Sea Sponge In A Freshwater Tank..

[Scott MacAdam]

My Girlfirend called me today and told me that she had found some dead peices of sea sponge on the beach, so thinking of me she took them home, she has a few peices about 6inches long and one 4 inches long...... what should i do with them? i was thinking wid clean them out and start some plants on them, being sponges i'd think the plants would root to them like crazy because of all the holes they could get into... any ideas?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

well i do noe that dead coral can kill ur fish because of all the calcium. because sea spondge is also a dead organism i would think it might have the same effects but im not possitive.

 

[Scott MacAdam]

yeah that's what i was worried about... does anyone know for sure?

 

[Lynden]

yeah that's what i was worried about... does anyone know for sure?

I don't think sponges have the same amount of calcium that coral skeletons do... but I would avoid keeping anything found on the beach in a freshwater tank. Looks unnatural at the best of times - leaches deadly pollutants at the worst.



-Lynden

 

[wodesorel]

Unles you have soft water fish, calcium will not kill your fish. It's how they raise the hardness for cichlids.

Personally, I would never use something I've picked up from a beach or lake. There's a lot of pollutants in that kind of stuff, expecially coral because it's porous. It could also be harboring parasites/bacteria/gosh knows what. The companies that sell it in the store have access to cleaners and sterilizers that we don't - so please keep that in mind!

Jinx!

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

It could also be harboring parasites/bacteria/gosh knows what.

well that may be true but there are ways to clean the spondge... the easiest way is to boil them for about 10 mins... another way is doing a 10% bleach to water solution soaking for a day (make sure to heavily rinse before putting in tank) plus i doubt that there will b any parasites that could attack a tropical fish unless it is found sumwere tropical still if your going to put it in make sure to treat it first

 

[Lynden]

It could also be harboring parasites/bacteria/gosh knows what.

well that may be true but there are ways to clean the spondge... the easiest way is to boil them for about 10 mins... another way is doing a 10% bleach to water solution soaking for a day (make sure to heavily rinse before putting in tank) plus i doubt that there will b any parasites that could attack a tropical fish unless it is found sumwere tropical still if your going to put it in make sure to treat it first

Pollutants could be left in the ornament, to leach into the tank later.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

well i treated 2 peices of wood that i found and put both into a diffrent tank, both r frum locations as well n both r doin fine

 

[Riley]

All my ornaments in my 77gal Freshwater are from either a lake or a river. My rocks are from a lake, and my drift wood is from a river. Although I do not live by any major cities to pollute the water. Everything is pretty fresh up here. All I did was take them out back of my house and hose them down. Nearly 2 years later and everything is doing great. Then again im not as Paranoid as some people .

-Riley

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

yeah up in BC it should be fine. the parasites that would be in there would only effect salmon and rainbow trout and other fish that populate the area. i think ud have to be more careful getting the rocks and suck out of lets say..new york.

 

[Riley]

Thats true.

 

[Lynden]

All my ornaments in my 77gal Freshwater are from either a lake or a river. My rocks are from a lake, and my drift wood is from a river. Although I do not live by any major cities to pollute the water. Everything is pretty fresh up here. All I did was take them out back of my house and hose them down. Nearly 2 years later and everything is doing great. Then again im not as Paranoid as some people .

-Riley

I'm not paranoid...

Honestly, how many polutants could there possibly be in the Kistkatnaw, where you and I got our rocks and driftwood, as opposed to a beach, where it is hard to find an unpolluted shore?

-Lynden

 

[Riley]

All my ornaments in my 77gal Freshwater are from either a lake or a river. My rocks are from a lake, and my drift wood is from a river. Although I do not live by any major cities to pollute the water. Everything is pretty fresh up here. All I did was take them out back of my house and hose them down. Nearly 2 years later and everything is doing great. Then again im not as Paranoid as some people .

-Riley

I'm not paranoid...

Honestly, how many polutants could there possibly be in the Kistkatnaw, where you and I got our rocks and driftwood, as opposed to a beach, where it is hard to find an unpolluted shore?

-Lynden

I honestly wasn't refering to you...although that is kind of ironic how you thought I was sama:

And I wasn't compairing Kaskatna to a beach. I was compairing my drift wood too DiscusLova's drift wood

-Riley

 

[Scott MacAdam]

well you see i was refering to the atlantic ocean in eastern canada, and of cource I would clean it. i have used many things from beaches and lakes that i've found, you simply boil it or bleach it like mentioned above! it's never caused me any problems, i was just wondering about it breaking down, it being sponge I didn't think it would happen. If i were to use it what should i do with it, i was also thinking because it was sponge, it would be even more bennifical for my tank because it could be a good living quarters for some good benifical bacteria after a while and then i could use it to clone later tanks without disturbing my current filter media too much.