Algae Scrubber vs Refugium

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I've played around with the idea of getting a algae scrubber for my tank since they have become more affordable and common in the hobby, but I already have decent sized refugium that has been set up and established for about a year or so growing dragons breath and grape caulerpa. My biggest concern is that the algae scrubber will not do as well as the refugium, or will need more upkeep and maintenance. To those of you that have experience with both what would you recommend?

 

[exnisstech]

My experience is probably useless because I've found both to be poor at nutrient reduction if that is your goal. I'm sure it's my overfeeding having 9 tangs begging all day. In my 180g with a chaeto fuge harvesting about 1/2 of a 5g bucket every 7-10 days and NO3 was alway 40-50 and PO4 0.4 0.6. I moved to a 330 running a Santa Monica surf4 and a cryptic fuge with all live rock and NO3 is 40-50 and PO4 0.4-0.9. as mentioned I'm sure its my feeding and don't really fret over it because the tank looks fine. If i had to choose one over the other i would choose a macro algae fuge just for the ability of pods to reproduce.
With a surf floating ATS you could probably run both which might be interesting The surf takes seconds to clean and produces a lot of tang food.
Just reach in and pull the algae out. Gloves are recommended if bristle worms bother you lol

 

[saltwaterfish.com Verified Sponsor]

My experience is probably useless because I've found both to be poor at nutrient reduction.l if that is your goal. I'm sure it's my overfeeding having 9 tangs begging all day. In my 180g with a chaeto fuge harvesting about 1/2 of a 5g bucket every 7-10 days and NO3 was alway 40-50 and PO4 0.4 0.6. I moved to a 330 running a Santa Monica surf4 and a cryptic fuge with all live rock and NO3 is 40-50 and PO4 0.4-0.9. as mentioned I'm sure its my feeding and don't really fret over it because the tank looks fine. If i had to choose one over the other i would choose a macro algae fuge just for the ability of pods to reproduce.
With a surf floating ATS you could probably run both which might be interesting The surf takes seconds to clean and produces a lot of tang food.
Just reach in and pull the algae out. Gloves are recommended if bristle worms bother you lol

Awesome advice thank you, I think I will stick with my refugium then for now.

 

[Tangdora]

Team scrubber only because I’m a clean freak and can’t be blasting light all over my sump and later have to deal with scraping algae and coraline off everything. Easier to just remove the scrubber and clean that. The tank itself is enough cleaning

 

[exnisstech]

Team scrubber only because I’m a clean freak and can’t be blasting light all over my sump and later have to deal with scraping algae and coraline off everything. Easier to just remove the scrubber and clean that. The tank itself is enough cleaning

The only time I've cleaned a sump was when I moved to a new tank. I scraped 6 years worth of mulm out and dumped it in the new sump for a jump start. It was full of life.

 

[VintageReefer]

I ran a chaeto fuge for 2 years then added a surf2 scrubber. The chaeto was dead and gone in 4 months. I like scrubbers better because they’re self contained, easy to clean, and easy to adjust. The fuge really isn’t adjustable, but I can change the duration of my scrubber hours to directly raise or lower my nutrient levels

 

[PPBlimpy]

I have ran both and happy with the results. To me it depends on tank size and space availability.

currently running both between my two systems

My big tank with large sump has a dedicated area for a macro chamber, most people call refugium now a days, I also use this chamber as a hospital chamber and if i need to introduce a finicky eating fish to the system. doubling down making this area very useful.

Now on my little tank, a 54g corner with a 10G sump, I had no room with a macro chamber and decided to run an ATS. It works great and actually kept bottoming out my nutrients and have pulled it temporarily to install on the big tank along with the macro chamber to help bring down the nutrients a bit faster.

it will be transferred back shortly.

I do have plans to setup a real old school above tank refugium like we did back in the early 2000s.

Feed from the sump to a refugium above the DT, letting it overflow and flow back into the DT. This will have macro and hopefully mangroves, some CUC and a DSB

 

[Peer.Boerner]

I have ran both and happy with the results. To me it depends on tank size and space availability.

currently running both between my two systems

My big tank with large sump has a dedicated area for a macro chamber, most people call refugium now a days, I also use this chamber as a hospital chamber and if i need to introduce a finicky eating fish to the system. doubling down making this area very useful.

Now on my little tank, a 54g corner with a 10G sump, I had no room with a macro chamber and decided to run an ATS. It works great and actually kept bottoming out my nutrients and have pulled it temporarily to install on the big tank along with the macro chamber to help bring down the nutrients a bit faster.

it will be transferred back shortly.

I do have plans to setup a real old school above tank refugium like we did back in the early 2000s.

Feed from the sump to a refugium above the DT, letting it overflow and flow back into the DT. This will have macro and hopefully mangroves, some CUC and a DSB

Which ATS do you use? I have a similar setup as your small tank and curious to try one.

 

[PPBlimpy]

Which ATS do you use? I have a similar setup as your small tank and curious to try one.

Made my own.
Designed and 3d printed. Straddles a 10g tank

I am modifying the design, adding a bit more space inside, thicker acrylic spacing the lights out a bit, currently will not grow that center section. Light is to intense

 

[Koty]

I wonder if any users of refuge and ATS can compare the phosphate uptake? My Chaeto refuge does a great job keeping nitrate near 0, but phosphate accumulates if I do not use GFO.

 

[MichaelReefer]

I'm running a Santa Monica Algae Reactor because I didn't feel that a small five gallon refugium would be worth it. My reactor does pretty dang good.

 

[Peer.Boerner]

Made my own.
Designed and 3d printed. Straddles a 10g tank

I am modifying the design, adding a bit more space inside, thicker acrylic spacing the lights out a bit, currently will not grow that center section. Light is to intense

Many thanks. You are truly bad butt! Wow. I have to get me a 3d printer :)

 

[Peer.Boerner]

I wonder if any users of refuge and ATS can compare the phosphate uptake? My Chaeto refuge does a great job keeping nitrate near 0, but phosphate accumulates if I do not use GFO.

phos is precisely what I want to manage but without GFO. I’m feeding much less but my levels of phos hover at 0.1 to 0.16. I realize that may be okay but was interested in seeing what 0.05 or so would look like in the reef

 

[exnisstech]

phos is precisely what I want to manage but without GFO. I’m feeding much less but my levels of phos hover at 0.1 to 0.16. I realize that may be okay but was interested in seeing what 0.05 or so would look like in the reef

Is there a problem with the way the tank looks now? I'm just curious what type of look it is you want lower PO4 to achieve?

 

[PPBlimpy]

phos is precisely what I want to manage but without GFO. I’m feeding much less but my levels of phos hover at 0.1 to 0.16. I realize that may be okay but was interested in seeing what 0.05 or so would look like in the reef

I have extremely high phos in my big tank. The ATS is bringing it down but I will bottom out the nitrates before that happens.
Decided that was okay and going to start dosing ammonia bicarbonate to help feed corals with nitrate as by product.

 

[X-37B]

phos is precisely what I want to manage but without GFO. I’m feeding much less but my levels of phos hover at 0.1 to 0.16. I realize that may be okay but was interested in seeing what 0.05 or so would look like in the reef

Honestly you wont see much keeping po4 at .05. I did that for years. Now no3 is 5 with Vodka dosing and po4 range is .1-.3. I add a small amount of gfo when it hits .3 and bring it down to .1.
The system is very stable at these levels.