<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15272493#post15272493 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by subarcticreef
I live in Switzerland and bought it here. I have, however, seen this sponge in several stores that I have visited in the US so I do not think it is to difficult to get hold of.
Have been away for two weeks and my daughter has been taking care of the tank. She likes to feed the fish so the phophate level has gone up and there is plenty of macros. But no cyanos and the collospongia has not overgrown anything (in contrast to the Anthelia).
(revisting this thread after my wry "coincidence" comment
every tank i've ever personally known has gone through a cyano bloom, and it disappears practically overnight once whatever needed to get naturally in balance got there. i don't know the history of your system, but don't think it's unusual for systems to go through a cyano phase and to have it end suddenly. that would be my argument for coincidence.
i can't imagine an overnight change would come from the cyano being outcompeted by a freshly introduced specimen, so it would have to be some sort of chemical reaction to something the sponge produces, probably produced in large quantities after the stress of transfer and introduction. i don't see how it could affect things so quickly otherwise.
if the cyano bloom wasn't just a phase naturally ending, then there is something fundamentally wrong with your system that's allowing it to prosper (flow and/or nutrients) and this doesn't seem like the best way to control it, especially if the sponge is as invasive as it sounds. moving the sponge colonies to your sump or a seperate fuge inline with the system would seem to be wise if this is something you do want to keep permanently for cyano control.
i'd still pursue whatever the underlying cause of the outbreak was if you do attribute its demise to the introduction of the sponge.
my 2 pfennigs.
on an unrelated note, i lived in switzerland for a few years, and the hobby did not have a broad base there at the time. i was only ever able to find one reef store, in zuerich. i can't remember its name, it was over by a hotel with a very nice piano bar. it was small, very clean (of course!), and only had dimly lit tanks with softies, xenia, polyps and mushrooms, no SPS at all. i knew no one professionally or personally who maintained a reef system.
that was 20 years ago, so i'm sure things have changed, and i am curious what the state of the hobby is there. i still have fond memories of the place, know a few expats who settled there permanently, and try to imagine what it would have been like to have stayed longer. it would have been a challenge to put together a reef in zuerich at the time i lived there without many trips to germany with rubbermaid in the trunk.
(i don't mean to hijack your thread, feel free to PM me if you'd like to keep it on topic)
