disappearing macroalgae in sump

[sciencefeller]

Help, I cannot seem to keep macroalgae in my sump. . It does not appear to be dying , stays quite green throughout. I have one spiny urchin, lots of hermit crabs, and lots of snails. There are mysis and other little critters as well. Thanks.

 

[Feron]

Don't by any chance have an emerald crab in there do ya?
I know for a fact (learned the hard way grrr) that they will happily eat every shred of macro in a tank.

 

[Hara]

Everything you have listed will eat macro algae. Some will wait until they are very hungry, others will treat it like a buffet line. Depends on the type of macro and critter.

 

[sciencefeller]

Wellllllll, I thought all those rascals were good for clean up . No I do not have an emerald crab by the way. Should I remove the crabs and snails back to the main tank and concentrate on the macro and little guys in the sump?. The urchin has to stay it was eating all my coraline.

 

[Vehl]

I am pretty sure that your urchin is eating a lot of your macro as well. I know my roommate had one that loved the macro in his tank. Depending on your light situation you should be able to grow the coraline faster than the urchin can eat it.
Other then that you could always try to swap the urchin out for something else at your LFS. Is your sump below your display where you can't see it?
What was your original reason for purchasing the urchin as well?

 

[sciencefeller]

dissappearing macro algae

Oddly the urchin does not hang out in the sump with the rest of the critters or near the macro, it hangs out near where the water flows into the third chamber of the sump. I bought the urchin as part of the clean up crew and I thought it would be a good part of the bio diversity, I might see if they will exchange it though. Thanks