merlin0883
Thu, 6th Sep 2007, 09:19 PM
I acquired my 55gal from a friend who moved. Much live rock. It went to **** (massive overfeeding and no water changes, courtesy of my friend's brother who knows nothing). I cleaned it up, got rid of the volitan, and it is now a decent reef tank. The sand is too fine, and is causing dead spots on live rock(lower 2-4inches). The next 4 inches from bottom, covered in maroon, velvety algae, which many have diagnosed as cyanobacteria. The upper layer growing coraline algea well. Everyone says nothing will eat the red algae. "Improve flow", and "reduce nitrates", which, by the way, I could still use a little advice on. However, on a whim, I purchased a small long spine urchin. He mowes through the red algae. I have been told by many that they will not touch it. He loves it. To anyone with cyano problems, it's very much worth a shot. He does, as well, mowe through the coraline algae, or any other type he comes upon(such as green and hair), but, I know for a fact that the coraline will not grow where the red already resides. I figure I can cut my losses of the coraline, as long as he makes way for new. Just a general recommendation. If anyone thinks otherwise, please let me know why. I was afraid of him knocking over frags and damaging my zoas, but he actually remove hair algae from their stalks, and now they show off with much more vigor, I guess since they are now without the free-loading algae. Also, it excreted large round pellets from its cloaca. Are these eggs, or just urchin poo? If they are eggs, does anyone know if urchins store sperm, in which case there may be a possibility of them being fertile?