Evil Red Turf Algae

[Integral9]

I have a short spine or rock urchin that took care of my red turf algae problem. it has longer spines than a tuxedo, but not as long or as needle like as the typical long spine urchin has. They seem to be getting harder to find.

 

here is a pic and article: http://www.aquariumslife.com/urchins/short-spined-urchin-echinometre-lacunter/

 

I fricken love this thing. Eats everything; poop, algea, coraline, basically anything that gets in it's way except corals. The only problem with it is the spines are fricken strong as H-E-double hockey sticks and he's been known to pop corals off rocks that weren't really well glued down. He's also really hard to pull out of a corner... you might as well forget about that and just wait until it's on a wall or out in the open to move it or you'll break plenty of spines.

[sen5241b]

I have a short spine or rock urchin that took care of my red turf algae problem. it has longer spines than a tuxedo, but not as long or as needle like as the typical long spine urchin has. They seem to be getting harder to find.

 

here is a pic and article: http://www.aquariumslife.com/urchins/short-spined-urchin-echinometre-lacunter/

 

I fricken love this thing. Eats everything; poop, algea, coraline, basically anything that gets in it's way except corals. The only problem with it is the spines are fricken strong as H-E-double hockey sticks and he's been known to pop corals off rocks that weren't really well glued down. He's also really hard to pull out of a corner... you might as well forget about that and just wait until it's on a wall or out in the open to move it or you'll break plenty of spines.

 

 

I may have to find one of these short spined.

[Coral Hind]

If you use the cheap stuff from Home Depot or the expensive stuff with the fancy label, it's all the same chemical composition. People are more comfortable buying a premixed product than simply mixing it themselves.

 

How do you know it is all the same chemical composition??

 

 

just get a Zebrasoma tang

 

Agreed

[bluefunelement]

well I picked up a 5 pack of emerald crabs and another turbo from Roozens today

their urchins were $30 so I'll do that next - if the clean up crew doesn't clean the rock it's time to boil it and turn it into base rock

since I started with 75% base rock a year ago in that tank and got up to 75% coralline coverage in 6months I am not concerned in going that route.

[MBVette]

just get a Zebrasoma tang

 

Stop recommending the tang. He has a 29g tank that can no way support a tang let alone the sailfin that you want him to get.

[rocko918]

Stop recommending the tang. He has a 29g tank that can no way support a tang let alone the sailfin that you want him to get.

ah another myth thrown out there. You can successfully keep a tang in a small tank.

 

At some point most fish out grow our tanks anyway. Yes there will be a point where he would have to remove the tang.

 

ALSO i never recommend a sailfin, i said my scopas tang did an awesome job on it.

 

I still say get a zeb. tang, most likely he will eat it all in a month and he can resell the tang.

[bluefunelement]

Well all tangs aside

my emerald crabs are tearing it up