Algae refugium? Reactor? Scrubber

[centexhunter]

I was battling GHA too, microbactor clean for 4 weeks now and starting to get under control. Takes time and daily dosing but it is working

 

[VintageReefer]

According to avast 1 minute of feeding should be close to 1 cube of frozen food. I never checked them in that. But seems a reasonable estimation. I might have to consider selling my turf scrubber and get a surf 4. I'm tired of cleaning the canvas every week plus the acrylic insert. I neglected it one week and had the gate valve on it set too open actually overflowed onto the floor because the algae was plugging the main and emergency drain. So much easier to train someone else on cleaning this while on vacation.

That was part of the main draw to the surf for me when I first bought it. It is impossible to leak. If it was to get backed up or anything it just overflows into the sump.

I’ve neglected the surf for weeks and when I opened it, it was just packed with algae and the top layer was white from being too close to the leds. Scooped out a big handful and it was back in business

I’ve also had my air pump die twice. This is unique for the surf because it does not use a water pump. The air pump provides the flow and oxygen. And both times my air pump died I didn’t realize it…the algae stays submerged. The lights remain working. It just doesn’t filter water as their is no flow. However my algae colony remained healthy and I didn’t need to start over.

If the pump died on a screen one all that algae would dry out and die

 

[Treefer32]

That was part of the main draw to the surf for me when I first bought it. It is impossible to leak. If it was to get backed up or anything it just overflows into the sump.

I’ve neglected the surf for weeks and when I opened it, it was just packed with algae and the top layer was white from being too close to the leds. Scooped out a big handful and it was back in business

I’ve also had my air pump die twice. This is unique for the surf because it does not use a water pump. The air pump provides the flow and oxygen. And both times my air pump died I didn’t realize it…the algae stays submerged. The lights remain working. It just doesn’t filter water as their is no flow. However my algae colony remained healthy and I didn’t need to start over.

If the pump died on a screen one all that algae would dry out and die

Heh, if the pump died on my turf scrubber, I'd have bigger problems... It's plumbed off my return manifold. So, if the pump dies, my entire tank will most likely would die if not given attention in time. That said, my pump is an external reeflo pump. They're trusted workhorses.

However, I agree, the ability to just grab some algae out of the surf every few days and move on. Seems really attractive. I suspect I would need two surf 4s though and that would just over what I paid for my Turbo Aquatics scrubber. Cost is definitely a factor in this hobby! (as well as maintenance time!)