"growth" on rock

[Countryfanjmm]

Hi everyone. Brand new. To forum and to the world of saltwater tanks. We just got the tank Saturday (for reference I'm posting this on Thursday). It is a 40 gallon tank. Column style. We purchased live sand and some live rock and also some dead rock. We have 3 chromis, some starfish that hitchhiked home on the live rock, and a couple different corals. Yesterday I noticed a white.....something.....on one of the rocks (one of the dead rocks). It looks like spider web but not stringy. More like a cocoon but flat. Honestly it almost looks like someone took a single layer of Kleenex and laid a piece on the rock in a couple of areas. I have not touched it to find out the texture as I didn't want to mess with it if it is all part of the process. I will try to load a couple pictures. In the picture with the white spot closest to the floor of the tank, the little dark spots are bumps on the rock showing through. There is no hole or funnel type area it it like I had seen mentioned other places on the web. Hope someone has some idea of what this may be or what I should do with it. Thanks in advance.

 

[Marbie]

My guess is some kind of sponge

 

[Countryfanjmm]

How long does it take on average for dead rock to gain the properties of live rock? Or dies it not need to be live rock before things start living and growing on it? Would a sponge be something that I would want to leave it there? I have a great starter book but it really only speaks of fish so I don't have too much knowledge on sponges. Thanks for the quick reply. ?

 

[jsmith]

How long does it take on average for dead rock to gain the properties of live rock? Or dies it not need to be live rock before things start living and growing on it? Would a sponge be something that I would want to leave it there? I have a great starter book but it really only speaks of fish so I don't have too much knowledge on sponges. Thanks for the quick reply. ?de0a

In my opinion sponges are simple water filters no harm and wont over take the tank many will actually disappear after a while. Some will stay. Live rock will help seed the base rock. The rate at which it is seeded depends on the bioload and the amount of live rock already present if you started with all base rock the process I imagine would be a longer process.

 

[Countryfanjmm]

Thanks so much. I really appreciate the help and advice. I think for now I will just let it be but keep an eye on it just to be sure nothing starts to look "bad". Thanks again

 

[Fishfighter]

Did you cycle ur tank?

 

[Countryfanjmm]

It is still in the process of cycling. It has only been up and running for a week today.