Urchin Dying? High Nitrates!

laverda · Dec 17, 2020

I ave five different urchins in my tank for at least 3 years with nitrates 20-25 most of that time. For a while they were around 50, but I installed an ATS to lower them. Then they dropped to zero and none of my corals were happy. So I reduced my light schedule on my ATS until they went back up to 20.

homer1475 · Dec 17, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
.25 is a NORM and 5 would be high for them.

What?
Levels that low are asking for dino's. This thinking of ULNS really needs to die.

I purposely keep my nitrates in the 8 to 10 range. All 3 of my urchins are just fine and have been for years.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 17, 2020

homer1475 said:
What?
Levels that low are asking for dino's. This thinking of ULNS really needs to die.

I purposely keep my nitrates in the 8 to 10 range. All 3 of my urchins are just fine and have been for years.

It varies with urchin type and type of livestock as to nitrate and phosphate levels that are acceptable

Silent · Dec 17, 2020

homer1475 said:
What?
Levels that low are asking for dino's. This thinking of ULNS really needs to die.

I purposely keep my nitrates in the 8 to 10 range. All 3 of my urchins are just fine and have been for years.

This thinking of your way is the right way needs to go away. Reefers have great success in many different ways.

homer1475 · Dec 17, 2020

Silent said:
This thinking of your way is the right way needs to go away. Reefers have great success in many different ways.

My way of thinking? Never said that, just that ULNS way of thinking needs to die off.

We all know ULNS doesn't work and the hobby is slowly getting away from it.

Kind of funny seeing as everyone in this thread that responded has nitrate all over the place, but all are over 0.25 and all of their livestock, including urchins is just fine.

So I guess it's not right to point out blatantly wrong posts anymore? And we should just let wrong information be posted?

Yup sorry, unless they remove me from these boards, it's never going to happen.

Silent · Dec 17, 2020

There are many beautiful and successful tanks that are ULN. Not everyone wants to maintain the typical 5-10 nitrate 0.03 phosphate.
Success can be had outside of those ranges. Even urchins.

SMSREEF · Dec 17, 2020

For sure some absolutely gorgeous tanks that are ULN but IMO the system doesn’t work for me.

I also think it’s not really a great goal for someone just starting a tank because they normally don’t have enough fish with enough water volume. So low nutrients get used up and quickly and go to 0, which I think we all can agree is not good for corals and algae.

I think people with larger tanks with large fish and a lot of corals can get away with low nutrients And have great results because they have a nonstop supply of ammonia to keep the corals and algae happy with enough nitrogen. They also have enough phosphate going in with all the food they feed.

IMO it’s harder for a new tank to succeed with a NO3 of 0.5 and PO4 of 0.01 than with a goal of NO3 5-10 and PO4 0.05-0.1. The latter gives a lot more room for error. And most of us need that extra room for error.

Yellow17165161 · Dec 17, 2020

Thanks again everyone! I like reading everyone’s opinions on these things. So far the urchin has been good, and eating a lot. He is wearing the hair algae as opposed to eating it but hopefully he gets the rest and I can manually remove the hair algae!

Thales · Dec 17, 2020

Great. If you have long algae, pull it out yourself. U\rnchins often have a hard time with long algae, but can eat it when it is cropped

SMSREEF · Dec 18, 2020

@Thales makes a good point. There are very few CUC members that like long hair algae. But if you remove the long stuff they will eat the new growth.

If you can, remove the rocks one at a time and scrub the hair algae off next time you do a water change, scrub the long algae off in your waste saltwater from the water change.

If you can’t remove the rocks, You can order some plastic eyebrow brushes to twirl the long algae and remove it.

pezcadoazul · Oct 14, 2023

burningmime said:
Nyos is supposably the best for Nitrate since it's easy to read and quick. But I've used Red Sea forever and haven't had any issues.

I agree that the Nyos test is easy to read but I find the powered reagents difficult to use. It is difficult to level them in the measuring spoon with some powder flying into the air. I also find the Api test difficult to read - what lighting is ideal and exactly how should the test tube be placed with respect to the colored test card?

pezcadoazul · Apr 20, 2024

blaxsun said:
My nitrates once spiked to over 100 (yes, 100 - not a typo) in an IM Atoll tank, and it took me several months to bring it back down below 10. During this time my three urchins not only survived - but thrived (no lost spines, nothing). They're still doing fine 6 months later in their new Fusion Lagoon. I share this not as a recommendation, but just an observation that high nitrates will not always immediately start killing things (you should always take corrective action, though).

There is a lot of talk here about nitrates. No posts that I have seen have mentioned ammonia or nitrite. Many marine species can tolerate quite high levels of nitrate (which is derived from nitrite which, in turn is derived from ammonia). If the nitrifying pathway is overwhelmed and ammonia goes up, there will be problems.