of... I believe in strong biodiversity but thanks to my 6 line wrass cleaner buddy.

 

[C. Eymann]

Here is mine in a cryptic fuge.

Very impressive, how long have you had the trikentrion ? Cryptic fuge, dont see many of those very often, are you using Steve Tyree's tri zonal system?

 

[anon9896]

I can definitely sympathize with you on the girlfriend thing. My girlfriend is totally into the tank which is great, but she also has a fondness for the most difficult animals: filter feeders, flame scallops, starfish, etc. Luckily we've had good success/luck with most of them so far and my LFS is extremely honest with us about the difficulties of some of these animals.

However, we did try our hand at a mandarin recently and he did not make it. Even though my tank was almost 8 months old with plenty of pods and I tried spot feeding him with everything under the sun, he still didn't make it. So I'm much more cautious and less impulsive now having gone through that experience. I felt terrible and really don't want to put any other animals at risk due to my inexperience, lack of knowledge or just sheer selfishness.

As much as I would love to keep a mandarin, I don't want to risk killing it so it's best for me to leave it alone. I think that's a good rule of thumb for all reefers to abide by. If you have any doubts, at the very least do more research prior to making the purchase or just pass on it all together. Regardless, I hope the sponge works out for you and congratulations on the marriage!

Well I admit my girlfriend is working towards that mandarin , not a single visit to a shop without her asking me how well he could be if we modified the tank to adopt hihahaha... I agree with some people not liking random people buying random critters... I had aquariums for 15 years (It doesnt make someone an expert)... this particular tank is going to be 3 years this winter, I have some sponges that hitchhiked in there by themselves, I admit I dont know much on sponges besides the obvious fact they are filtering the water... I have this hawaian feather duster who is thriving in my tank for about 2 years ... thats for me a sign that I can push a little more onto the filtering side...
Let's hope I can find a great setup for this awesome critter.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Well I admit my girlfriend is working towards that mandarin , not a single visit to a shop without her asking me how well he could be if we modified the tank to adopt hihahaha... I agree with some people not liking random people buying random critters... I had aquariums for 15 years (It doesnt make someone an expert)... this particular tank is going to be 3 years this winter, I have some sponges that hitchhiked in there by themselves, I admit I dont know much on sponges besides the obvious fact they are filtering the water... I have this hawaian feather duster who is thriving in my tank for about 2 years ... thats for me a sign that I can push a little more onto the filtering side...
Let's hope I can find a great setup for this awesome critter.

Are you me?! Haha! I have a bunch of sponges that hitchhiked in on some live rock too, coincidentally the one piece of rock my girlfriend picked out. We also have a feather duster (8 months now) and a coco worm (4 months), both of which are doing great. We even added an electric flame scallop about 2 months ago and it seems to be doing well so far. I really hesitated on picking up the scallop though as everything I've read says they don't last very long in captivity. So I'm certainly guilty of trying out difficult things in our tank. I dose Sustainable Aquatics Phytoplankton and Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast almost daily though along with Oyster Feast and ROE to make sure those guys are getting enough to eat. I'm a big fan of the biodiversity you can have in a reef tank and the filter feeders are some of my favorite tank inhabitants.

Here's a picture the coco worm from a few months ago.

 

[anon9896]

Are you me?! Haha! I have a bunch of sponges that hitchhiked in on some live rock too, coincidentally the one piece of rock my girlfriend picked out. We also have a feather duster (8 months now) and a coco worm (4 months), both of which are doing great. We even added an electric flame scallop about 2 months ago and it seems to be doing well so far. I really hesitated on picking up the scallop though as everything I've read says they don't last very long in captivity. So I'm certainly guilty of trying out difficult things in our tank. I dose Sustainable Aquatics Phytoplankton and Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast almost daily though along with Oyster Feast and ROE to make sure those guys are getting enough to eat. I'm a big fan of the biodiversity you can have in a reef tank and the filter feeders are some of my favorite tank inhabitants.

Here's a picture the coco worm from a few months ago.

nice man that tube surely looks gorgeous !
Nice to see some optimistic people !!!
I had a flame scallop who lasted 1 year back in the days.
They are something hard to keep but like you know , feeding them is top priority.
I want to break all of this down to something.
As a disclaimer , The first person who told himself 'hey let's try to put something in an aquarium' tried things, and then the guy who tried saltwater aquarium, and etc.
MANY critters died becose of the lack of knowledge.
I question EVERYTHING I read on the internet as lot of it is totally BS
I found my own way to have a healthy aquarium, some say it's lazy others say it's the best, I know for a fact that I do a lot of researchs and I am willing to do major changes when I adopt a critter.

