Great show Rob hats off to you too Dave i enjoy hearing you talk about these topics. So now i can start to call you the Refugia master lol. Hum learned lots about refugia and i especially liked the dark refugia idea. Now thanks to you guys i finally know what those white masses in my sump really are. I have suspected that they where a type of sponge but now i know they are. It always amazes me the type of fauna you get just seemeing spontaniously apearing in your system.
I have couple of questions though should i harvet the sponge as a type of nutirent export or should i just treat them as a living filter pad. Secondly could i feed these sponges to angels which are sponge eaters in the wild ?
lastly are there any known toxins associated with these sponges?
And dave thats a great idea about the clam tank there are supposted to be great filter feeders i may try some flame scallops in my refugia since giant clams do not show up here often and when they do they cost a pound and a crown.

you can just let the sponges live in there as a natural filter.
as far as feeding them to an angler, im not sure, have never researched this. and not sure about the toxins, but i would assume that in common sponges that are found growing in our tanks its not a huge deal.. but dont quote me here..

regarding the flame scallop, they are much different than clams, and are actually very hard to keep alive. most dont live more than a month or two. and i dont believe there are effective nitrate consumers as a clam would be

okay thanks rob.
i meant angels not anglers. me and a reef buddy here wanted to try to use flame scallops as natural filter because they can be colected here there survival rate is much higher.

i still get those string sponge in the dark zones, even now, the trigger doens't seem to touch them