Tuxedo Sea Urchin Advice

[thelawnwrangler]

I have a 36 gallon AIO (30 display gallons). I am in my 3rd month, and have a nice little green algae bloom all over my live rock (30-36 pounds).

Current Stock:
2 clowns
5-7 frags (GSP, Candy Cane, Micro Torch, Galexea, Seamat, and Zoas)
7 snails (2 certas, and then 5 assorted)
2 shrimp (fire and peppermint)
2 hermits

Questions:
1. I have one flat rock with good purple coraline algae (4" x 7") rest is gross green. So my question is will it help spread of coraline by destroying what I have and lets call it redistributing it over the tank? Or will he just destroy my hope for a beautiful purple tank? (my research is mixed on this)
2. Is my system big enough to sustain him (I guess I may need to provide nori at some point). I think this may be were I need to have a little patience, and let my tank establish it's equilibrium (aka determine if if I can support an urchin)?
3. How annoying is it when they stick every unattached thing in your tank to their back? (frags are wedged into place not glued)

Looking for any feedback and experiences.

Thanks

 

[Sk8r]

Beautiful purple comes with time, as in, years, and a good mg-cal-alk balance. Nothing any crawling critter can do will delay or speed that.
Tuxedos don't tend to live very long, ime.
the part of him he sticks things to is actually his backside.
Most importantly, if your problem is green film algae, your real cure isn't an urchin, it's getting your phosphate load down. Rock tends to release it over time, until it ages. A GFO reactor will help with that more than any critter who eats the algae and poo's the phosphate right back into your tank. GFO's aren't that pricey and will serve you multiple times during your hobby career.

 

[thelawnwrangler]

Beautiful purple comes with time, as in, years, and a good mg-cal-alk balance. Nothing any crawling critter can do will delay or speed that.
Tuxedos don't tend to live very long, ime.
the part of him he sticks things to is actually his backside.
Most importantly, if your problem is green film algae, your real cure isn't an urchin, it's getting your phosphate load down. Rock tends to release it over time, until it ages. A GFO reactor will help with that more than any critter who eats the algae and poo's the phosphate right back into your tank. GFO's aren't that pricey and will serve you multiple times during your hobby career.

Good things to consider- thanks

I am working on feeding the right amount.

I am not looking at him as a cure to the problem. I more look at an urchin as something cool I want if I can provide a suitable environment, and if I get a little benefit awesome. (I saw your post regarding CUC not being there to solve algae problems and it was helpful made sense to me)

I am working on getting my params in order and really cut the algae back. So a big part of the question is sustainability if I get my system cleaned up. I mean basically right now I am working towards limiting his food supply (algae). This is making me think maybe it is time to wait on this purchase.

In regards to GFO you bring up a point that I could really use help with. Right now I have purigen, sitting on top of chemipure elite sitting on top of a sponge/foam filter. I am still planning my other than liverock filtration, and thinking about an intank media basket. The pros are it would direct water over floss, and then separate purigen, and chemipure. Then if I am still struggling with phosphates, which from research my planned media basket won't have a big impact on I was going to do a GFO reactor. At 50 bucks for the media basket am I better off with a carbon and gfo reactor and foregoe the filter floss element of the media basket? or stick to media basket and gfo reactor. Sounds like it is 90% likely I need a GFO reactor?

 

[donut0079]

I agree with sk8r. An urchin will not solve the problem. That being said tuxedo urchins are an interesting inhabitant. I have kept one in a biocube 29 for just over a year now. My tank has continued to purple up even with the urchin and I have not had more than a handful of problems with him moving frags. I have taken to gluing them when possible. I have not had to supplement nori at all. From what I've seen he tends to hold onto the same items for long periods of time so having a little debris like snail shells or rock fragments helps. He will pick them up and keep them and pay less attention to any frags available.

 

[A.Astore]

As long as you are aware of the fact he won't necessarily remove the algae they are a fun addition. One thing they may do is to help loosen algae to make it easier for you to clean up. When I put mine in with the initial CUC (an Urchin was the ONE thing my four year old wanted in the tank initially) it did consume some of the algae but I noticed it helped more so to help loosen it for me to get cleaned up. Mine now comes up to the same corner every so often waiting for his Nori ration. It is very amusing and as soon as he heats what is given to him he heads off to do his rounds.

As far as them carrying things around mine is not horrible and I tend to have noticed that if there is small rubble type things including shells and such he picks those to carry over carting around a frag as mentioned above. Now I will say he threw a tantrum the other day when I cleaned the glass and went through the tank knocked a few off the rocks that are being acclimated to the lights. Funny creatures urchins are. This morning he was hanging on between two rocks trying to navigate to the other, it reminded me of one of those stretchy people toy things.

If you want an urchin for the joy of having one and are willing to ensure it is getting what it needs in terms of food I wouldn't give a major "DON'T DO IT" because they add another part to the system that is worth watching. It is still the one thing my four year old runs out to see where he is in the morning and what he is carrying around.