ATS vs Fuge

[Panicked Reefer]

Please help me design my new set up. My current set up is a fairly heavy stocked with fish 75g DT with a 30-ish g sump, 15-ish g fuge, 15-ish g crypto fuge. I have to dose N03 but struggle with high P04. I am also plagued with extremely low PH. I have an outside line to my skimmer, dose kalk and have a fairly large fuge with 2 lights and I still struggle to hit 8.1 for a high. I average around 7.9, I understand 7.9 is acceptable to most but I am not happy with it considering the effort it is taking to achieve it. It should be greater than that.

My new set up will be a 120g DT, 40 breeder as a grow out tank, and the same sump. I intended to set up a 55g and make half a fuge and the other half as a crypto. As I am getting closer to setting things up space is far more of a premium than I anticipated. I am now considering a ATS to replace the fuge section and then putting a 10 or 20g tank in for a crypto or possibly even removing it totally.

I can make my original design work. I will be sacrificing alot of room though. I've looked at several ATS vs threads and have some specific questions that i cant find a confident answer to. Is the PH bump from a fuge greater than one from an ATS? Would the GHA be better at removing P04 than chaeto? Even with the size fuge I have now my pod population is minimal at best. I never see any so am I really out anything on that front removing the fuges? If I decreased the size or removed the crypto sump will I regret it? I have been smoking this over and my ADHD is winning. I'd like to move forward on this upgrade but dont want to set something up just to take it down so any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[c4haskett]

Please help me design my new set up. My current set up is a fairly heavy stocked with fish 75g DT with a 30-ish g sump, 15-ish g fuge, 15-ish g crypto fuge. I have to dose N03 but struggle with high P04. I am also plagued with extremely low PH. I have an outside line to my skimmer, dose kalk and have a fairly large fuge with 2 lights and I still struggle to hit 8.1 for a high. I average around 7.9, I understand 7.9 is acceptable to most but I am not happy with it considering the effort it is taking to achieve it. It should be greater than that.

My new set up will be a 120g DT, 40 breeder as a grow out tank, and the same sump. I intended to set up a 55g and make half a fuge and the other half as a crypto. As I am getting closer to setting things up space is far more of a premium than I anticipated. I am now considering a ATS to replace the fuge section and then putting a 10 or 20g tank in for a crypto or possibly even removing it totally.

I can make my original design work. I will be sacrificing alot of room though. I've looked at several ATS vs threads and have some specific questions that i cant find a confident answer to. Is the PH bump from a fuge greater than one from an ATS? Would the GHA be better at removing P04 than chaeto? Even with the size fuge I have now my pod population is minimal at best. I never see any so am I really out anything on that front removing the fuges? If I decreased the size or removed the crypto sump will I regret it? I have been smoking this over and my ADHD is winning. I'd like to move forward on this upgrade but dont want to set something up just to take it down so any input is greatly appreciated.

I would think that the PH boost would be greater with Chaeto as you have to grow more of it to see any effect. That being said, theres no question that a scrubber (green hair algae) is king for removing nitrates and phosphates. I've had both a fuge and ats, and the ats was even too good at removing nutrients that I had to cut down the light period significantly as to not bottom out phosphates/nitrates. I do however like the idea of a fuge, so I'm currently planning on picking up a small 5/10 gallon tank and plumb it to my sump so I can still grow critters with some cooler looking macro algae's.