melev

I've got the exact same thing. I used to have a lot of it on the bottom of one of my rocks but it all died off when I finally HAD to get rid of a brown hairy crab. I saw him in a hole in the rock, pulled the rock out and poured boiling water into the hole (garlic butter is optional). Lost my sponges. :-( They'll grow back over into that area soon enough I suppose.

Hey of you have to have a "pest" that's a pretty nice looking one. Good nutrient-sinks as well.

Love the color Marc, great shot.

Great shot Marc. I had a yellow "sponge" that ate a large piece of MI rock. Didn't look the same though!

Tunicate?

I've read some thoughts that what we normally consider sponges are in fact tunicates.

Thoughts?

I really don't know for sure, but it reminds me more of sponge than tunicate. I've seen tunicates and they tend to be smooth and often times have tons of holes on them, or a few giant intake and output holes. Sponge like the above can have those tubes too. I guess we need an expert in sponge / tunicates to tell us.

what do you mean when you say it can get out of hand with some corals?
i have that same sponge, and its a slow grower. but looks amazing.
i have some white fluffy sponge that does grow faster and has started to push back some ZOAs and a favia (which i am going to move)

will sponges kill SPS?

There is a different type of yellow sponge that grows very fast and can coat a coral, smothering it. And the white one you mentioned encroaching on your zoanthids is another one of those you want to keep an eye on. If you see something getting too close, take action. If not, enjoy the diversity.

I had a blue sponge / tunicate overgrow a torch frag once. I didn't know that it wasn't part of the coral, the stalk was a gorgeous blue and the torch was neon green. After it smothered and killed my torch, I figured out what it was. I still have the skeleton covered with the sponge because it's so striking. I also have a lime green sponge growing on the side of a large piece of LR.

Melev off topic hope you don't mind. I got the TCP 5100K bulbs for my fuge per your set up, I am also going to have a RDSB with live rock has part of my new build. I have been trying to find info on wither it is a good idea to light the RDSB. Any input on the pros and cons of using the TCP bulbs to also light the RDSB would be much apprecated. Thanks Mike

I don't think there is any reason to add light over it. The surface area would surely end up with all kinds of algae.

Cool thanks Melev. Mike

I had the same thing growing over my suncorals, and had to remove it becasue it was killing the tissue, but otherwise very pretty sponge.

Thanks for the close-up Marc...