If I have an advice for you
muzikalmatt
I suggest you buy yourself a doser and hook it directly onto your phyto bottle.
Our aquariums are sadly fed once and/or in the best cases twice a day.
Slow feeder like mandarins have a hard time to live only for this particular reason.
they need 24/7 food but our systems don't make that possible.
Many sterile system including UV filters, HUGE skimmer and what not only thrive becose they have HUGE aquarium to back up the trouble created.
Right now I have 2 aquariums with one that doesn't even include fish.
I do tests and I only buy a critter every now and then.
My main reasoning ? I don't test quality of water for my critters , I test my critters for my water quality. Only by looking at my animals can I tell if something is wrong. (touching wood here lol)
obviously I am the lazy type.
I am the cheap type.
I am the provocative type.
I am the type that have healthy aquariums.(touching wood)
As for the rest, i'm still trying to find where to buy Bacteriophages to test Dinoflagellate outbreak reduction.
let's hope the small sponge piece my pistol shrimp probably brought into her underrock shelter will benefit of her constant moving bottom bacteries filled water.

Cheers

 

[muzikalmatt]

nice man that tube surely looks gorgeous !
Nice to see some optimistic people !!!
I had a flame scallop who lasted 1 year back in the days.
They are something hard to keep but like you know , feeding them is top priority.
I want to break all of this down to something.
As a disclaimer , The first person who told himself 'hey let's try to put something in an aquarium' tried things, and then the guy who tried saltwater aquarium, and etc.
MANY critters died becose of the lack of knowledge.
I question EVERYTHING I read on the internet as lot of it is totally crap
I found my own way to have a healthy aquarium, some say it's lazy others say it's the best, I know for a fact that I do a lot of researchs and I am willing to do major changes when I adopt a critter.

If I have an advice for you
muzikalmatt
I suggest you buy yourself a doser and hook it directly onto your phyto bottle.
Our aquariums are sadly fed once and/or in the best cases twice a day.
Slow feeder like mandarins have a hard time to live only for this particular reason.
they need 24/7 food but our systems don't make that possible.
Many sterile system including UV filters, HUGE skimmer and what not only thrive becose they have HUGE aquarium to back up the trouble created.
Right now I have 2 aquariums with one that doesn't even include fish.
I do tests and I only buy a critter every now and then.
My main reasoning ? I don't test quality of water for my critters , I test my critters for my water quality. Only by looking at my animals can I tell if something is wrong. (touching wood here lol)
obviously I am the lazy type.
I am the cheap type.
I am the provocative type.
I am the type that have healthy aquariums.(touching wood)
As for the rest, i'm still trying to find where to buy Bacteriophages to test Dinoflagellate outbreak reduction.
let's hope the small sponge piece my pistol shrimp probably brought into her underrock shelter will benefit of her constant moving bottom bacteries filled water.

Cheers

Thanks for the advice! I've actually be considering purchasing a doser for 2-part and was looking at the Jebao DP-4 so I'd have two extra heads and could use one for Phyto dosing. I definitely agree that dosing more frequently is better, particularly for those demanding filter feeders. I think it also helps the tank avoid nutrient spikes as it would be smaller additions added periodically rather than huge additions all at once.

 

[anon9896]

Thanks for the advice! I've actually be considering purchasing a doser for 2-part and was looking at the Jebao DP-4 so I'd have two extra heads and could use one for Phyto dosing. I definitely agree that dosing more frequently is better, particularly for those demanding filter feeders. I think it also helps the tank avoid nutrient spikes as it would be smaller additions added periodically rather than huge additions all at once.

Lol look at this

If you want to micro dose you will need to reconfigure it thinking a millilitre is bigger than it is in reality , if you have any problem let me know.
So far so good on my side I have that guy for a whole year and it works fine
But I honestly think I will get an extra one for trace elements iodine etc ... only magnesium adding is a problem the hose keeps cloging.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Very impressive, how long have you had the trikentrion ? Cryptic fuge, dont see many of those very often, are you using Steve Tyree's tri zonal system?

Not long only 2 weeks now, ha. But it seems to be doing just fine for now anyway.

No im using my own. I noticed years ago that having a cryptic fuge was just cool to me, with the sponges and pods everywhere and such.p I also have a barrel that is lit and serves as my algae/cheato factory, which dumps into the cryptic fuge.

I have found tho that the white and yellow sponges are very sensitive to nutrients and too low makes them die off very easy as opposed to the ones in the DT

 

[C. Eymann]

Not long only 2 weeks now, ha. But it seems to be doing just fine for now anyway.

No im using my own. I noticed years ago that having a cryptic fuge was just cool to me, with the sponges and pods everywhere and such.p I also have a barrel that is lit and serves as my algae/cheato factory, which dumps into the cryptic fuge.

I have found tho that the white and yellow sponges are very sensitive to nutrients and too low makes them die off very easy as opposed to the ones in the DT

That's super cool man, I ran a semi cryptic zone via black baffles in my overflow boxes.
Steve Tyree has a really cool idea with the trizonal method that I'd like to explore someday

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I had this problem with my mother! Lol she always wanted me to get "that fish"...which was always some angel, puffer, trigger...something not reef safe. The struggle is real!

 

[Suesea]

So the light can harm them ? I seen some under light diving in turks n caicos this summer.
I could cut the longer part and place it elsewhere.

Hi I have 3 red sea sponge trees that I've had for years they're pretty big now but I did take them out of the bag underwater but they are in light so I'm not sure if that's exactly true they only get their nutrients from the flow in the water and they do like a lot of flow.