Rock Boring Urchins?

Went to WaikikI Aquarium recently. There was a behind-the-scenes tour where you can learn about different marine inverts. One of them that interested me was the rock boring urchins.

https://www.waikikiaquarium.org/exp...invertebrates/echinoderms/rock-boring-urchin/

I heard they eat A LOT of algae, which my 10 gallon reef currently has. I also like to touch them (they "hug" your fingers). Are rock-boring urchins available in the trade? If they are, are they reef safe, and can they go in my 10 gallon?

 

They call it by another name on live aquaria but yes it does look like it's available in the hobby:



10 gallons IMHO is too small for them since LA has it listed for 20 gallons or more. So I would hold out for your 75 gallon tans for one of those. Are you getting hair algae problems in your 10 gallon? What light schedule are you running? How often and what are you feeding?

 

There's not that much hair algae. The main algae I'm battling is cyanobacteria. I'm kind of winning the battle, but they always seem to bounce back.

There's also two tiny aiptasia on my Zoanthid frag rock.

 

Get Aiptasia X and kill them quickly or they will spread like wild fire and possibly kill off your corals as well. Aiptasia X works well when there are just a couple of them and they are small as they treat Aiptasia X as food (kind of like a Mouse views D-Con) and they ingest it and get poisoned basically from the inside out and it prevents them from releasing spores and spreading. I would treat these first before the Cyano.

As for the Cyano, NOTHING will eat it as it's technically not algae but a build up of unwanted bacteria. Reduced feeding, increased flow and water changes will generally fix Cyano. What filtration are you running on your tank and what kind of powerhead with flow ratings? How often are you changing the water and how much are you changing and are you using RODI water?

If all else fails with Cyano you can use Chemiclean as it will clear it up for you. You just have to increase oxygen flow to your water (ie pointing your powerhead up at the surface to get lots of agitation and possibly running a bubbler (one of the few times I would recommend using one in a marine tank).

 

I have no powerhead. I'm just running on a Aquaclear 20. Just did a water change. I am using RODI water. I just did a water change. I also should feed less.

 

You definitely need a powerhead in there even if it's only a 180gph. Lack of flow is a big part of your problem. You have nothing simulating underwater current in your tank.