Pencil urchin losing spines and I'm growing gray hairs

[BAMslam93]

Hi everyone,

I've had a pencil urchin for just under a month and it was just dandy munching on clipped nori while I'm waiting for my ugly stage to kick in. When I first got it, it did lose a couple of spines but I chalked it up to stress from being a new environment.

These past couple of weeks, it's been dropping almost all of its spines and I keep checking my nitrates, salinity, and Ph daily along with ammonia, nitrite, and alkalinity to make sure everything is stable. It's still eating fresh seaweed and actively cruising the glass but today things went south with the most spines being lost but I see signs of early healing and closing of wounds.

Today's parameters are (using Red Sea and API to double-check):

Temp: 78.6 F
Salinity: 35 ppt
Ph: 7.7-7.8 (keeping my window open and aerating the tank with a powerhead, hoping to buy a skimmer to bring it up to 8.0)
Ammonia: .2 (honestly, colorimetric tests suck and I'm slightly colorblind lol)
Nitrite: .2
Nitrate: 10 or 20 (at this point, I just want a Hanna checker...)
Alkalinity: 9 dkh
*Planning to buy calcium, phosphate, and magnesium tests or digital monitors soon

I know urchins are finicky about instability (and my 15-gallon cube tank is super young) and I suspect that the lack of algae and feeding regimen for my clowns might be fueling the high nitrates. The first time this happened, my filter sock was clogged and I'm now making a habit of switching them out every 3-4 days. I'm considering doing water changes twice a week to keep nitrates low but I'm getting just as stressed as the urchin at this point.

Is there a way, aside from water changes and sock changes, to keep this spiky dude and my clowns happy and well-fed until the algae takeover? I also learned never to get algae-eating CUC until the ugly stage

 

[The_Paradox]

Did you disturb sand or feed in those photos? Looks like something is going on in the water column. Bacteria bloom, algae, etc.

 

[BAMslam93]

Did you disturb sand or feed in those photos? Looks like something is going on in the water column. Bacteria bloom, algae, etc.

I did a water change this morning so it did kick up some detritus and I tried looking for my MIA nassarius snails with a pointing stick. I also got blursed by a copepod bloom haha.

 

[The_Paradox]

Long term I would ditch the filter socks. Short term I would throw a bag of activated carbon in them and try to leave everything else alone as much as possible. Only time I have seen any of my urchins drop spines is when salinity is off, you sure about 35ppt, or when nitrate spikes.

Unfortunately your issue may be dietary. I’m not seeing any coralline or macros in there. Any chance you can buy a piece of live rock locally?

 

[BAMslam93]

Long term I would ditch the filter socks. Short term I would throw a bag of activated carbon in them and try to leave everything else alone as much as possible. Only time I have seen any of my urchins drop spines is when salinity is off, you sure about 35ppt, or when nitrate spikes.

Unfortunately your issue may be dietary. I’m not seeing any coralline or macros in there. Any chance you can buy a piece of live rock locally?

I actually have a bag of activated carbon in the second chamber of the sump after the sock. Now that you mention it, it may be time to replace it!

I could swing by my LFS this weekend to grab a frag of live rock. My rocks came with the HelloReef kit which didn't really specify the brand but I think it may be CaribSea Life Rock since I also got live sand from that brand in the kit and it's purple. What's ironic is that I'm battling algae in my much older betta tank.