Hello, Geezer coming back to this forum. Paul B

[Paul B]

I am not exactly sure what I am going to do with my tank. The sponge took over most of the real estate and it killed all the hard corals and some of the others. I have been having luck killing it by injecting vinegar into it but as it dies it creates hair algae and a stringy slime which I am sure isn't good. It doesn't affect the fish at all as they are still spawning and looking great.

I don't have another tank (yet) but I may have to start one just so I can take out the sponge infested rock and maybe leave it in the dark for a few weeks. I am doing an experiment now with some heavily encrusted rocks that I dipped in tap water for one minute to see if that kills the stuff.

I would rather not dip all my sponge infested rock in tap water because it is loaded with brittle stars, bristle worms, copepods and amphipods that I want to keep and I am not sure if the fresh water will kill that. I know it kills brittle stars in a few seconds but I have thousands of them.

I know I can't keep it going like it is because I can't put anything else in there. My workshop is full now with non-fish projects so I have to finish those before I start this difficult, time consuming task. My wife also takes up much of my free time now as her MS is slowly progressing so she can't do much.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Workshop full?

So you are making me a fish?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Plant blue clove polyps - it will out compete the sponge and look pretty

 

[Reefing102]

Not sure about the dipping but if it is photosynthetic, I would imagine a few weeks in the dark should do it in. I’d just likely use the new tank for the darkness and keep your main tank set up

 

[Paul B]

Workshop full?

Yes. Pretty full now.

That is a motorized "drawer" that will go in the Master bath into a hollow wall and automatically come out 30" for storage in the bathroom of towels. I just like to build. Under it will be a granite "appliance garage" for tooth brushes, hair driers etc.

Plant blue clove polyps - it will out compete the sponge and look pretty

They died. The toxins in the sponge would kill a horse. A non quarantined or medicated healthy horse with a few years on him.

Not sure about the dipping but if it is photosynthetic, I would imagine a few weeks in the dark should do it in. I’d just likely use the new tank for the darkness and keep your main tank set up

I will put it in the dark but the sponge will die either way and the water will get very scurvy as I have many pounds of sponge. Luckily the Atlantic Ocean is behind my house because I will have to change the water almost daily. Under the surface rocks there should be clean rock with no sponge so there will be enough in the tank to keep the fish happy or I can also remove half the rock and clean that, then do the other half.

 

[Paul B]

They won't eat this. It's like shoe leather.
I also have 3 filefish and a large Koran angel that just laugh at it.

 

[Paul B]

The hardest part is that this tank is old so the corals are not on plugs but growing on the rock. I will need to cut them all off the rock and re glue them on clean rock. A real pain.

I will get through it. I have to collect about 80 gallons of water because when this sponge dyes, I will have to change all of the water in the vat.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Paul,
Any chance you could spray the algae with Peroxide & put the rock back after deleting the sponge?
Peroxide does a pretty good job & turns to water.
That damn sponge is a real PITA.

 

[Paul B]

I probably could but I can't kill the sponge in my tank because of the toxins in the sponge and the toxins from deteriorating sponge. I have a Styrofoam container that I will fill with NSW and keep the sponge covered rocks in in the dark for a while and see what happens.

I just picked up this tiny guy.

 

[montepora]

Hi, could NSW you collect/use fueling the growth of the sponges in your tank? They love phosphates and nitrates. Also, how is water flow in your tank? They tend to grow in low flow areas. Maybe you can increase the flow?

 

[Paul B]

Good Morning Montepora. That is a very good question and totally correct. The NSW I collect here is very high in silicates and maybe phosphates. The nitrates are very low. The water here I am sure feeds the sponge and if I switched to ASW that may make a big difference in slowing the growth.
I may even fill the tank with ASW just to slow the growth but I think I will also have to remove it to kill it then maybe the ASW will not allow it to re grow.

The flow in my tank is very high, and higher and the water will splash out.

I was going to try this but your question probably pushed me to go ahead and start using ASW at least for a while.
Thank you and have a great day.

You can see the flow here. Usually it is higher but I need to clean the pumps.

 

[Paul B]

Morning walk

 

[Paul B]

I am in the process of mixing a lot of ASW. I am going to make the biggest water change I ever had, maybe 80 gallons because I think all the silicates from my NSW are feeding this invasive sponge. I will change the water then in the old water in a huge vat I will put the sponge rock in the dark until the sponge croaks.

I will have enough clean rock from the bottom of my aquascape to keep the fish happy and I also have some dry rock laying around if needed.
I have not cleaned my tank in the 5 years I am here and a undergravel filter needs this cleaning eventually anyway so this will give me an opportunity to do this.

