Algae Scrubber and refugium, same/same or different?

[atoll]

I cant smell mine. Even my wife who has a much sharper sense of smell cant smell it. I can smell if I put my nose right on the screen but it's not a bad smell. Now there are different types of algae that grow on the screen depending on nutrients. High nutrients tend to grow dark (brown/black) algae and that may have a smell to it. @atoll posted his screen that grows ulva. I've never had ulva grown on my screen. I can only wish. Only green hair algae and a little bit of what looks like chaeto on a corner of my screen.

I had to seed Ulva to grow on my screen. I got my first lot of Ulva intestinalis from a guy who uses an ATS and uses natural seawater in his tropical tank for water changes. He didn't know what the algae was that simply appeared on the screen untill he sent me some and I found out what it was. Ulva intestinalis grows in shallow waters in many countries inc the North and NW USA. It is very versatile and can grow in full seawater or brackish. It is also very easy to grow and can do so at a phenomenal rate along with the resultant nuitrent takeup.

 

[atoll]

With fuge only smell it when harvesting. With ats smell it anytime I open cabinet. Guess it depends on what type of algae is growing, as well as ats design, but that has been my experience. Also my experience that it takes more than 5 minutes to clean them, weekly. Unlike a fuge which is much less often.
think this thread has made it clear how ppl who have ats will stand up for them.
Also think both ats and fuges have pros and cons, that anyone with a brain can read through this thread and make their own decision.

People will stand up for what they believe in and what works best for them fuge or ATS and why not. My harvesting takes me 5 mins. One day I may do a video so people can check and see how I do it. Each to their own as I have said and even if there is a little smell in the cabinet so what? Its hardly strong and hardly noticeable. Now if the smell was in the room that would be a problem. However with modern enclosed designs you shouldn't smell anything in the room nor hear any sound from it unless you have the ears of a bat and nose of a bloodhound...... you don't do you?
There are pluses and minuses with both you have to weigh up the pros and cons of each and decide which is best for you. That I assume we can both agree on.

 

[S2G]

I had to seed Ulva to grow on my screen. I got my first lot of Ulva intestinalis from a guy who uses an ATS and uses natural seawater in his tropical tank for water changes. He didn't know what the algae was that simply appeared on the screen untill he sent me some and I found out what it was. Ulva intestinalis grows in shallow waters in many countries inc the North and NW USA. It is very versatile and can grow in full seawater or brackish. It is also very easy to grow and can do so at a phenomenal rate along with the resultant nuitrent takeup.

This is interesting info. I was looking into this and all i found is lactuca not intestinalis. I haven't decided whether to pull the trigger

 

[Shinister]

I had to seed Ulva to grow on my screen. I got my first lot of Ulva intestinalis from a guy who uses an ATS and uses natural seawater in his tropical tank for water changes. He didn't know what the algae was that simply appeared on the screen untill he sent me some and I found out what it was. Ulva intestinalis grows in shallow waters in many countries inc the North and NW USA. It is very versatile and can grow in full seawater or brackish. It is also very easy to grow and can do so at a phenomenal rate along with the resultant nuitrent takeup.

That's what I hear that it's much more efficient. And you can feed it to your fish. Maybe one day I'll get lucky and find someone locally that has it.

 

[LondonJon]

I've had posts deleted by the mods, so I'll refrain from posting in this thread.

@LondonJon
If you are considering the “Triton” method please express. Otherwise it will only complicate getting a straight answer. If there is such a thing in this hobby, lol

I am Not considering Triton method.

 

[atoll]

That's what I hear that it's much more efficient. And you can feed it to your fish. Maybe one day I'll get lucky and find someone locally that has it.

I send much to a lady here in the UK who loves tangs. She rolls it out removing much of the water within then freezes it in sheets. She then just breaks a lump off to feed her fish.

 

[theMeat]

People will stand up for what they believe in and what works best for them fuge or ATS and why not. My harvesting takes me 5 mins. One day I may do a video so people can check and see how I do it. Each to their own as I have said and even if there is a little smell in the cabinet so what? Its hardly strong and hardly noticeable. Now if the smell was in the room that would be a problem. However with modern enclosed designs you shouldn't smell anything in the room nor hear any sound from it unless you have the ears of a bat and nose of a bloodhound...... you don't do you?
There are pluses and minuses with both you have to weigh up the pros and cons of each and decide which is best for you. That I assume we can both agree on.

No, do not have the nose of a bloodhound or ears of a bat. But I am built backwards. Because my nose runs and my feet smell. Oh well

 

[atoll]

This is interesting info. I was looking into this and all i found is lactuca not intestinalis. I haven't decided whether to pull the trigger

Yes Lacuca is commonly known as sea lettuce which although it might be suitable in fact preferable maybe to intestinalis for growing in a sump it isnt for a waterfall ATS. Intestinalis being more string like ( never as thin as GHA) but also grows with wider blades both growth forms grow in my ATS.

 

[atoll]

No, do not have the nose of a bloodhound or ears of a bat. But I am built backwards. Because my nose runs and my feet smell. Oh well

As long as your feet don't run and your nose don't smell..... come to think of it that's exactly what they should do lol.

