Giant_Erie_Octopus

Most sponges, like most corals, just kinda keep growing. There are cloud sponges in our waters (okay..a little farther north..Washington and BC) that are as big as VW's and tropical barrel sponges almost as big. I've found that most of the "hitchhiker" variety sponges that survived transit and set up shop in our systems at work prefer the underside of ledges, like the little guy under your palythoa and they continue to grow only in the shaded area, clinging fairly closely to the rock. That being said, there are many, many different species of sponge, so YMMV. On the competition with corals note - sometimes they certainly can overgrow coral colonies and more - many of them compete through allelopathy (the release of chemicals into the surrounding water that inhibit the growth of or kill other sessile invertebrates). Again..probably a rarity in captivity to experience any detriment from this, but it's always something to keep in the back of your mind, especially if you're in a smaller system where the allelopathic chemicals can build up more quickly. Cheers, Austin

Hmmm...I'm not sure who you talked to when you came into Aquaserene (I assume you did since you said you'd tried all the shops in town), but I have 2 black 72 Bowfront frames sitting in my backstock room right now - the price on them is $35 each. I've had them for a while now and I'm ALWAYS willing to order in frames (however, they are a special order item through the wholesaler, so they do take several weeks to arrive in-store) or just about any other item you can possibly imagine or need for your aquariums. We look forward to seeing you in-store! Cheers, Austin Manager - Aquaserene

I couldn't agree more - even public aquariums with access to fresh seawater don't keep these things. (case in point ORCA with temperate species). You won't ever find one of these in our systems - they can stay in the ocean with the flame scallops and the ribbon eels. Cheers, Austin

Advanced Aquarist Online over at reefs.org is killer - if a bit scientific. Cheers, Austin

Hmm - what's the point of a refugium that small? Realistically you aren't going to get a noticeable reduction in nitrates out of the macroalgae in there. As a true refuge for small inverts maybe - but at that point turning it into more of a cryptic zone filter by loosely packing it with LR and foregoing the light entirely would seem like the better way to go. Any sort of algal scrubbing system is all about lit surface area - something a 4" X 6" X 15" deep chamber is lacking. And with any luck we'll cultivate lots of sponges in the cryptic zone which would be better anyway as sponges are going to pull DOM from the water whereas the macro has to wait for the DOM to be broken down into nitrate/phosphate before it can be effectively utilized. Just some thoughts - YMMV, but I see enough refugiums turn into algal nightmares all while not really benefitting the system in any real way that I always try to figure out the intended purpose of the refugium and see if there isn't a "better" way. (I came up in the hobby when refugiums were "new" - now they're a marketing ploy mostly) Cheers, Austin