Unidentified Growth on Liverock!

[SaltwaterNoobs]

My husband and I just inherited a 35 gallon SW tank (yay!) and we've been nursing it back to proper health over the past month. We bought a piece of live rock from a local (and reputable) pet store. The live rock has some club-tipped anemones growing on it as well as a brittle star hiding somewhere in its core. But the one substance we can't for the LIFE of us identify is this milky-white coating along one crevice of the live rock. To be explicit, it looks like white snot I have attached the best picture I could capture of it with arrows pointing to the white stuff. Some places I've read suggest it's a sponge, bad growth of algae, or even something to do with a brittle star. I just want to know if it will harm the tank or not. It hasn't seemed to grow since we got it a little over two weeks ago, and none of our inhabitants (maroon clown, bangai cardinal, 5 hermit crabs, 5 snails, 1 xenia) have been affected by it. They are all perfectly content, happy campers. Please help!!!

- The N00bs

 

[FreakinReefin]

My husband and I just inherited a 35 gallon SW tank (yay!) and we've been nursing it back to proper health over the past month. We bought a piece of live rock from a local (and reputable) pet store. The live rock has some club-tipped anemones growing on it as well as a brittle star hiding somewhere in its core. But the one substance we can't for the LIFE of us identify is this milky-white coating along one crevice of the live rock. To be explicit, it looks like white snot I have attached the best picture I could capture of it with arrows pointing to the white stuff. Some places I've read suggest it's a sponge, bad growth of algae, or even something to do with a brittle star. I just want to know if it will harm the tank or not. It hasn't seemed to grow since we got it a little over two weeks ago, and none of our inhabitants (maroon clown, bangai cardinal, 5 hermit crabs, 5 snails, 1 xenia) have been affected by it. They are all perfectly content, happy campers. Please help!!!

- The N00bs

Sponge...perfectly normal.

 

[Freya]

looks like a sponge to me but not totally sure, I'm still pretty new when it comes to things that appear in tanks, and tend to over react according to my boyfriend. I am not too fond of all the creepy, crawly, nasty looking things that are in Salt tanks. It took me over a year to finally put my hand in our tank and that was only because a blasto had fallen on an acan and they were fighting, unfortunately I was the only one home.

 

[SaltwaterNoobs]

looks like a sponge to me but not totally sure, I'm still pretty new when it comes to things that appear in tanks, and tend to over react according to my boyfriend. I am not too fond of all the creepy, crawly, nasty looking things that are in Salt tanks. It took me over a year to finally put my hand in our tank and that was only because a blasto had fallen on an acan and they were fighting, unfortunately I was the only one home.

HA! I am the same way and literally screamed when my husband was moving a piece of liverock and this creepy brittlestar tentacle reached for his finger. Dang things remind me of spiders.

But thank you both for confirming it is a sponge! Now I can breathe easy

 

[FreakinReefin]

HA! I am the same way and literally screamed when my husband was moving a piece of liverock and this creepy brittlestar tentacle reached for his finger. Dang things remind me of spiders.

But thank you both for confirming it is a sponge! Now I can breathe easy

No problem and welcome to RFs!!!

 

[dtd87]

sponges mine have em too I wouldn't worry about it if you don't like it you can manually remove it but they are good filter feeders.

 

[pblutang]

Good to know. I have some of that on my rock too. Didn't know what it is.

 

[Freya]

Getting used to all the weird things in a reef is NOT easy!

 

[jrgilles]

yup. sponge. It will grow too. I think they look cool. Once they get bigger, the colony will get some texture and stop looking like snot.

 

[jag3534]

HA! I am the same way and literally screamed when my husband was moving a piece of liverock and this creepy brittlestar tentacle reached for his finger. Dang things remind me of spiders.

I'm not the only one that doesn't stick my hands in unless absolutely necessary? I also screamed when my husband held a fish. Ugghhh.