Sponge feces as the driving force behind tropical coral reefs

[Oceanic Gardens]

Circle of life: A new research paper published in Science concludes that sponges play a pivotal role in recycling nutrients in nutrient-poor tropical waters. Sponges filter-feed the precious nutrients from coral, algae, and fish waste products that would otherwise get washed away. In turn, the sponge waste product feed all the animals of the reef. This loop enables reefs to exist in otherwise barren seawater.



check out the full article . Very interesting

 

[Oceanic Gardens]

full article link


http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/sponge-feces-as-the-driving-force-behind-tropical-coral-reefs

 

[bugs713]

Very interesting video!

Sponges and Cyanobacteria seem to be the first leaders in creating biodiversity and are some of the first celled organisms to give life to this planet - how cool is that?!

If it wasn't for the infamous Cyano, we would not be here.

Anything man could ever need comes from the oceans, just got to figure out how to cultivate it without destroying it...

 

[Wrench]

Partially explains the success of Tyree's sponge method.

 

[afishionado]

Nevermind. No sense elaborating/going into detail around here

 

[vincent92]

That's a nice fact. I actually have random colors, shape, and textures of sponge growing everywhere now. Idk where they came from but its just beautiful

 

[dotcommer]

Very interesting video, lots of good information. Its going to be nice when the knowledge is being put to use. Thanks for posting the link.

 

[tcamos]

Two quick thoughts that came to mind for me:
1. Seems like the inclusion of sponges is one reason to buy live rock from the ocean over dry rock.
2. The concept of a nutrient loop seems quite like what a refugium/cheato/DSB does though in that case the loop is used to feed the cheato and remove nutrients but the growth of the pods does get back to the main tank to feed fish and corals.

 

[Oceanic Gardens]

you are correct tcamos