Sponges everywhere!!

[stlcard]

so over the course of the past month i have noticed a significant increase sponge population growth. I have billions of tiny white pineapple shaped sponges on my rock. in the limited research i have done on sponges, sponges are filter feeders and help clean the water. Is the population explosion a result of poor water quality? (IE they have more food - nitrates? Detrius? in my system so they can proliferate better?)

Should i be cautious about this? or just one of those things that happens with established systems?

I also have had an explosion of little tiny feather dusters (serpulid feather dusters). also harmless? Filter feeders? any way to get rid of them? becoming a bit of an eye sore...

input and 2cents welcome!

 

[stlcard]

another forum i just read said that they (pineapple sponges) are silica dependent? can anyone confirm that? Im using RO/DI with confirmed 0 TDS

 

[stlcard]

... never mind. did some more research.

 

[Blindside]

talking to yourself and answering yourself bad sign.....

 

[stlcard]

haha. yes... this is a quiet forum at times.

 

[MPDBullitt]

Well why did your research reveal?

 

[stlcard]

harmless sponges that seem to have occurrences of outbreaks in certain systems. They are filter feeders and help clean the water. Not sure about a correlation to having crappy water IE more food, but rather a healthy developing system. Most people seem to report outbreaks that come and go. Same goes for the serpulid feather dusters. they seem to come and go as systems progress.