What is this

[College fishman]

Not the zoas but the sponge looking thing in the middle. They are litterally EVERYWHERE in my tank

 

[PurplePolyp]

That's a pineapple sponge. They are filter feeders. They will pop up in any tank if there are excess nutrients in the water. Do a couple water changes and maybe feed a little less or improve on your clean-up crew and they will start to go away. Having a few is good because it keeps your tank stable, but having a lot is bad. They'll use up all your nutrients.

 

[College fishman]

Hmmm that sucks cause I got a bunch lol how could I improve my cleanup crew?

 

[PurplePolyp]

What do you currently have?

 

[College fishman]

About 20 Astrea snails, 20 nasarius snails and like 5 blue legs

 

[PurplePolyp]

You should be good as far as clean-up crew then. I have a 90 gallon with 10 nassarius snails, 4 conch snails, 4 ninja star snails, 8 hermit crabs, a sand sifting starfish, and a black brittle star. I also had a couple peppermint and cleaner shrimp at one point. But having 40 snails and some crabs should be enough to keep fish poo under control. How much are you feeding and how often? And how often do you do water changes?

 

[College fishman]

Mine is also a 90. And yea I'm going to do some rearranging of the rock work to get rid of some dead Spots. And atlast a water change a week

 

[PurplePolyp]

They should start to go away with the water changes. Just make sure when you feed, you aren't feeding more then the fish can eat in under 5 minutes and that they aren't leaving any floating around. That adds nutrients that the pineapple sponges thrive on. I usually do a 15 or 20 gallon change every other week and a 5 or 10 gallon change on the weeks between. Unless more is needed for a nuisance problem. You might try a 50% water change to start and maybe the second time as well. This will help tremendously. You should start seeing these little things disappearing soon. 3 months after I set my tank up, I had about 30 of them show up. Now there are 2 or 3 still lurking around.

 

[College fishman]

What about nori? Should I take it out if they don't eat it fast?

 

[Beengirl]

What about nori? Should I take it out if they don't eat it fast?

I usually leave mine a couple of hours, and remove whatever they haven't eaten.

 

[College fishman]

Yea I leave mine in to. But my tangs will eat like the middle and then chunks will be sucked into my powerheads and BAM! Chunks EVERYWHERE

 

[Beengirl]

That does happen sometimes. My blenny attacks it like he's killing it. Lol. Have you tried folding it in half and clipping the loose ends? Then when they chew the middle, the clip still has a hold of the loose end. Works for me sometimes.

 

[College fishman]

I attach it to a rock with a rubber band. I don't think my Tomini will take it off of a clip