Are urchins reef safe?

[Ston3]

My 37g tank has been established since late february 2010. I am having a bit of an algae problem. I have some long strands of green algae (I'm assuming hair algae) and lots of brown algae with some fine bubbles on it (I think diatoms, doesn't look like cyano). I know the key is good water maintenance and feeding habits. I skim and perform water changes weekly. I also started growing some chaeto. I'm getting a phosphate reactor tomorrow to help. In addition, I also wanted to add an urchin to my algae control army. Liveaquaria states that pincushion urchins are reef safe but I just want to verify with y'all before I make a mistake. Are they effective for my strains of algae?

Thanks

ps Here are some shots of the brown algae

note the little clear bubbles on my rocks

[phil519]

generally speaking urchins are excellent algae eaters but they won't do anything for the sandbed and are notorious for knocking down any unsecured frags. In the case of a tuxedo urchin - it eats any algae inclusive of corraline and also has a funny habit of wearing frags/pebbles on it's "head". Not sure on the pincushion. I thought those might be omnivores.

[twelvejewelz]

what do you have for a clean up crew? add some nassarius snails, banded trochus snails(my favorite) , a couple turbo snails , and a few cerith snails and the tank will be clean in no time sand included.Also what size is the tank and what do you have for flow? you may need to up the flow as well.good luck

[Eel Freak]

I have had many urchins in my tanks as I am fascinated by them. My tuxedo doesn't care for Coralline, however a pincushion I had did. At the same time, if I had any frags that were not glued down, they would pick them up and use them for camouflage. As far as the algae you have on your substrate, I don't think they'd eat it and twelvejewelz gave some good suggestions.

[Ston3]

Thank you for the responses. I have a 37 g with 3 turbos, 6 cerith, 6 nerite, 3 nassarius, a couple random hitch hiking snails, couple scarlet hermits and 6 dwarf hermits. I also have a pistol shrimp but i haven't seen him since I put him in two weeks ago. I'll look into the trochus snail and maybe a conch. I've heard they do a pretty good job on sand.

[Ston3]

For flow, I have two koralia nanos and one k2

[twelvejewelz]

I would add more nassarius snails mabe 7 more you can actually double the amount of cerith and nerite you have as well for a 37.Ive seen some people put 1of each kind for each gallon but thats way to much for me. The pistol in my tank does a great job in stirring my sand i wonder why urs isnt is it still alive? A conch would probably be good . Also check your nitrates and phosphates and post them here if you can.

[reefvilla]

I live by the 1 per gallon rule!! OR more!!
I had 40 or so in my 24g nano.

[footballdude2k3]

honestly i think that too many more snails could be a problem, they will die of starvation...i would just add a few nassarius, up the flow, possibly cut down on the lighting period. gfo would prolly help. i have a 20 gallon with 3 nassarius snail, one turbo, and a bunch of the little ones, cant remember their names. bristle worms help as well.

i was running into similar problems and changed from koralias to an mp20, love that thing, got rid of the little cyano i had left.

[Romewhip]

Honestly, I'd have more flow than that in 37g. I had a K2 in a 20g when I was having algae problems.

I'm a fan of urchins, but like many things they are individual. I've had a couple of pincushions, both were tremendous algae eaters. I currently have a tuxedo who isn't very good at algae, will even take xenia off and carry it around, and unglued a well-stuck zoa frag to carry. The pencil I had got far too large really fast. Urchins are neat, but they aren't a perfect solution.

[JeF4y]

I have a tuxedo and I can track where he's been because there's a path of BARE rock along the way. He mows down algae for sure, and once he's through with whatever is on the surface, he polishes off the coraline too. It doesn't bother me since I have excellent coraline growth which he can't get to, but if you're real picky about it you should know that.

As for knocking things over, my 3 Mexican turbos (about the size of the urchin - roughly the size of a golf ball) will knock over 10x the stuff that the urchin does. The urchin does carry stuff around on his back though. I look at it as my portable fragging system.

In any event, the tuxedo urchin (which I believe is what liveaquaria is calling a pincushion) is reef safe.

[twelvejewelz]

in my 10 gallon nano i have 2 koralia nanos (240gph each) 1 rio 90(85gph) , 1 aquaclear 110 (about 500gph give or take) for a total of 1065GPH and thats a 10 gallon nano...i have 0 algae , cyano, or diatoms and the tank has been running for 2 1/2 years.I keep 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 firefish, 1 YWG/pistol shrimp pair, 2 pepperment shrimp, 1 skunk cleaner shrimp, 6 nassarius snails, 10 banded trochus snails, about 50 stomatella snails that hitchiked in and breed like crazy.I do a water change 2 times a week about 1-2 gallons each time. I have a really heavy bioload but i have cheato in the aquaclear to starve out algae in the display. I also run chemipure elite, phosban and Carbon in the aquaclear. I havnt had an algae problem since the cycle of the tank..There are alot of options but i dont think that the urchin would help to be honest add more nasarrius and some banded trochus and see about adding some kind of Fuge and chemipure elite. Test your nitrates and phosphates and post them back to us.They may read 0 but you may still have a problem with them the display algae may just be using it up..good luck!