sponges?

[fishhead]

Say, I had some LR in my sump that I moved to the DT and noticed some yellow/orange sponge material on the rocks. Then I looked where the rocks had come from, and sheesh, lots of something growing in there. When I moved the rocks into the DT the did not show a hint of damage from being exposed to air, so it made me wonder. Can anyone ID this:

 

[fishhead]

I also have these orange shrooms I don't know name of?

 

[seafansar]

I have a ton of that yellow sponge growing in my sump too. Don't know the exact ID, just yellow sponge. lol. I consider it a good part of the water filtration.

The second thing is red mushrooms.

 

[fishhead]

Thanks. I have read sponges can filter a lot of water, I don't know about this variety though, it doesn't seem to have the large openings I have seen in pics when talking about sponges as filters. Do you know if they thrive mostly on nutrients, or are they phosphate consumers, nitrate? It's been a while since I read about them.

 

[seafansar]

I don't really know, other than just tiny things. Some big sponges can filter an incredible amount of water. In invertzoology we watched a video where a diver added a dye to the water near a sponge's incurrent openings and it quickly was expelled through the excurrent siphons. (I feel awful that I've already forgotten the scientific names for the incurrent and excurrent openings. sheesh, I have a lousy memory.) But it was impressive seeing how much water moved through the sponge and with such force. It's all powered by cilia, so you wouldn't think it could get the water moving so fast. Well, I guess it's also partly the venturi effect helping move the water too, like some skimmers! lol.

 

[fishhead]

Ya, this sponge material/animal doesn't seem to have any useful orifices to channel water like that..does yours?

BTW...bio-chem or biology major?

 

[seafansar]

Not really. Looks pretty much the same as yours. Just little openings.

Zoology major.

 

[fishhead]

 

[jnohs]

it is still a sponge and definalty filtering a lot of water for its size. you could look at at like a filterpad that is the same size but allways clean and allways working.

 

[fishhead]

it is still a sponge and definalty filtering a lot of water for its size. you could look at at like a filterpad that is the same size but allways clean and allways working.

Nicely put. My sump has a liver! I think I will leave the stuff alone. :bow: