Sponge growing over zoas

[bitstream]

I’ve had this sponge growing on my zoas in the last couple months. The zoas seem OK with it but I worry they’ll get out competed at some point. The issue is that I’ve thrice picked the sponge material off with tweezers and swabbed it with a h2o2 soaked q-tip along with a brief water/h2o2 bath but the stuff grows right back and does so pretty rapidly.

Any way to eliminate this outside of a more aggressive h2o2 bath? I’m trying not to tick off the zoas any more than necessary.

The sponge material is white and fuzzy.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

For my sake, I'm just adding the link to my post here, but the post linked gives some ideas in a very similar situation to yours:

Growth id?

New to coral, noticed this a couple days ago. At first I just assumed it was the zoa spreading, but now I am not sure. Should I be concerned? It’s not really noticeable when they are open. The last pic is when I noticed it, the other two are this morning.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Lavey29]

I've got a huge orange one growing in and amongst my zoas, even has tentacles but it has never caused an issue for my zoas on the rock.

 

[bitstream]

I pulled the rock, brushed with h2o2 soaked qtips several times, and then gave a quick rinse in full h2o2. It’s insane how much sponge material is growing on this frag. It wasn’t there for 4 months then appeared out of nowhere.

I also see this same sponge growing in my live rock. Whatever it is, it’s ugly and aggressive.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I pulled the rock, brushed with h2o2 soaked qtips several times, and then gave a quick rinse in full h2o2. It’s insane how much sponge material is growing on this frag. It wasn’t there for 4 months then appeared out of nowhere.

I also see this same sponge growing in my live rock. Whatever it is, it’s ugly and aggressive.

If the H2O2 isn't working, then I'd try switching up what you're trying (maybe switch to vinegar or lemon juice and see how that works for you) and seeing if you can figure out what's enabling it to thrive in your tank (things like excess silicates, lots of bacteria/Dissolved Organic Matter, etc.).

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ve had this sponge growing on my zoas in the last couple months. The zoas seem OK with it but I worry they’ll get out competed at some point. The issue is that I’ve thrice picked the sponge material off with tweezers and swabbed it with a h2o2 soaked q-tip along with a brief water/h2o2 bath but the stuff grows right back and does so pretty rapidly.

Any way to eliminate this outside of a more aggressive h2o2 bath? I’m trying not to tick off the zoas any more than necessary.

The sponge material is white and fuzzy.

My success was injecting SMALL amounts of vinegar into sponge which will shrink the sponge within 24 hrs

 

[bitstream]

My success was injecting SMALL amounts of vinegar into sponge which will shrink the sponge within 24 hrs

Full strength? White vinegar?

Do you inject and put back in the tank immediately or do it outside the tank in a bowl, then drop back in?

Also, how small is small?

 

[bitstream]

If the H2O2 isn't working, then I'd try switching up what you're trying (maybe switch to vinegar or lemon juice and see how that works for you) and seeing if you can figure out what's enabling it to thrive in your tank (things like excess silicates, lots of bacteria/Dissolved Organic Matter, etc.).

The tank has been fallow for 3 months and the sponge showed up a couple months ago.

The only thing in the tank, besides a few other corals, are inverts.

I did have to dose phosphate as the levels were persistently zero after going fallow and dinos started appearing. Despite small twice weekly doses, phosphates remained zero on all tests.

New fish were added to the tank a couple weeks back, but that has no bearing on the existing sponges.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Full strength? White vinegar?

Do you inject and put back in the tank immediately or do it outside the tank in a bowl, then drop back in?

Also, how small is small?

This is in tank. Again small amounts
If you want to pull rock, you can place in container of tank water and exposure to air will already slow it down and inject with air (yes air which is an enemy of sponge). You can also outside of tank peel some using am ice or denyal pick Carefully

 

[bitstream]

I’ve noticed this dang sponge has spread to other areas of the rockwork.

What’s y’all’s take on “sponge management”? Just let it run its course or remove routinely as part of usual tank maintenance?

I’ve gone into the crevices where I’ve found it so far and used h2o2 soaked qtips to remove it via a twisting motion (kinda like spaghetti on a fork), leaving a little h2o2 behind. Some of it is growing tentacles, which I’ve plucked with tweezers.

At what point do you consider sponges good vs nuisance?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

At what point do you consider sponges good vs nuisance?

Basically, as long as it isn't chemically harming or growing over and smothering corals, it should be harmless (even if it grows around/on the skeleton of corals - it's only if it's causing the corals to close or if it's growing over the flesh of the corals that it's an issue) - some people consider harmless but invasive sponges a nuisance as well, but you should be able to just peel part of it off to place corals and such as needed.

Personally, as long as the sponge isn't harmful, I don't mind letting it do what it wants, but other people do - it's just a personal preference.

used h2o2 soaked qtips to remove it via a twisting motion (kinda like spaghetti on a fork), leaving a little h2o2 behind. Some of it is growing tentacles, which I’ve plucked with tweezers.

This is probably why it has started growing in other spots - some sponges are capable of regrowing a full sponge from just cells, so if you're using mechanical (manual) removal, you want to use a suction at the same time to try and prevent the sponge cells from staying in the tank/spreading.

 

[bitstream]

Basically, as long as it isn't chemically harming or growing over and smothering corals, it should be harmless (even if it grows around/on the skeleton of corals - it's only if it's causing the corals to close or if it's growing over the flesh of the corals that it's an issue) - some people consider harmless but invasive sponges a nuisance as well, but you should be able to just peel part of it off to place corals and such as needed.

Personally, as long as the sponge isn't harmful, I don't mind letting it do what it wants, but other people do - it's just a personal preference.

This is probably why it has started growing in other spots - some sponges are capable of regrowing a full sponge from just cells, so if you're using mechanical (manual) removal, you want to use a suction at the same time to try and prevent the sponge cells from staying in the tank/spreading.

The zoas have the sponge growing all over the bases but not on the heads.. at least not yet. The cleaning and removal was done outside the tank.

The other sponge is growing inside the live rock, so qtip or tweezers are my only options. If it’s already in there, it’s gonna spread anyway, so manual management is my only choice. I’m choosing to remove any that’s readily visible as it’s pretty ugly.

Whatever this is, it’s aggressive as hell and seemingly impossible to eliminate, short of removing all the rock and drying it out.

 

[ros3to]

I currently have the same issue in my tank and with some zoas except mine is orange in color, it's been there for a while now, have tried getting rid of it of multiple attempts but it just comes back no matter what I try, ended up just letting it be. Lol

The sponge covers the entire base but not the polyps.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, some invasive sponges are particularly resilient in our tanks - with those, there's not really an easy answer; you just have to figure out what is allowing it to thrive and deal with that, or hope it goes away on its own after a while.