Sponges

[d2mini]

I have a tall tree sponge and some of it's tips started to loose some flesh, exposing the sponge beneath. Is the whole sponge a goner? Or do I trim off the dying parts? Or do nothing and see if it continues?
I'm worried if I leave it in there it's going to be too toxic to the tank.

[noahm]

Sponge decline is usually slow enough that it won't cause any spike unless it is killed instantly in some kind of event. Go ahead and cut off the dead part, and try rotating the sponge. Orientation is the key to a lot of sponges' health. Those red tree sponges are notorious for slow decline, so don't feel bad. Sometimes you just get one in the right spot and everything goes well, but those bigger sponges are finicky. There has been some anecdotal evidence that gelatin (yes, the plain knox gelatin at the store) based foods may be beneficial to spot feed. I haven't tried it, but I only have smaller sponges left that seem to be doing fine.

[Yogre]

One of the other things I've noticed about our TBS sponges is that some of them seem to prefer less light. I have a smaller red tree sponge that's shaded by a big piece of rock. It's not growing like crazy, but it hasn't died yet either. One of my orange tree sponges was coming apart also, I put it in my fuge lit only by actinic light, and it's at least not dying as quickly.

Those things are beautiful, but tough to keep. I've about given up on them. :sad1:

[d2mini]

Ya, Richard emailed me back this morning and said prune it a bit, and that they like low light/high flow.
We'll see how it goes!

The cool thing is even if the sponges don't last over time, I got an instant reef until I start filling it up with corals! :)

[d2mini]

The one i pruned hasn't gotten worse yet, and the others still seem ok so far.
So I was wondering if there is anything I can put in the tank to feed the sponges?

[Yogre]

I've tried both MicroVert and DT's phytoplankton; I also feed Rod's Reef every day. Hasn't worked all that well for me. Anything they eat has to be really small.

The person who I think has had the best success with some of these finicky TBS critters is "divemonster". I'd suggest searching her posts on the TBS subforum and I believe in addition to some great photos she also describes her feeding routine as well as her water parameters.

[d2mini]

Thanks, Yogre!

[uhuru]

Look into Reef Nutrition and Reed Mariculture foods... you want something with very high density. Also, Fauna Marin Ultra Min F and perhaps Ultra Seafan and Ultra Clam would be good. Ask Claude in the Fauna Marin forum (he can definitely give you good advice). You might also want to consider stirring up your substrate regularly. My pods do a great job of keeping detritus and algae off my sponge, but you have to keep an eye on that as well.