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jungleboy View Drop Down
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    Posted: September 12 2017 at 4:12pm


I have these weird semi hard tubes growing on my hammer frag. Any one know what they are?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jungleboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 12 2017 at 4:19pm
Sorry for the bad pic. I took the frag out and it is covered in this fleshy gray stuff that has those tubes that come out of it. I could pull all of it off with a toothbrush, but i dont know what it is yet so i dont want to do anything.
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Mark Peterson View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 12 2017 at 4:58pm
It's live Sponge. 
Sponge is good but it can grow fast and irritate coral. 
What to do? You are right. Use a toothbrush to clean it off the frag. 

What I do, because Sponge is a very good thing in our tanks, is brush it off in the tank underwater and let the pieces land where they may. Each piece will start a new colony in a new location, usually around the bottom or underside of LR where it can do much good and not cause any problems. Some blue Sponge grows in the sand, near the bottom of LR. We often see the blue color growing around the sand particles and if it's been there long enough, the large matrix of Sponge and sand is very noticeable during re-aquascaping or when moving the tank. I always save those pieces and try not to pull them out of the water because air bubbles can quickly kill Sponge.

Live Sponge is one sign of a mature tank. Sponge filters the water of organic matter/pollutants and uses silicates in it's tissue. Silicates are what some brown nuisance algae eat, so Sponge is a good competitor, keeping that bad algae from messing up our reef aquariums.

Aloha,
Mark  Hug
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jungleboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 12 2017 at 5:03pm
Thanks Mark!

I was just hoping it wasnt some euphilia specific disease because i have a euphyilia dominated tank!

Thanks again!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hogie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 12 2017 at 5:09pm
Mark is absolutely correct. that particular kind of sponge does well in a refugium growing on rubble rock. I have it all over in mine.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jungleboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2017 at 8:51am
I used a toothbrush two days ago to get the sponge off of it. Ever since then my hammer frag has been almost completely deflated. It still responds to touch and currents, but it will not inflate. Anyone know why?
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Mark Peterson View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2017 at 10:08am
It was the brushing.
Smile No worries mate. You're still in the steep learning curve of this hobby. As I recall, you said earlier that this tank has a lot of Euphyllia, right? Look at the stalks of your other Euphyllia.
A thin fleshy membrane normally grows down all the way around the skeleton stalk for 1", often 2 inches. Some of that flesh was there, underneath the Sponge. It got torn away with the Sponge. This Euphyllia has been unavoidably damaged by the brushing. It will take a week or two to recover.

Also, compare the way the skeleton stalk of this frag looks with other Euphyllia in your tank, even the ones above and to the left of it in that pic. Notice how in others the stalk is uniformly the same size and diameter from the top down. This frag is different. That's because it almost died a while back, but it recovered and as it grew from the old skeleton, a smaller skeleton grew out of the previous growth.

Aloha,
Mark  Hug
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Mark Peterson View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2017 at 10:13am
If you're not seeing much of that membrane like I described, it may be due to tank immaturity or toxins in the water. The first thing I would want to know is whether AC is being used in this tank, how much and how often is it changed. Next I would want to know the tank size and may we see a full tank pic to get a better idea of what's going on?

Aloha,
Mark  Hug
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