Unfortunately I will lose many corals and anemones because none of my corals are on those frag things and all of them are growing on the rock so I will have to cut off what I can save and leave them in the tank. I can't save them all as they are stuck everywhere but it is what it is.

I only have enough capacity to hold about 80 gallons of water so I will need to buy another garbage can or big vat to do such a large change because I need to save water to put the rock in and due to the sponge hopefully disintegrating, I will need to change that water often.

After all the sponge is eliminated, I will again start using NSW for water changes.

I am also getting much to old to do this myself.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Paul,
I have a 30 gallon vat with a top you can borrow.
Let me know if that works for you.

 

[Paul B]

Vinny that is just what I need. I have one but I will temporarilly need another one because I need to hold about 100 gallons of water while I make this change. I was going to buy one because they are not that much but I am not sure I will use it again.

I will let you know, Where do you live?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Miller Place right off Mt. Sinai Coram Rd.
2 miles south of Stop & Shop.

 

[Paul B]

OK Vinny, I will let you know. Thanks.

You are near Aqua Hut.

 

[Paul B]

I can't do much work on my tank today except collect more fresh water from my RO/DI. My Grand Kids are coming over tomorrow and they always look for the sunken ship bubbler they gave me a few years ago for Christmas so I put it in today. It is making salt spray on my lights.

 

[Paul B]

Today and tomorrow I will have the kids and Grand Kids here so I can't do anything except pick up things and clean. They are slobs.

WEll,,,messy anyway.

WE also have a lot of dinner invites and friends coming over to stay overnight so it has been very busy. In between I work on this pretty big project I am building in the Master Bath and working on removing sponge encrusted sponge from my tank.

My latest idea on that is I will try to remove as much of that rock as I can and cut the corals off. Then put it all in vats outside where it is 30 degrees. That should kill the sponge (I hope) but it will also kill most other things but not the bacteria. (I also hope) I will supply tiny down coats for the pods.

Yesterday I bought another 40 gallon vat (I have 3) but I need one more to hold all the rock, corals, fish and water, old and new. I would love to remove all the rock and fish to stir up the gravel, then remove all that filthy water and immediately add new ASW.

This is going to be a huge job for one old Geezer because I also have to keep that water warm and aerated while I do all the cleaning and filtering.

If all that goes well I will put back all the clean rock and fish, then glue back the corals but I will lose quite a few of them along with anemones.

Hopefully I will find all the fish but that is a concern because some of them hide in small holes in the rock and some are under the gravel. I also hope to remove any bristle worms especially large Godzilla ones.

 

[Paul B]

I would like to talk about Passwords. I hate anything with passwords because they never work for old people and are just made for Millennials or pre schoolers. My Grand Daughter who is 10 has no problems.

And has anyone noticed that they have to keep getting more complicated and longer. For instance. Lets say my password for something was "duh". Simple and it worked great.

Then my bank, AOL account, Google, Amazon or one of my Geezer apps tells me my password is to short. So I made it "duhh".
After a few weeks they say it needs to have at least one number in it. OK "duhh1". Now it needs at least one capital letter.
OK "Duhh1". A little while later it needs to have at least eight characters. So I change it to "Duhh1234". Of course I have to write this all down because I barely remembered the original "duh".

This was fine for a year or so but now it needs to also have at least one symbol. Ok "Duhh1234&". Now no one will steal that. But it still isn't good enough. In 2021 they told me it also has to have at least one "Native American letter". Now the Native Americans didn't have a written language so after you type in Duhh1234&" you have to say out loud a Native American word. Something like Kemosabe, which meant friend to the Lone Ranger.
If you are under 60, Google him.

So for a few months I type in "Duhh1234& and yell out the word Kemosabe". Now in 2023 it still isn't safe enough and I had to add two Egyption Hieroglyphs and the Latin word for Platypus.

Yesterday I get an E mail from my bank saying my password has been compromised.

It's totally ridiculous. I get a 10% military discount from Home Depot but I never get it because you have to download their app
(which you need a password for and they know if you used that password before). If they know all your old passwords, why don't they just pick one of those to use?

I can never use the app for the discount because every time I try, they tell me I need to change the password but I ran out of letters and combinations in the English and Native American language.

I need a long complicated password to access my electric bill account. Why! If someone wants to pay my bill, go ahead. Who cares if someone knows how much your electric bill is. Can they kidnap me and hold me for ransom until someone tells them how much my bill is?

Like Really!!!

I have all my passwords scratched into the back of my cell phone case. But for added security I wrote them up side down so no one can read them.