orange tree sponge light question

[nuro]

I prepared a spot in my tank for an orange tree sponge, have a very good amount of flow for it and plan on spot feeling it phyto.. now Ive read they should be kept in low light.. my question is this: is high light directly going to harm them? or is this simply to prevent algae build up and clogging of their water channels?

[Aqua_Scaping]

well if algea clogs the holes the sponges starves because thats how it eats............that is what air exposure also does to the sponge

[nuro]

thanks for th info. i just wasnt sure if the light itself was in anyway damaging. reason being, I dotn really have a low light area of the tank, if its just becuase of the algae it easy enough to keep it algae free.. but if the light itself is damaging i may need to make adjustments

[reefkprZ]

some sponges can be directly harmed by overly bright light, since there is about 10 (or more) different "orange tree sponges" It would be impossible to say with out knowing the actual species, low light to no light is the best assumption on nonphotosynthetic sponges.

deepwater sponges are most likley to be damaged by uv light.

[nuro]

some sponges can be directly harmed by overly bright light, since there is about 10 (or more) different "orange tree sponges" It would be impossible to say with out knowing the actual species, low light to no light is the best assumption on nonphotosynthetic sponges.

deepwater sponges are most likley to be damaged by uv light.

ahh ok, low light it is. Thanks.

[NEreef]

see if you can find an overhang to put the sponge under

[nuro]

see if you can find an overhang to put the sponge under

Thats exactly what i did! thanks. I put a PH over it as well as an external filter i modded for LR and Mangroves. There on branch of it that still gettin alot of light but if it looks sickly or the channels close up ill just cut it off. Thanskl again!