Sponges? (identify) and Vermetid Snails

Hey all…I have what I think are sponges growing on various places of LR. Can you confirm? I believe they’re normal and cause no harm correct?

Also, what do you know about Vermetid Snails? The LR I got from Moliken has a lot of them on it. Once my DIY LR is done curing I plan on re-scaping…when I do that, I plan on chipping off as many of them as I can. I don’t believe they are a true pest, but they’re ugly, and so is the way they feed. They feed by excreting a mucus net…it waves in the water column, then they reel it in and eat whatever it catches.

Pics of the sponges? and the snails.

Vermetids, there are a lot more then just the few I picture here.

The sponges look like the start of what is commonly called pineapple sponges, the snails I just break them off as close to the rock as I can with forcipes

Harmless sponges and just about harmless snails. Have to agree with, “I don’t believe they are a true pest, but they’re ugly”. Most of the time people have issues with Vermitds getting out of hand when their tanks are out of balance. And for what it’s worth I would not go crazy trying to kill every last one wiping them out. Unless you have an EXTREMELY obsessive quarantine procedure, you’ll introduce them to the tank again. Try walking into an LFS and not finding one(or 20).

You might find something in here:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rs/index.php

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rs/index.php