Urchins...

[Jeppeterpan]

Thinking of putting an urchin or two in my 75 gallon mixed reef....was wondering what kind you have and your personal experience w them...thanks!

 

[Degener8]

Urchins in general are very finicky with changes in water quality. Acclimate then VERY SLOWLY so they have time to adjust. Make sure your parameters are in check.. especially nitrates. They really don't like nitrates or quick nitrate changes. I lost a beautiful pink urchine because I acclimated him to fast and afterwards.. I found out for some reason I had a nitrate spike it was up to 40 ppm .. still not sure why. So use caution acclimating them.

I had an urchin years back and he was a great addition to the tank always cleaning and pickin stuff up I loved him. I will get another but only after viligant checking of my parameters.

 

[Jeppeterpan]

Thanks for sharing your experience Degenr8. My nitrates are 0 so shouldn't have issues in that department. How bout munching on corals? I have Lps and a ton of sps....I've heard as long as there's coralline or some type of algae, you shouldn't have issues. When the algae's gone, you use seeweed sheets....

 

[capt85]

I never had a problem keeping my black short spine alive but it knocked a lot of stuff over. If you have lots of spare room they are a great addition but if your tank is full I wouldn't.

 

[Degener8]

Some urchins will mow over some corals its really a case by case basis kinda like peppermint shrimp or emeralds etc.. you hear good and bad all the time.
They are herbivores by nature so coraline and any other algae for that matter in the tank should keep em happy. They do like to disguise themselves so if you dont want your frags picked up and moved around.. tie em down..LOL

Yes once the tank is nice and clean Nori is a good suppliment as with many herbivores.

Nitrate is only one of the things that urchins don't like.. PH and alk swings during acclimation are also to be considered along with temp etc. When i buy another urchin I am going to ask the store i buy from to write their parameters down. The farther apart mine are from theirs (which i hope will be almost none) the longer the acclimation should take. Urchins are like over 80% water or something like that. I guess my long winded point is to take it slow with urchins..LOL

 

[MadR33fer]

My long spiney urchins are hands down the best cleaners in my reef tank. They grow extremely fast too.

 

[gofor100]

I've had good experiences with tuxedo urchins... pretty decent at not knocking over corals and a good herbivore. I like the Blue (with red spines) Tuxedo Urchin.

Good luck!

-Chad

 

[UFreefer]

My long spiney urchins are hands down the best cleaners in my reef tank. They grow extremely fast too.

I agree, one of my urchins eats more algae then probably all of my crabs and snails combined

 

[k2parkstar]

I've had good experiences with tuxedo urchins... pretty decent at not knocking over corals and a good herbivore. I like the Blue (with red spines) Tuxedo Urchin.

Good luck!

-Chad

I like the blue tuxedo's as well. Just as mentioned by others make sure your frags are properly secured as urchins are notorious for moving your stuff around.

 

[jonbar1]

Used to have a baby Diadema (long spine) and when he was small enough to fit in the tank it was the only time all my Caulerpa disappeared. It was the best tank cleaner I ever had but got too big and was moved to a FOWLR after a few months. As long as all your corals are secured well to the rock you're fine. If not, expensive corals tend to land on top of more aggressive corals for some reason.