Jestersix

Invasive filter feeder?

Alexander1312

Alexander1312

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Does anyone know what the white, stringy stuff is exactly?

I was hoping these are helpful filter feeders, and I am dosing 100 ml live phyto daily, so I expect this to grow, but I am not sure if this is anything problematic.

Should I worry and take action for removal?

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+1 sponge. Just to let you know. A lot of the stuff on the rock will die in the course of a few months. What you are really after is the micro bacteria in the rock. As we can not support the micro fauna that they need on a micro scale. That’s my experience with gulf rock. I still believe it’s the best way to start an aquarium tho.
 
Darkxerox said:
Sponge for sure. Get on that group buy for salty bottom reef and grab some pitho crabs. Mine eat all the sponge in my tank so it doesn't encroach on my corals.
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Thank you. I am already part of the group buy but was not too keen on getting a crab yet (limited but less positive experience with a couple of them).

I was actually hoping to grow or maintain the sponges, one of my order items is a yellow sponge, but I recognize what @phc567 says about the likelihood of keeping what was on the Gulf rock.

I dose 100 ml of Live Phyto (Dinkins) daily and hope this keeps these alive. I could probably go up to 150 ml daily eventually, but will wait for now. Pods are all over the place so I feel this has been going well so far.

However, I have seen these particular sponges indeed taking out a Zoa in my nano tank last week, so I was worried about having them in the larger tank too.
 
phc567 said:
Yellow sponges will automatically grow under your rock in a cryptic area if your in this hobby long enough. I always leave a space in my sump for anything that I don’t want in my display. I’m a huge fan of micro stuff. So don’t throw it away. Sump it. Like a fuge area.
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Yes, all the ‘micro’ discussions have also really interested me, and I do see the value, and have tried to introduce diversity from the beginning, which seemed to have paid off for now. I also have now a refugium in my sump since there was enough space for this, and a couple of non-reef safe snails had to go in there already.
 
I have a similar looking sponge in my sump, grows like crazy. I had some in my DT once growing under a Goni that eventually sort of choked it out. Most sponge seems to grow pretty slowly but that stringy white stuff has always grown fast for me!

I can attest to the fact that a lot of the cool stuff on gulf live rock dies off, BUT much of the sponge survived and is still around.
 
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