Urchin To Tackle Algae?

[seahorsejl]

I have read from a couple people's posts here that they have used urchins (long spine in particular I think) to tackle hair algae, and am thinking about trying it.

 

I have tackled the initial reasons for getting the hair algae (to the determent of my tank in one case). Got rid of a boat load of nutrients (organic matter on/under rocks - this crashed my tank by also removing all oxygen one night ), switched to RO/DI water (from tap water... I know bad, bad, bad), and added a skimmer. I have a phosphate test kit coming today, but my guess is at this point the phosphates are 0.

 

The hair algae is no longer growing leaps and bounds, but it not disappearing fast enough.

 

My fleet of hermits, Astrea snails, cerith snails, emerald crab, and sally light foot crab are making some headway, but not a lot.

 

So here is where I was thinking of an urchin. Now I know that some/urchins also like to munch on coraline algae ... that is something I can live with and regrow it, as that seems to grow just fine. I just don't want a rock boring urchin.

 

And the other concern is them knocking around corals ... again, livable to achieve my end goal of a cleaner tank.

 

Thoughts, suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[BibleSue]

I have read from a couple people's posts here that they have used urchins (long spine in particular I think) to tackle hair algae, and am thinking about trying it.

 

I have tackled the initial reasons for getting the hair algae (to the determent of my tank in one case). Got rid of a boat load of nutrients (organic matter on/under rocks - this crashed my tank by also removing all oxygen one night ), switched to RO/DI water (from tap water... I know bad, bad, bad), and added a skimmer. I have a phosphate test kit coming today, but my guess is at this point the phosphates are 0.

 

The hair algae is no longer growing leaps and bounds, but it not disappearing fast enough.

 

My fleet of hermits, Astrea snails, cerith snails, emerald crab, and sally light foot crab are making some headway, but not a lot.

 

So here is where I was thinking of an urchin. Now I know that some/urchins also like to munch on coraline algae ... that is something I can live with and regrow it, as that seems to grow just fine. I just don't want a rock boring urchin.

 

And the other concern is them knocking around corals ... again, livable to achieve my end goal of a cleaner tank.

 

Thoughts, suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

 

Have you tried turbo snails. My new tank was pretty bad. Weetabix7 was shocked when she saw it. She brought 1 of her turbos & I bought one and they did amazing work in no time. She took hers home after a couple of days and came back about a week later, (I was out of town) and had to increase the time the light was on because we were afraid my turbo would run out of stuff to eat.

See thread & pics below.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...amp;hl=BibleSue

[seahorsejl]

Yes, I have a few turbos in there. One did a good job on a portion of the back wall that had a bunch of hair algae on it ... but then he decided to move in elsewhere in the tank (too full I guess .

 

I am not having too good of luck with smaller turbo's lately either.

 

BTW, I did see that in your tank log when I reading it this morning... glad you got it tackled early

[RBuddha]

Im not trying to flame you so please dont take my advice that way.

 

This is one of many posts i see about people with nuisance algae and what people do to deal with it. I do not suggest adding more livestock to a tank in order to deal with hair/bubble/cyano/diatoms etc. These are in your tank because of your water conditions. Trust me i know because ive tried and i've bought lots of emerald crabs to eat bubble algae and heard worthless advice about snails eating cyano which they dont. And even if they do what happens when its all gone? Then your inhabitants you bought to do with it have no food source. Again i stress clean up your water and then you wont have an environment that lets these algaes grow.

[BibleSue]

Im not trying to flame you so please dont take my advice that way.

 

This is one of many posts i see about people with nuisance algae and what people do to deal with it. I do not suggest adding more livestock to a tank in order to deal with hair/bubble/cyano/diatoms etc. These are in your tank because of your water conditions. Trust me i know because ive tried and i've bought lots of emerald crabs to eat bubble algae and heard worthless advice about snails eating cyano which they dont. And even if they do what happens when its all gone? Then your inhabitants you bought to do with it have no food source. Again i stress clean up your water and then you wont have an environment that lets these algaes grow.

I agree. I waited till I was far enough in my cycle and had to deal with it since I would be gone for 10 days. I only had the 1 turbo, 2 small blue legged & 1 shy red legged crab for a CUC. Don't over do & don't rush things. It sounds like you are researching. Research water conditions instead of the algae.

[seahorsejl]

Im not trying to flame you so please dont take my advice that way ...

 

Advice taken in the spirit it is meant .... and that is why I put in the original post that I have corrected the initial reason for getting it. Was just looking for "clean up" solutions. But you do make a good point about what to do after the algae is gone. And I forgot to put in there I was planning on the urchin to be a temporary visitor to the tank. Once the job is done, he can take a ride back to the LFS.

 

But, this thread was mainly looking for opinions (like yours). The end result is maybe I just need to continue being patient and let the current crew due it's job, no matter how painfully slow

[RBuddha]

The hard part of this hobby is that we do work hard to make a beautiful tank and all it takes is some bad water from a grocery store or shotty LFS to send a tank spiraling downward. Much like you would feed a cat healthy cat food its in your best interest to feed a tank the best quality water you can. I had a stint with bubble algae for months from getting crappy live rock and it really angered me because the guy i bought it from services tanks for a living and i have to wonder about the quality of those tanks and what he puts in them. I was burned with safeway distilled water too when their glacier water was out and it took me a good 3 weeks to get cyano out of my tank and i had to decrease my photo period which made my corals suffer as well. Its a delicate balance but in the end you come out a little wiser and hopefully with a great tank