has anyone here ever experimented with a sponge colony used as a bio filter, What I'm reading about sponges it makes me think they may be able to out filter the usual filter methods, or at least add to the filtering process dramatically. Here is a good article ; Biologists have discovered how a reef-dwelling species of sponge can filter enormous amounts of carbon without growing in size.
The sponge Halisarca caerulea can absorb up to two-thirds of its own weight in carbon each day by shedding cells at a rapid rate, according to research by Jasper De Goeij at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in Texel, the Netherlands, and his colleagues. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology1, the team proposes that this fast turnover may be a tactic for coping with the toxins and pathogens that are frequently encountered by the filter-feeders in their environment.
H. caerulea is found on tropical reefs in the waters of the Caribbean, and feeds by filtering carbon-rich organic matter from the water. Earlier work by De Goeij had shown that the sponges could absorb prodigious amounts of carbon yet didn't seem to grow in size. "We calculated that a sponge should double in biomass every three days, but found that H. caerulea hardly grows at all," says De Goeij.
Absorbing science
To find out why, De Goeij and his colleagues collected growing sponges and stained them continuously with a chemical that labels actively dividing cells. The team cut samples from the sponge bodies at different time points up to 10 hours after the first exposure and analysed them for signs of the labelling agent.
They found that certain cells that pump and filter water in the sponge divided very quickly "” once every five hours or so1. But adding a second chemical to search for dead cells revealed only a few in the chambers, which left them with a puzzle: the sponge wasn't growing, but the cells didn't seem to be dying off.
Each day, H. caerulea absorbs up to two-thirds of its weight in carbon.E. van Bommel
De Goeij was stumped until he gave a presentation on the sponge's impressive cell division to a group of cancer researchers. They immediately recognized the rapid division behaviour as being very similar to that of the human gastrointestinal tract. Cells in the epithelium of the colon are replaced every 12"“24 hours by rapid proliferation and then shedding. "Once we looked at the sponge tissue with the human colon in mind, we found massive amounts of shedding," says De Goeij.
Other marine biologists are surprised by the find. "Nobody has looked at cell sloughing in sponges like this before," says Malcolm Hill, a marine ecologist who specializes in sponge evolution at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
Filter-feeding frenzy
De Goeij and his colleagues suggest that the rapid growth and shedding of the cells may be an evolutionary response to the harsh conditions in which H. caerulea grows. To survive in the nutrient-sparse Caribbean Sea, the sponge must filter vast quantities of water, which is likely to increase its exposure to toxins and pathogens. Rapid shedding might prevent such problematic materials from building up and damaging the filtering system, Presenting his results to the Maastricht Pathology Department, someone said "˜Lets look at this like a human intestine, then you should see shedding where old cells detach from the epithelia'. De Goeij knew that he had seen some loose cells, and thought that they were artefacts from cutting the samples, but when he and his Pathology Department colleagues went back and looked at the samples, De Goeij realised that choanocytes were shedding all over the place. And then De Goeij remembered the tiny piles of brown material he found next to the sponges in the aquarium every morning. I was Thinking of building a sponge filter box [simplified Picture below] so i can incorporate them into my sump. the box would be 24'' x 16'' x 16'' tall and hold 143 14'' acrylic rods to anchor the sponges to. Im not sure if beneficial bacteria can live on and in a sponge or not,But if it can The potential for a super biological filter is very good. Example ; a cubic foot of sand has 8000sqft of surface area for bacteria to live on. And One Tethya sponge the size of a quarter has 4500 sqft of surface area, so a cubic foot of these small filter feeders would yield over 2,007,000 sqft of surface area for [ potentially] bacteria to grow on. Sponges can consume 50% to 75
% of there body weight in organic carbon and other reef wastes ever day. In the picture/diagram below you can see the slide out tray.This would be for collecting the detris and brown discarded cells shedded from the sponge in order to export wastes from the system.If you ever have noticed the little piles of brown detris under your rocks and considered it to be general wastes ,you may be just seeing brown cells from your rocks sponges.
The sponge Halisarca caerulea can absorb up to two-thirds of its own weight in carbon each day by shedding cells at a rapid rate, according to research by Jasper De Goeij at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in Texel, the Netherlands, and his colleagues. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology1, the team proposes that this fast turnover may be a tactic for coping with the toxins and pathogens that are frequently encountered by the filter-feeders in their environment.
H. caerulea is found on tropical reefs in the waters of the Caribbean, and feeds by filtering carbon-rich organic matter from the water. Earlier work by De Goeij had shown that the sponges could absorb prodigious amounts of carbon yet didn't seem to grow in size. "We calculated that a sponge should double in biomass every three days, but found that H. caerulea hardly grows at all," says De Goeij.
Absorbing science
To find out why, De Goeij and his colleagues collected growing sponges and stained them continuously with a chemical that labels actively dividing cells. The team cut samples from the sponge bodies at different time points up to 10 hours after the first exposure and analysed them for signs of the labelling agent.
They found that certain cells that pump and filter water in the sponge divided very quickly "” once every five hours or so1. But adding a second chemical to search for dead cells revealed only a few in the chambers, which left them with a puzzle: the sponge wasn't growing, but the cells didn't seem to be dying off.
Each day, H. caerulea absorbs up to two-thirds of its weight in carbon.E. van Bommel
De Goeij was stumped until he gave a presentation on the sponge's impressive cell division to a group of cancer researchers. They immediately recognized the rapid division behaviour as being very similar to that of the human gastrointestinal tract. Cells in the epithelium of the colon are replaced every 12"“24 hours by rapid proliferation and then shedding. "Once we looked at the sponge tissue with the human colon in mind, we found massive amounts of shedding," says De Goeij.
Other marine biologists are surprised by the find. "Nobody has looked at cell sloughing in sponges like this before," says Malcolm Hill, a marine ecologist who specializes in sponge evolution at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
Filter-feeding frenzy
De Goeij and his colleagues suggest that the rapid growth and shedding of the cells may be an evolutionary response to the harsh conditions in which H. caerulea grows. To survive in the nutrient-sparse Caribbean Sea, the sponge must filter vast quantities of water, which is likely to increase its exposure to toxins and pathogens. Rapid shedding might prevent such problematic materials from building up and damaging the filtering system, Presenting his results to the Maastricht Pathology Department, someone said "˜Lets look at this like a human intestine, then you should see shedding where old cells detach from the epithelia'. De Goeij knew that he had seen some loose cells, and thought that they were artefacts from cutting the samples, but when he and his Pathology Department colleagues went back and looked at the samples, De Goeij realised that choanocytes were shedding all over the place. And then De Goeij remembered the tiny piles of brown material he found next to the sponges in the aquarium every morning. I was Thinking of building a sponge filter box [simplified Picture below] so i can incorporate them into my sump. the box would be 24'' x 16'' x 16'' tall and hold 143 14'' acrylic rods to anchor the sponges to. Im not sure if beneficial bacteria can live on and in a sponge or not,But if it can The potential for a super biological filter is very good. Example ; a cubic foot of sand has 8000sqft of surface area for bacteria to live on. And One Tethya sponge the size of a quarter has 4500 sqft of surface area, so a cubic foot of these small filter feeders would yield over 2,007,000 sqft of surface area for [ potentially] bacteria to grow on. Sponges can consume 50% to 75
% of there body weight in organic carbon and other reef wastes ever day. In the picture/diagram below you can see the slide out tray.This would be for collecting the detris and brown discarded cells shedded from the sponge in order to export wastes from the system.If you ever have noticed the little piles of brown detris under your rocks and considered it to be general wastes ,you may be just seeing brown cells from your rocks sponges.
