Sponges and air

[Theulli]

Hello!

Maybe an odd question - but I have a good sump for growing some non photosynthetic sponges in, but I worry that when I do water changes and maintenance, a lot of air bubbles flow through there. Does the prohibition against exposing sponges to air cover microbubbles that are flowing through the water?

Thanks!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello!

Maybe an odd question - but I have a good sump for growing some non photosynthetic sponges in, but I worry that when I do water changes and maintenance, a lot of air bubbles flow through there. Does the prohibition against exposing sponges to air cover microbubbles that are flowing through the water?

Thanks!

Air flow wont affect them. Having them out of water to atmospheric air will literally kill them

 

[Timfish]

I've had lots of sponges out of the water over the years and they do fine. I'm sure at some point someone has killed sponges by letting them get air stuck in them but I've never seen it. As far as the cryptic sponges you need to process the hydrophillic DOC you can't remove with skimmers or GAC they survive just wrapped in wet paper for a day or two in shipping and do well in sumps with lots of flow and turbulence from and I wouldn't worry about them.

 

[dennis romano]

This is a tough question. I have about a dozen sponges. For years, I got sponges from the Keys wrapped in wet newspaper and they did well. I would just unwrap them then put them in the tank. I have a blue for ten years that is in its third tank and it arrived that way. Recently, I wasn't paying attention and the return was blowing micro bubbles into two sponges. They both started to rot but I was able to save some pieces. They had been in the tank for months with no issues. My only advice is to just leave them submerged and away from air.