Are these sponges a problem?

[benjaminf]

Hello fellow reefers!
My overflow has been thoroughly colonized by white sponges. Is this a concern? As in, should I be thankful that they are helping to filter my water, or will they give off toxins? So far they have not been seen much in my display tank.
Will upload pictures when I figure that out.
Thanks!

 

[reefiness]

Look up pineapple sponge or qtip sponge. If thats them they are beneficial although usually go away as your tank matures.

 

[Spartanwarrior]

in my experience, sponges that grow in between live rock or in the overflows (very low light) are very beneficial to the tank, as they filter out nutrients. However, don't let them dry out or they will disintegrate very quickly and contaminate the system, however with just dead material...not sure they release toxins or anything of that nature. however, in an overflow area, keep a wary eye it doesn't grow to block water flow or you could be dealing with a flood in no time!

 

[benjaminf]

Thanks folks! I'll keep an eye on them.

 

[llobrao]

They are not, actually it?s signs of a healthy thriving reef also natural water filtration soon your issue will be actually having enough nutrients in your system

 

[thedragoneel]

My overflows are loaded with them....years gone by without issues.


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[pecan2phat]

See this sponge:

This spreads rapidly in my system and I would say it's not entirely harmless. It can choke out zoa colonies and most recently when I broke down my tank for a move, this is what happened:
I wanted to removed all the corals a week prior getting the fish out, I started pulling out some of the rock to get to all the corals. There were so much of these sponges that pieces started coming off rocks when moved and were suspended in the water column. Unknowingly, I started to turkey baste some the rocks after all the corals were extracted and this really suspended a lot of these sponges. Next thing you know after the water clears up from all the disturbance, 1/2 my fish population was lying on the bottom breathing rapidly and 1/4 of them died. It was all the toxin from the sponges I'm guessing.

 

[Spartanwarrior]

See this sponge:

This spreads rapidly in my system and I would say it's not entirely harmless. It can choke out zoa colonies and most recently when I broke down my tank for a move, this is what happened:
I wanted to removed all the corals a week prior getting the fish out, I started pulling out some of the rock to get to all the corals. There were so much of these sponges that pieces started coming off rocks when moved and were suspended in the water column. Unknowingly, I started to turkey baste some the rocks after all the corals were extracted and this really suspended a lot of these sponges. Next thing you know after the water clears up from all the disturbance, 1/2 my fish population was lying on the bottom breathing rapidly and 1/4 of them died. It was all the toxin from the sponges I'm guessing.

you have many more years in the hobby than me, so much respect, but I also have a lot of these type of sponges growing around my zoas and other rocks and have never had a problem. ive even ripped a few off in the tank itself because they do crowd, with no ill effects. I think you may be blaming a problem on a few issues, namely moving rocks and turkey basting them. especially under rock that rarely gets moved, that buildup of waste and co2 will certainly poison a tank far quicker than a few free floating pieces of sponge. and you don't mention a sandbed, but if that is greater than 2-3", disturbing that may have caused even more c02 to be released. and im sure the fish were stressed with the moving. those fish more likely suffered from the disturbance itself far more than sponge "toxins"...however, I am also not an expert on sponges and feel terrible you lost some family because of this situation.

 

[pecan2phat]

Thanks Spartan,
In my situation, this sponge is very evasive and spreads quickly. This is a shot of the sponge growing on the base of my purple stylo. Mind you I scraped, scrubbed any I could see with the naked eye before placing this into it's new tank. Photo is 6/24/18 and coral was scrubbed on 4/27/18.

 

[Spartanwarrior]

of course, I always defer to experience for sure. just adding my 2cents.

that is some invasive sponge. mine grows around zoas but not to this extent by far. I wonder, was there any negative impact to corals left behind? or were they all removed in time?

 

[pecan2phat]

I broke down the tank so all the corals were removed. Before the corals were placed, I had them in a Bayer dip for 4x the suggested time and during the dip period, I scrubbed off all the sponge growth over the sink, that I could see. I had hoped that the long exposure to air would also help with their demise but apparently not so. No rocks were reused with the exception of what the Stylo encrusted on, it was a large colony so I didn't want to break it off the small piece of rock.
A lot of larger Zoa colonies were infested and you can see them start to grow over the polyps, but it was easy enough to scrape them since Zoas close up tight when taken out of water and handled.