What urchin to get?

[Notsolostfish]

Very thick coraline algae 2 and a half years old tank, cant keep up cleaning

 

[Cthulukelele]

In my experience urchins much preferred coralline on my rocks. The most consistent coralline muncher I had was a pincushion urchin

 

[Notsolostfish]

In my experience urchins much preferred coralline on my rocks. The most consistent coralline muncher I had was a pincushion urchin

They dont bother corals?

 

[Cthulukelele]

They dont bother corals?

They can. Essentially all urchins can. The least likely are probably tuxedo urchins, but they're all essentially spikey baseballs of condensed muscle that can bowl over anything in their way with sharp teeth that can bare through most coral if starving

 

[JumboShrimp]

Our 24-gallon office tank had become an absolute algae nightmare. I added 1 Turbo Snail, 1 Tuxedo Urchin, and 1 Sea Hare all at once. Within 2-3 weeks, we had to start FEEDING algae pellets and daily Nori. (I finally brought the Sea Hare back to the LFS-- it had become a 6" monster.)

 

[fandaga]

I have 2 tuxedo and 2 pincushion in a 47 g AIO and almost no coralline from them on the glass. There’s a few spots they don’t get immediately. On the rocks they can’t eat the algae if it’s not accessible because the pores are too small.

Out of the two types, the tuxedo stay smaller and are probably more robust. Pincushion seem to be a bit better at eating algae. Neither one have eaten any corals. For pincushion, I’d recommend buying them as small as possible since they seem to be hardier for introducing to the tank.

Besides them, I’d strongly recommend avoiding pencil urchins which are a PITA.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I have 2 tuxedo and 2 pincushion in an 47 g AIO and almost no coralline from them on the glass. There’s a few spots they don’t get immediately. On the rocks they can’t eat the algae if it’s not accessible because the pores are too small.

Out of the two types, the tuxedo stay smaller and are probably more robust. Pincushion seem to be a bit better at eating algae. Neither one have eaten any corals. For pincushion, I’d recommend buying them as small as possible since they seem to be hardier for introducing to the tank.

Besides them, I’d strongly recommend avoiding pencil urchins which are a PITA.

Seconding pencil urchins being something you never want. I've seen it eat pretty much anything its mouth can touch if it's a little hungry and just destroy stuff. I've had tuxedos munch on a carribean gorgonian I had, but I never had a pincushion eat any coral--just knock it over.

Also didn't happen to me but a local reefer I trust said they lost several sleeping fish to a rogue pencil urchins and caught it in the act