Creeping sponge

[Jason Cody]

I have a white sponge that has been growing in my 29 gallon reef. It had spread underneath my pink (brown) star polyps and the polyps have actually lifted off of the rock. It also seems to creep around and smother some of the polyps. I have used a toothbrush to brush some of the exposed sponge off the rocks but it continues to spread. Is there another method to removing it? Any critters out there that would eat it? Would using the toothbrush method only make things worse by inviting the sponge to spread even further? It primarily grows under the rocks away from the light but it is also on one end and has some light exposure.

 

[WA coral]

sponges

I am having the same problem with my blasto, a sponge is pushing the colony into itself and killing off the outside. I tried to scrape it but it just grows back. I am not sure what to do either

 

[wrightme43]

If you wanna kill it expose it to air, then scrub it off outside of your tank. You will probley have to scrub it every day for a week or so to get all of it off. This is risky. Dieing sponge will rot and pollute your tank. Undead sponge can start a whole new colonly from one cell. Think it thru before you do it. If you dont have a skimmer, I would do it in a seperate ten gallon tank so you dont risk the rest of your corals

 

[Jason Cody]

That's a good idea. I'll also have to be carful not to expose the other coral that is attached to the rock to the air for too long.
Any idea as to what kind of a sponge this is?

 

[wrightme43]

I dont know its scientific name. Its in almost all reef tanks. I have seen huge chunks of live rock made from small pieces held together by that sponge.

 

[wrightme43]

Here I looked it up in my book. I think its called clathrina. It comes in green, yellow or white. That may help some.

 

[Jason Cody]

I looked up Clathrina on the web. That's it.

Thanks for the ID!