unknown growth. please help i.d.

[petemichelle]

does anybody know what this is growing on my live rock? the tank is over a year old, and it showed up probably after the first 4 months and has never gone away. it dies off in some parts of the rock, and spreads to other new places. I don't think it can be silicate related because I use rodi water that I make myself, and I have done only 1 water change in the last 6 months. The water quality and parameters seem great. the alk is 12.0, mag is 1360, cal is 450. phosphates are at .08, nitrates are 0.

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[BigRedSquid]

Sponge?

 

[Mike J.]

Yeah, sponge. It'll partly die off because it doesn't like light and will only grow on the bottom side of the rocks.

 

[petemichelle]

How can I get rid of it without taking the rock out, since I can't move that rock? Is there anything that will eat or kill it?

 

[TriggerThis]

No. It looks like a liver sponge of some sort

 

[Mike J.]

The sponge isn't going to hurt anything. You could roll the rock over into the light and that would kill it.

 

[TriggerThis]

But I have seen it smother out corals before and just looks bad overall. So deff try to keep it in check somehow

 

[petemichelle]

There is a bubble tip anemones on the top side or this piece of rock. So taking it out or flipping it is out of the question. Would a phosphate reactor with CFO starve it out like it would unwanted algae? What does it thrive on? My silicate test shows 0. My rodi water also shows 0. Which is what I use to make my salt water with. My phosphates show .08 though. Is that the nutrient that it lives on???

 

[TriggerThis]

It's a type of sponge so it lives off the water itself. You can't starve it out unless maybe you were able to dry it out somehow. I would be careful about disturbing it inside the tank. You may end up with it growing on everything after the tiny pieces seed everywhere.
There was another thread on here that talked about it and IDK if they ever did come up with a solution.

Search for liver sponge and see what u find

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, running some GFO, getting your level down to uner .05 and you should be ok then. You could always just use a lil brush and wipe it off like I do.