Urchin losing a bit of its spines?

[HAAAAAAAA]

My tank is a 210 gallon about 1.5 to 2 years old, it was going harmoniously for about a year so i decided to stop checking for nitrate's since it would automatically come down without any water changes what so ever (i usually clean the sponges and use a lot of bio media) so i stopped doing water changes altogether and it's been doing good for about a year

Tankmates are
3 feet tessalata eel
2 yellow tail damsel's
1 moon wrasse
1 urchin

Just recently I noticed that my 6 month urchin has been losing a little of its spines in a spot but hasn't lost its colour or anything like that, I heard that it could be because of elevated nitrates and it could be that case since my tessalata has had an exceptionally messy feeding recently but i wasn't too troubled since I used a 5 micron filter sock

Is there any concerns?

 

[Dan_P]

My tank is a 210 gallon about 1.5 to 2 years old, it was going harmoniously for about a year so i decided to stop checking for nitrate's since it would automatically come down without any water changes what so ever (i usually clean the sponges and use a lot of bio media) so i stopped doing water changes altogether and it's been doing good for about a year

Tankmates are
3 feet tessalata eel
2 yellow tail damsel's
1 moon wrasse
1 urchin

Just recently I noticed that my 6 month urchin has been losing a little of its spines in a spot but hasn't lost its colour or anything like that, I heard that it could be because of elevated nitrates and it could be that case since my tessalata has had an exceptionally messy feeding recently but i wasn't too troubled since I used a 5 micron filter sock

Is there any concerns?

Test your water maybe. Losing spines isn’t a good sign.

 

[Garf]

My tank is a 210 gallon about 1.5 to 2 years old, it was going harmoniously for about a year so i decided to stop checking for nitrate's since it would automatically come down without any water changes what so ever (i usually clean the sponges and use a lot of bio media) so i stopped doing water changes altogether and it's been doing good for about a year

Tankmates are
3 feet tessalata eel
2 yellow tail damsel's
1 moon wrasse
1 urchin

Just recently I noticed that my 6 month urchin has been losing a little of its spines in a spot but hasn't lost its colour or anything like that, I heard that it could be because of elevated nitrates and it could be that case since my tessalata has had an exceptionally messy feeding recently but i wasn't too troubled since I used a 5 micron filter sock

Is there any concerns?

Is there anything for it to eat?

 

[OrionN]

Nitrogen cycle in our fish tank result in nitrogenous waste escapes as NO2 to the atmosphere but almost all other waste build up, especially phosphates. Fish are not anywhere as sensitive as invert but water change is need.
I don’t know is you have a sand bed or not but your tank exhibits the typical course of a DSB tank that crash. “Everything seem great” and nitrates measured at 0. Owner start to neglected on maintenance, then the tank crash. No amount of water change will help except removal/replace and f the DSB.
Thấy may be what happen in your tank. Build up od micronutrients and depletion of needed trace elements.

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Test your water maybe. Losing spines isn’t a good sign.

I see, the nitrates was around 20 ppm which is normal, I believe that the nitrates had gotten high due to my eels exceptional feeding mess but now it's gotten back to normal and I believe that my urchin as aswell!

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Is there anything for it to eat?

I did not feed the urchin like i manually do for a week, it's a carnivorous urchin which acts as a cleaner crew for my eel, i did not feed my eel for a week like how I usually do every by month just to clear my eels digestive tract, though I usually feed the urchin Nori and clams

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Nitrogen cycle in our fish tank result in nitrogenous waste escapes as NO2 to the atmosphere but almost all other waste build up, especially phosphates. Fish are not anywhere as sensitive as invert but water change is need.
I don’t know is you have a sand bed or not but your tank exhibits the typical course of a DSB tank that crash. “Everything seem great” and nitrates measured at 0. Owner start to neglected on maintenance, then the tank crash. No amount of water change will help except removal/replace and f the DSB.
Thấy may be what happen in your tank. Build up od micronutrients and depletion of needed trace elements.

I believe that the depletion of micronutrients and trace elements are needed for plants and corals but I only have fish in my aquarium

As for the build up of nutrients such as phosphates, I use a refugium and because of that I don't have problems with phosphates and if nutrients are needed i usually just feed my eel more and the issues gets solved

And yes I do have a sand bed!

As for the build up of fish waste, i usually clean the detritus in the sump aswell as in the canister filter about every 1 to 2 months