Strange growth on my live rock

[Jessilyn86]

Hello,
I purchased some live rock a few days ago. Yesterday I discovered I have tons of mini brittle stars, along with some type of transparent gray or white slime looking stuff.. Can anyone identify what this could be? Is it harmful or good and how do I get rid of it?

My water perameters are perfect except my nitrates are a little high but that's due to disturbing the sand and also changing some things in the sump.

 

[Macscale]

I can't really see it. Can you get a better pic?

 

[Ricksreef]

I see what look to be a couple of sponges,which would be fine.

 

[Macscale]

Yeah most likely sponges, harmless.

 

[Jessilyn86]

Strange growth on live rock

The growth is right there by the butterfly fish. Can it harm anything in my tank? There was a cleaner snail attached to this growth and it looks like it died.

 

[Macscale]

Just sponges, absolutely harmless. I just got some too. Snail probably starved or something.

 

[Jessilyn86]

Whew! What a relief. The snail was stuck to it and it died so I assumed it killed the snail. Is it a possibility the snail was sick before I added him to the tank? He only lived about 2 days. I'm new to having a salt water tank so I always have questions, especially when seeing new things in the tank

Discovered we have mini brittle stars living in that live rock too. But they never come out to eat, they just stick their arms out hoping to catch food. Will they ever come out?

 

[Macscale]

Yeah, it's a possibility. Invertebrates are more sensitive to changing temps and PH then fish.

I wouldn't worry about the brittles.

 

[Jessilyn86]

Does anyone happen to know what type of sponge this might be? I've been searching the internet for any info and I can't find anything that looks like this sponge, if it is a sponge.

My tank is also super high in nitrate right now. Tests showed as 8.0 in Ph, 0.25 for nitrite, and the ammonia is 0.

 

[bribo12]

You're never going to be able to really Id it down to a genus let alone a species. Sponges look so similar it is very difficult if not impossible to id them without a microscope.

 

[Macscale]

Your tank isn't cycled? Or did you have some kind of fish death?

It's just a white sponge, really don't worry about it. It won't do any harm, sometimes they grow out straight, other times they look like webs. The only problems you could have is over running weak colonies. You can just pull it off now though.

 

[Jessilyn86]

Growth on live rock

Our tank is cycled and no fish deaths. This sponge thing looks thick and also like it has webs all over it. How fast do sponges normally grow? From what everyone says they are good to have so I don't want to take it all out, I just don't want it taking over the whole live rock. I was able to get better pic of it.

 

[ecancienne1983]

Kind of looks like a anenome was living on that rock and died lol but im not 100% on that

 

[bribo12]

They're pretty slow but can be fast depending on nutrient levels. Cool sponge though

 

[Jessilyn86]

It's growing so I don't think it died LOL. But I thought it looked like a sponge that had some weird web growth on it haha. As long as it's not harmful and benefits the tank I'm totally fine with it. It looks pretty cool so see it growing. Thanks for all the advice and help everyone.