white, creamy rock growth

[marquitos]

Can anyone identify what these guys are growing on my rocks? Should I be concerned?

 

[BighohoReef]

Looks possibly like a tube sponge, if you can try exposing it to air and clean it off the rock. It'll suffocate corals if it gets close.

 

[marquitos]

Thanks for the feedback. I will continue to research and monitor them. Thanks again!

 

[BighohoReef]

Bumping this, hoping to get some more community feedback. Definitely a sponge for sure

 

[marquitos]

Regarding the 'white sponges' starting to grow on the base of a couple of my rocks, I've decided - especially as it appears they are not detrimental to the tank - to let them be for now. Thanks for the comments! I have been making this type of decision more and more often only to see my tank (60g) maturing nicely, and at her own pace. In the beginning, I wanted the tank to be "my" way, instead of letting the animals/tank talk to me and let me know how "they" wanted to develop and grow. I did not have much patience early on. For example, I was battling nitrate levels between 20-50ppm for the longest time making 40-60% water exchanges almost weekly!! I could not for the life of me figure out where these nitrates were coming from as I was hardly feeding anything to my lightly loaded tank. I don't have the room for a sump and protein skimmer nor the room for an HOB skimmer and I'm not even sure I am going to need one(?). Seeing my fish and corals doing nicely - with the high nitrate levels - I decided not to sweat it and have not exchanged any water for about 3 weeks now, only topping off the evaporation with RO freshwater. I am still getting some algal growth on the inside walls after about 7-10 days, but don't mind cleaning it off and then recirculating the water through a 1um filter bag for a few hours. Super clear water after this kind of cleaning, and the algae and the suspended particulates come back after another 7-10 days, but I figure this partially feeds my animals as well as (hopefully) eventually reducing the nitrates.
My tank is going on it's 4th month and seems to be stabilizing. Fortunately, I've only lost one coral and a couple of fish - which, after some research, never should have been in the tank in the first place. Patience, patience and more patience combined with awareness is helping immensely -- and of course having the R2R community graciously offering their advice is quite valuable. I've attached a 3min video clip of my tank using my iPhone and color lens filter. All comments are more than welcomed -- Thank you all!

 

[KJ]

Agree on sponge.

 

[ahiggins]

It does look like the tube sponges. It’s not the sponges that only like dark, it will suffocate corals especially zoas and palys. It’ll destroy their mat.