 

[troublemaker]

Let’s face it, with the size system he is talking about, the ATS or refugium he is going to need will probably be huge. I am assuming a linier bioload and feeding as a smaller tank, more space, more fish, more food. I only have a 30g fuge on a 150g display, which is a mixed bag of macros in the sand, and a huge ball of Chaeto moving around. It works well for me, but I will not say an ATS isn’t an equal or better option.

Do the math on a normal 200g system fed at whatever rate he intends the multiply by ten, I have a feeling either will be bigger than normal. I don’t think space saving is something that comes as a consideration on a tank that size.

 

[S2G]

Yes Lacuca is commonly known as sea lettuce which although it might be suitable in fact preferable maybe to intestinalis for growing in a sump it isnt for a waterfall ATS. Intestinalis being more string like ( never as thin as GHA) but also grows with wider blades both growth forms grow in my ATS.

Well in my case i was looking at it for a fuge. On paper it seems to be a good candidate to replace chaeto. Int would be really neat in an ats.

 

[Hyde2406]

Think it should also be mentioned to anyone considering a scrubber that there is a smell associated with a waterfall style scrubber. As well, when algae gets thick enough on screen there is splashing noise caused by water falling off algae higher up the screen, instead of it rolling down to bottom as when screen is cleaner

This is why I have a santa monica up flow scrubber, it's small and fits into my 9 gallon sump along with my skimmer. The up flow model is under water so no smell. But they are for smaller tanks. I'm actually running 2 scrubbers I feed a minimum of 2 cubes a day and need 2 so they can keep up. I've been using an upflow scrubber for the last eight years and I'll never run a tank without one. I've tried refugiums in the past I could never keep cheto alive plus I had enough room in a 55 gallon sump. I wouldn't run them both at the same time because they're going to compete for the same nutrients. I think running both would defeat the purpose of each application.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Oh. You sell scrubbers. Makes sense now

Wrong again.

You must sell refugiums.

 

[Fourstars]

They both do the same thing.

ATS takes up way less space, but is the most overpriced piece of equip for what you get imo unless you build your own. ATS is also a decent amount of maintenance involved. Very efficient nutrient control once you get it going.

A chaeto fuge is the lowest maintenance nutrient export I can think of. It does take up a decent amount of space. Not overly huge, but no where near as compact as an ats. The only problem ive had is if I don't use powerful lighting with the right config then a red slime or something takes hold which is a pain to get chaeto back dominate.

If you keep it tumbling and trimmed it when it stops it won’t grow slime. Needs lots of flow. After I trim I rinse the ball in fresh water an H2O2.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I cant smell mine. Even my wife who has a much sharper sense of smell cant smell it. I can smell if I put my nose right on the screen but it's not a bad smell. Now there are different types of algae that grow on the screen depending on nutrients. High nutrients tend to grow dark (brown/black) algae and that may have a smell to it. @atoll posted his screen that grows ulva. I've never had ulva grown on my screen. I can only wish. Only green hair algae and a little bit of what looks like chaeto on a corner of my screen.

I've never had bad odour from my scrubber either. Why would fresh healthy growing algae smell bad??? Quite the opposite.

Some macro algaes smell when they wash up on land, laying in the sun, desiccating & dying

 

[atoll]

Wrong again.

You must sell refugiums.

lol

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I had to seed Ulva to grow on my screen. I got my first lot of Ulva intestinalis from a guy who uses an ATS and uses natural seawater in his tropical tank for water changes.

Ulva seeded naturally on my screens as well & I use NSW when I do a water change. Have had a couple of species of Ulva that grow, couldn't quite identify them though. Never saw any Ulva growing in the tank previously to installing the scrubber though, funny enough.
Ulva could also come into the system to seed the screen from using live rock, or perhaps on a piece of coral.

 

[S2G]

If you keep it tumbling and trimmed it when it stops it won’t grow slime. Needs lots of flow. After I trim I rinse the ball in fresh water an H2O2.

I'm using it sandwiched between eggcrate. It worked great in the past but now it's in a dirtier part of the sump. It was booming before my ufo light went out and switched to the newer taotronics bulb.

I think I need to switch to a triton configuration and do what you described

 

[hart24601]

They both do the same thing.

ATS takes up way less space, but is the most overpriced piece of equip for what you get imo unless you build your own. ATS is also a decent amount of maintenance involved. Very efficient nutrient control once you get it going.

A chaeto fuge is the lowest maintenance nutrient export I can think of. It does take up a decent amount of space. Not overly huge, but no where near as compact as an ats. The only problem ive had is if I don't use powerful lighting with the right config then a red slime or something takes hold which is a pain to get chaeto back dominate.

This is pretty much what I think too. Spot on. There are plenty of anecdotes about either types not working for some people, myself included, and lots of people that are passionate about both types. I will say that for most people now when we say fuge we are talking about a macro algae fuge, historically other more complex types of fuges were popular, but when comparing the two we are mostly talking about macro fuge.

Pros and cons of each.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I would normally do it every 7 days and takes me about 5 minutes, no big deal.

I normally clean my screen every 7 to 8 days. I feed the fish once or twice a day.
When I use to run a protein skimmer I would need to clean the cup & neck twice a week.
Maintenance is just part of owning an aquarium, or having any other pet.