[Arctic Fox]

Hey I just thought this was interesting, had my tank set up for almost a year now and I've had one of those hang on the back penguin 330 biowheel filters on it since the beginning and I've maybe changed the filters on it like twice at the very beginning, so the floss filters that are in there are about 8 months old. Anyway, I pulled the filters out tonight just to look at them and there was visable no filter left, there was sponge there instead, now I know the filters are actually still there, they're just under all that sponge, but has anyone else ever seen this? I was amazed at how this could happen over just eight months, I would estimate the sponges to be 4" X 6" X 1" and there are two of them. Also, I pulled the filter baskets out and the 3" X 3" pieces of activated carbon that were in there for only god knows how long were covered in sponge as well.
Also in one of the filter baskets I found an anenome that was about the size of a half dollar piece and completely whitish-translucent colour. it was pretty short, maybe 1/4" tall, + 1/8" - 1/4" tenticles, anyone know what kind of anenome this might be? Tenticles were short & fat, non-colonial, definately not apthasia, (spelled that wrong didn't I?)
Oh, hey one real question, about six months ago I opened up my filter and there were literally millions of copepods & amphopods, (spelled that wrong too), that just poured out, this time, there were very few, maybe a dozen, is this a by-product of the sponges taking over? I have a wrasse now, and would it be possible for him to clean up the copepods that much? I mean I went from millions to a dozen or so.

[zhenya]

Hey AF, sorry I missed this thread and seems no one responded to you.

In short, it is quite common for sponges to colonize some media, especially in the dark area like your filter. And, it is quite obvious that this sponge did well in there... All that food and good flow... I have many, many encrusting sponges in the tank, most are in the shaded areas and they do quite well.


I'm not sure about your anemone, would need to see an image to even attempt at guessing what it may be.

If you have a wrasse, don't be surprized that your pod population is dwindling, however, I am almost sure that there are more in your tank than you can see. Try checking your tank at night, you'll be surprized at how many you'll see runing around.