PinCushin Urchin living in a refugium?

[Pufferlover95]

In the past, I’ve typically kept my refugium livestock free, only having macro algae in it. Right now however, it’s being overrun with green hair algae. You can see I literally have GHA growing on my chaeto.

I was thinking about placing a Pincushin Urchin in there to clean up some of that GHA. Does that sound like a reasonable way to fix this issue?

Also, is there harm in letting him live in the fuge going forward? Any other inverts that would do ok living full time in the fuge?

 

[RedoubtReef]

You could clean it out, add snails and maybe increase the flow in that section. Adding the urchin might help but I'm wondering if the issue is nutrient and flow related.

 

[Pufferlover95]

You could clean it out, add snails and maybe increase the flow in that section. Adding the urchin might help but I'm wondering if the issue is nutrient and flow related.

Absolutely nutrients are fueling it. It’s a predator tank with puffers and triggers so I feed large food and they make quite a mess. My NO3 and PO4 are elevated but I thought the fuge would help increase the uptake of the nutrients. I already have the largest skimmer I can fit in the next section.

As for flow, what would you suggest? I’ve had pumps in there before, it typically would just blow the macroalgae into one corner of the tank, could never get it to do that nice tumble.

 

[RedoubtReef]

I use a couple small powerheads, Hydor Koralia's, in my fuge to create extra flow. Anything would work really. If you were to place them on opposite sides and diagonally from each other it will move water in a circular pattern if that makes sense.