Pincushions vs Coraline

Staghorn · Sep 11, 2021

So I restarted the tank about a year ago or so. I’ve always had amazing coraline growth and I’m a creature of habit and follow the same protocol for all my tanks. It was really driving me crazy why even though I had considerable coraline growth on some old rock in my aquarium I wasn’t getting any growth on the glass (which I know can be a blessing), I was mainly just worried if maybe something was wrong even though my SPS have been encrusting and growing. So about two months ago I removed two pin cushion urchins that were about 1 1/2” diameter they had grown so large they were bulldozing a lot of my frag‘s. I went on vacation and have been super busy at work so the tank was kind of at the bottom of the list. When I’m cleaning the glass a few days ago I realize there is a lot of Coraline growing on the glass and new Coraline growing on some of the rocks. Coincidently this is the first time I have ever put urchins in my aquarium. I’m sure there’s a ton of factors at play here and every situation would be different but I definitely think the urchins were possibly keeping the new coraline from taking hold.

Mr Cypher · Sep 11, 2021

not an expert by any means but in doing research I found urchins eat the hell out of coraline seen lots of vids about it

blaxsun · Sep 11, 2021

I wish they’d eat the hell out of my coraline. Would save me a lot of scraping...

Mr Cypher · Sep 11, 2021

lol you got the pickiest urchin ever lol

X-37B · Sep 11, 2021

Yep I have 2. The whole back wall and bottom was covered. In went the urchins and out went the coralline.
90+% of my rock is covered in corals so they have nowhere else to eat it.
Here is the bottom a year ago and a fts now. I still have coralline on the back as it grows pretty fast in my system.
They are coralline lawnmowers.

blaxsun · Sep 11, 2021

Mr Cypher said:
lol you got the pickiest urchin ever lol

Urchin(s). Tell me about it. I’ve got a pair of tuxedos that never leave the rock, so there must be good eating there. I got a pair of green urchins to work on the sides of the tank - yep, onto the rocks.