Opinions on Urchins

So I made an impulse buy the other day, I was at Reef Runners and they had a pink pincushion urchin and my wife really wanted it, so I bought it for her.  Now don't get me wrong, it's really cool, very active, and very colorful, and the misses loves it!  But, here comes the frustration, he gets all wrapped up in my macro algae at least once a day, and he has a tendency to sit on top of my corals, especially my button polyps.   I know they are supposed to be reef safe, but I'm really starting to wonder about it.  Is this okay for my corals, or is it hurting them?  Anyone have experience with urchins?

Worst case scenario, I could toss him in my nano, they're aren't any corals in there. 

Let me know what you think.

Thank,

Tim

Shane H wrote: I'm not a big fan of urchins in aquariums. They have a tendency to bull doze everything, many eat coralline, and most are not overly attractive.   But .... if the wife likes it --> you may be stuck.

Edited by bbauman - February 14 2007 at 11:35am

i have a pincushion (sp?) sea urchin in my tank and they sure do like to bull dozing things.  i personally like them in my tank because people come and think that it is so cool.  i had my urchin in time out for about 2 months because it kept carrying my corals around on its back so i gave the corals time to grip the rock and i haven't had a problem yet and it has been a few weeks now but you never know they are kinda a pain because you have to babysit them every now and then.  i don't know if you wanna put it in your nano because you would have the same problem unless you put him in a sump or something where your wife could still enjoy it yet keep him away from other things.  mine grazed on my macro algea but it was all good. 

Will that was my experience with my pencil urchin.  He did a great job and was on coraline eating maching except he did too great a job on my rocks!  I eventually donated him to a worthy cause.