Case in point... experience makes a difference too. Big difference between someone 10 years into reef keeping setting up another tank, running it in the dark(for how long? ) before transferring coral and turning on lights. Sounds much different than what everyone, on here with out of control algea, is doing setting up their tanks.. so when your tank is beautiful and thriving, would you say it's because of the ATS?Threads like this are one of the reasons I added a scrubber to my new build. I just want to find out for myself how well / if they work . People that use them say they work, people that don't use them say they can't work
It's the only place in the tank growing green algae but it's also getting more light than the rest of the tank so that makes sense. I'll be turning lights on and moving coral over the next few days so it should be interesting.
To the OP's question I have had fuges in every tank I have owned but never to out compete other algae. To be honest I have never read that about a fuge but I don't get around much. I've always kept chaeto fuges so pods and worms and such have a place to reproduce. My new tank has a cryptic refugium that will not be any growing algae that need light but it will still be a good home for the little critters