Algae Scrubber Or A Refugium With Chaeto

[ZoaAddiction81]

I was thinking about buying a Santa Monica Algae Scrubber or a Aquamaxx hang on fuge what’s everybody else using out there ?

 

[andrewey]

There are pros and cons to each. I'm currently running a HOB fuge I built, but I've run both the santa montica and CPR in the past. Properly run, they will both work for nutrient export.

On this particular setup, I chose a refugium for the ability to have a refuge for my pods and a physical location for maturing frag plugs.

 

[ZoaAddiction81]

Thanks for the info I’m leaning towards a refugium so far. I feel since i started using Red Sea Reef Energy A&B my sand started to break out with cyano and brown algae on the glass I need to get some nutrients back out. I’ve been dosing less than what they said seems to work but not worth the algae breakout..

 

[andrewey]

It's very possible that it's your nutrients. I would test the levels of your phosphate and nitrate. Either a refugium or scrubber should be able to help bring those down, although make sure you've considered other nutrient export methods- pick the one that works best for your tank, your budget, and your enjoyment :)

 

[lordraptor1]

scrubber imho, i had a fuge with cheato and cheato didnt grow and hair algae started popping up in the DT. i still have the cheato in a fuge but it is still as it was on day one, however i added an algae scrubber 4 weeks ago ( as of the upcoming monday) and the hair algae in the dt is almost gone, cyano bacteria is staying gone now ( long story short i started my tank with dr tims one and only and got cyano on day 2 which just kept multiplying forcing the use of cyano rx). in just 5 days the algae in my turbo aquatics l2 rev 4 is already covering the screen. i will say that to date though nitrates are still at 160PPM according to my personal test kit and petcos test strips so im thinking of letting the turf scrubber go a little longer before harvest