WARNING!!!! NOT A POLITICALLY CORRECT POST!!!!!
No it's not worth it.
We did this back in the day, learned our lessons, licked our wounds, and moved on.
Then people figured out they could make money from it, and now ATS's are back.
People with a dissenting voice, and no real dog in this fight, like myself, have been drowned out by those making money, who have a vested interest in promoting these things.
They claim that the "new" ATS's are different than those of old. No they're not. Nothing fundamental has changed. They're still based on the
exact same chemistry and biology that they always were. Growing algae on vertical surfaces, and using red LED's doesn't change this fact.
They claim that the algae can't, or won't, migrate from the scrubber to the tank, but I've never heard of anyone supplying a starter culture to their ATS. The algae simply migrates from other areas of the system to the scrubber, but they want you to believe there's some magical force field that keeps it from leaving the scrubber, and moving to the display........
They pick and choose the science that supports their cause, while ignoring the overwhelming body of evidence that doesn't. They say that ATS's provide "organic food" to the display. While ignoring the fact that this "organic food" is the same stuff that turns your water yellow, increases the overall nutrient content of our glass boxes, and enables the algae to spread and conquer new territory.
They claim that we can use GAC, mechanical filtration, and protein skimmers to remove allelopathic chemicals, dies, and solid organic particle produced by the ATS. IMHO, if we have to employ real filtration to clean up the mess produced by the ATS, maybe the ATS isn't quite as efficient as they claim it to be.
With things like this, where people are intentionally, or simply through being misinformed, promoting bad science, it's typically those of us that keep the most delicate species that see the negative effects first. This latest ATS craze has been out for a while now, and the negative effects have started to show themselves despite the loud voices of those who support, and make money from ATS's. At first, many different types of hobbyists jumped on the bandwagon and installed ATS's. Everyone from SPS keepers to FO. Now, we can go to the SPS section of any forum board like this and see that ATS's have fallen out of favor with these hobbyists. Naturally, there's still a few die hard stragglers, but for the most part, SPS keepers have once again, learned their lessons, licked their wounds, and moved on. If ATS's are the magical filtration devices they're claimed to be, shouldn't it be those that require the cleanest water that are praising them and shouting from the roof tops how great they are????
Hopefully, some day sooner than later, people will see the truth, and these things will return to the trash heap of the hobby, where they once were, along side DSB's, and the Eco Aqualizer, where they belong.
Peace
and good luck with your system
EC
.
