Adding sponges

[Fishie Nut]

What's the effect of adding sponges on rocks -- Cryptic Sponges -- to a running reef?
Is there a cycle involved? I would assume (I know I should never assume) that there will be die-off in shipping of the sponge rocks and there will be some increased stress on my reef.

Any advice? Should I quarantine them until they cycle?

Thanks.

 

[Fredfish]

What exactly were you looking to acomplish?

If you are looking for an alternative way to filter water I suspect that you would need to set up a large cryptic zone per Steve Tyree's book to have any effect.

Fred

 

[Fishie Nut]

Okay. I'm lost.

I've got a 6 moth old reef, doing well. Thought I'd put in some cryptic sponges and tunicates to aid in filtration, water quality, etc. This is to be a adjunct to what I already have. I'm not even sure what a cryptic zone is.

If you have any info or direction to a thread or something that will give me more info, I'd appreciate it. In the meantime, I'll google cryptic zone and see what comes up.

Thanks, Fredfish.

 

[Putawaywet]

Cryptic sponges thrive in low flow, low light environments. That's why many reefers unexpectedly discover them on the underside or the insides of rocks when they start moving things around.

Steve Tyree is a researcher that advocates the use of sponges as a form of a tiered filtration methodology. However, this kind of setup has to be done in a certain way (cryptic zone, exposed zone, hi flow cryptic zone, etc.) to assure that things are properly balanced throughout the tank.

Tossing in some sponges or trunicates with no thought as to the environment they came from or what they need to survive will most certainly be met with failure.

On top of that, many sponges will completely disintergrate if exposed to air, releasing who knows what in the process.

But with that said, I never met a sponge I didn't like and the more than merrier AFAIK. Just make sure you know what kind you are adding, what they need to thrive, along with the proper handling so you can get thim inside your tank without condemming them to a fast death that will send your water quality into a nose dive.

Brett

 

[Fishie Nut]

Thanks Brett. I think I'll have to do some more research into this before I purchase sponges.
I was looking into the starter pack of cryptic sponges at Reef Farmers. But I've got a awful lot of flow in my tank, so I"ll have to look at it more closely.

Thanks again. George

 

[Fredfish]

This is steve's site:

http://www.dynamicecomorphology.com/

Fred

 

[Fishie Nut]

Thnaks, Fred.
Appreciate the help.

 

[Fredfish]

You are most welcome. By the way, I love the sponges in my tank, even if the don't really do much for the overall filtration of my tank.

Its always cool to find something new in interesting in the tank.

Fred