Yepper. You are at the beginning of the life of a tank. As the lights go on, you will go through different algal blooms. Hopefully they are short lived, but they are like zits. Some seem to get them worse than others. A very slow methodical stocking with regular monitoring/water changes helps avoid feeding algae.
I try to make sure that my CUC gets a piece of something (shrimp/scallop etc) once a week or 10 days. I deliver the goods in a "3 pack" because the fish, urchin and CUC all fight. I give them each one. However my CUC consists of a bundle of hermit crabs.
I am no expert in snails, but I do know some prefer sand, and some prefer not. I have had great success with mexican turbo snails, however they do knock over things like corals and rocks as they get larger. I usually keep 2-3 turbos, 6-10 random smaller snails and about a dozen hermits in a 40 breeder. I hate/hate to prefer my urchin for cleaning up algae. The thing eats algae all day long and poops white dots out. It is an amazing algae eater.....but then you see that it is carrying around coral frags, rocks and a few snails. IF your rockwork is solid, and your corals are affixed the urchin is a great member of the cuc.
