Algae Scrubber vs Refugium

[ChaetoFarm_Kai]

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

Dude, you just need the RIGHT species of Chaeto, with a good light, you wouldn’t believe how bad the thick curly Chaeto is vs the good stuff and how bad many commercially available fuge lights are. If you get some good chaetomorpha crassa and a kessil tuna sun, your nutrients with be all zeros. Read my articles on chaetofarm.com

 

[ChaetoFarm_Kai]

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?

I was an ATS guy who went to Chaeto and never looked back, if the macros you have now are controlling nutrients sufficiently for you, stick to that. The problem with ATS’s is that they destabilize your nutrient numbers when you harvest, they’re also messy and sometimes noisy. If you get the RIGHT species of chaeto (not the most common) and you get a good strong light, it will be so effective that you’ll want to start turning down your light to stabilize at the levels you want. I have a few good articles about chaeto strains/species and fuge setup on chaetofarm.com