Sea Urchins

[Sparky477]

I have a 24Gal Aquapod with a lot of algae. I've cut down on feeding and reduced the light level and I have all kinds of snails which do a good job on an film algae, but I needed something to trim the algae that have become shrubs. I though about fish, but most herbivores are too big for the Aquapod. I ended up getting an urchin and let me tell you, not only does he eat the algae, but the rock is cleaner than when I bought it. He seems to eat the coralline algae too, but on the other hand, he's exposing rock that the coralline can't grow because of the other algae. Has anyone else owned an urchin, and if so what behaviors or problems has anyone had?

I have some pics atwww.weirdthingsinmytank.blogspot.com

 

[quarryshark]

Urchins are great, but if you are having algae problem, you may want to look at your water quality. Nitrates especially.
Urchins need some room, even though they seem like slow movers, its easy to starve them in small tank. I would first take a look at water quality if you are having algae problems, it will only get worse.
As for the urchin, he is being a bandaid for you at this time.
Additional animals for algae problem is a temporary fix at best.

 

[ezy33]

I have a Blue Tuxedo Pincushion Urchin in my 55 GAL reef and a pink (unknown) in my 30 GAL mandrin tank. The Tuxedo is a good algae eater, all thou it likes to carry almost anything it can pickup. The pink is a great coralline remover, hence it's color, but it's not much of a algae eater . That is where your urchin gets it's color

 

[Sparky477]

Urchins are great, but if you are having algae problem, you may want to look at your water quality.

Yeah, I figure it's from overfeeding, I have also stepped up my water changes from once a week to twice a week. I finally got a protein skimmer from "nanotuners" that fits in the compartment in the back of the Aquapod. It was either that or drill holes for a bulkhead and add a sump, but at that point I might as well just get a bigger tank.

 

[melosu58]

I agree that the urchin is a bandaid solution. Need to check out water quality as QS said. Later on as he said also he might starve to death when the algea runs out. You might want to put dried seaweed in there for him.

 

[MsBeanCtr]

I have two tuxedo urchins in my 72 gallon bowfront. As mentioned earlier, they tote stuff around and do some minor re-arranging in the tank. Mine have cleaned off most all of the coralline on my lr. They keep whatever algae I might have on my glass (which isn't much) cleaned off. I put out a couple of sheets of algae for the tangs and another for the urchins.

As difficult as it might be, perhaps you can review your feeding schedule and cut back some. I had this problem early on, until Roka mentioned "you don't have to feed your fish everytime you walk by the tank, and they come up to beg for food." I'm para-phrasing here but that's the jest of his comment.

HTH

 

[quarryshark]

When I had urchins, they loved a small strip of nori every 3-4 days. It works well, they will gobble it up. It's actually fun to watch them pull it in. In my gallery. you may even find a pick of one chowing down.