Urchin addition?

[JammyBirch]

I'm currently cycling my tank, 25 cube with 10 gallon sump. My tank consists of 20lbs of dry rock and I just added 2 live rocks the size of baseballs. It's been a week, I have tons of diatoms and one looks like the start of hair algae. My skimmer is running clean I was wondering if I could add a tuxedo urchin to increase my bio load and also help eat some of the stuff I don't want in there.

Let me know I'd like to kick start this cycle a little bit if possible.

 

[pyithar]

if the cycle is not finished yet, i would not add the urchin or anything yet. just wait it out. if you don't really like the looks of your rocks, take them out and scrub the algae off them with a toothbrush in a separate container with saltwater in it.

 

[Fallling]

If the tank is still cycling, don't add any livestock. If you want to "kick start" it, you could add a piece of raw shrimp and remove it once ammonia reaches 2 - 3 ppm. Then, let the cycle run its course for a good biological filtration foundation.

Have you been testing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate throughout the cycle? That's the only way to know if the cycle is complete... your cycle may be done as of now (I'm not real sure how long you've been cycling for or how you started the cycle). If that's the case, adding a couple of snails and an urchin would be ok. As for algae, make sure you're using RODI water with 0 TDS and check phosphates to help control it.

 

[JammyBirch]

I'm a first timer and started this last week...I've been measuring but not reading anything but nitrate, and it's not too high either.

I use RODI.

 

[fishhuman]

If there have been no nitrates your cycle hasn't started yet it will take a month to finish

 

[Stevenliu9]

Urchins needs algae to graze on so if you dont already have a good layer of it you'd kill the little fella. For cycling I have always used hermit crabs, those they are inexpensive and bullet proof hardy. Then slowly add other livestock like cleaner shrimp and one fish at a time

 

[kw22]

You need an established tank for urchins.I would suggest waiting 6-12 months after your first addition to allow some algae to grow.I believe that urchins eat coralline algae.

 

[JammyBirch]

I'm not going to run crabs in the tank, I don't want bothered with the shell wars. Maybe I could add a Mexican turbo. I have diatoms like crazy...

 

[JammyBirch]

The more i think about it the more i think the cycle is over. My bio load is next to nothing, the rock i put in there was already cycled, clean and is only about 10% or the total rock that is in there.

I'm giong to add a shrimp as suggested, adding bio load, once ammonia reaches a level at least i'll know a cycle has started. At this point i've never seen any ammonia or nitrite levels. Nitrates are 5-10ppm, depending on the color reading.

One question i have is around the ammonia level, could i let it go higher than 2-3ppm? if i get a really high level, reading the test would be easier for sure.

 

[Nina51]

just so you know, urchins (at least in my experience) don't necessarily eat hair algae. they cruise the rocks and glass but don't count on them for algae control. pincushion urchins will eat coralline algae. i have 2 of those in my 75g and one tuxedo and i still have to scrape coralline off the glass.

they're fun critters to have though. you never know from one day to the next what they will decide to carry around.

 

[Fallling]

I prefer 2 - 3 ppm, especially since you did put a couple pieces of live rock in there. You can go up to 4 ppm with no problem, but I wouldn't go much above that. Going above 5 ppm will prolong the cycle, and once it starts hitting about 8 ppm, the cycle can actually stall completely.

As for urchins, most are pretty good at algae clean up. Mine are rock boring urchins that were hitchhikers on live rock. They will get overzealous and chomp down on corraline algae (there's not much other algae), so I moved 3 of them to a separate tank until I can rehome them, and left 1 in the DT. There's very little algae in the other tank, so I make sure to feed nori 2x a week for them.

 

[Kearnel]

The pincushion I had wouldn't touch any algae except coralline and man could he munch it down, leave my rocks looking like they were bleached so he was excused from his role in algae control.