Sponges over Intakes

[ZBT3091]

I have a few of the aquaclear sponges that i cut and slid over the intakes to a few powerheads and one that came with the intake in my overflow box. Everyfew days to a week the sponges turn brown to orange brown and I clean some of them but i notice that the sponges have a ton of copepods and bristleworms and other stuff. Is it a better idea to leave the sponges on and let the copepod and bristleworm populations grow and possibly feed off the detritus? I thought it would help to have copepod safety areas to continously feed my mandarin and sand sifting star.

 

[ZBT3091]

anyone?

 

[D1J8Z]

if your main concern is pods you can always rotate the ones you clean

but I wouldnt NOT clean them ever

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Shake the pods off and take out the sponges, they tend to become nitrate factories. A bad thing in a reef tank.

 

[D1J8Z]

Shake the pods off and take out the sponges, they tend to become nitrate factories. A bad thing in a reef tank.

if your going to shake off the pods PLEASE do it outside of the thank in a seperate container

 

[ZBT3091]

arent there millions of tiny copepods i want but cant shake?