Weird Vines killing coral

[goodrichfarm]

Hi there,
Huge fan of the site! I have never had to ask a question before have always been able to find what I was needing to know on your site. It is one very informative place here. Well this I couldn’t find anywhere, I have been searching not only the web but your site for past 2 evenings and still nothing. I have something that looks like a vine, it is white and there are hundreds of these things coming from under one of my rocks on just one side of my tank. They have now crept over to a beautiful (what was) torch coral I have and climbed up the stalk of the torch and slowly taken it out. These things look just like a vine and are pure white, slowly spreading. I cant find a pic or any info on this whatsoever. really hope you can help me out here. I have attached 2 pictures and in these pictures what Im speaking of is in the background straight behind the torch. I have tried trimming a lot of this off so I hope you can see what Im talking about. Thanks in advance

Corey

[Sk8r]

That's weird. I had some blue stuff do that, (not the killing part, but the growth habit.) I took mine for a sponge, which is what I'd think here---except the killing thing. Just to dispose of the possibility---have you checked your water quality? Alk 8.3-9.3; calcium 420; magnesium 1300...torch likes those parameters. If you had an alk drop or had a first coral start feeding heavily all of a sudden it can really set tank conditions on their head.

[goodrichfarm]

yes parameters are great:
alk-8.4
cal-430
mag-1320
sal-1.024
and so on....

I too for months thought this stuff was just another sponge. been when it climbed up the stalk of that torch and smothered out half of it..?? Im on top of my tank all the time and its not a neglected system. Thought I knew a few things about reefing but this has got me stumped. picture isnt that great i know everything in question i pulled off the rocks and now its back in the shadows (as seen in pic).

[Adetia]

I think I have the same stuff, I was told it's a sponge of some sort http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19818127

[Sugar Magnolia]

Your pics are pretty blurry but there are some sponges that do grow in vine form and can become invasive. Sponges are filter feeders and will grow pretty quickly in a nutrient rich environment.

[rssjsb]

I've had a sponge grow in that rope-y, vine-y way, but they've never strangled a coral. It is a bid weird.