eddius-maximus Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 My tank has recently decided that refugiums are for scrubs. Chaeto, ulva/sea lettuce, Gracilaria, all rejected. Definitely not a nutrient issue as now that the macro algaes have lost dominance in my system, I'm starting to see a little cyano and HA in both my fuge and display - things I haven't seen in a long time. I'm toying with the idea of swapping out my refugium for an algae scrubber. Does anyone have any experiences? There's also a handful of 'popular' ones. Turbo scrubbers seem to be the top of the list but after swapping e-mails with him since February begging for a unit, I'm done. Making scrubbers doesn't appear to be a business or even a hobby for the guy at this point. I see different brands like 302Aquatics and Santa Monica and Clear Water. The Santa Monica RAIN2 seems interesting. Who uses one? Thoughts? Worth it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 I run a Turbos aquatics on both my systems. I really like them. I would say I am still learning the finer points on how to tune them, but my display tank unit generates quite a bit of algae and it definitely keeps nitrates in check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Gearing Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Are you using GFO or anything else for nutrient control in conjunction with the algae scrubber? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 No just the algae scrubber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddius-maximus Posted November 13, 2018 Author Share Posted November 13, 2018 45 minutes ago, jolt said: I run a Turbos aquatics on both my systems. I really like them. I would say I am still learning the finer points on how to tune them, but my display tank unit generates quite a bit of algae and it definitely keeps nitrates in check. Argh, Turbos Aquatics. Drives me nuts. Maybe I'll get lucky and find one second hand one of these days. I'm actually really impressed at the apparent efficiency of a thriving refugium. As soon as I pulled mine, I'm now seeing hundreds of tiny microbubbles all over my live rock which tells me algae and cyano is brewin'. I need to find some alternate means of nutrient reduction until I can get my macros going again. I *really* don't want to bring out the old GFO reactor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Why not keep the refugium going if that was working for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddius-maximus Posted November 13, 2018 Author Share Posted November 13, 2018 I just can't seem to get chaeto to grow anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 Not surprised at all. Micheal Palletta back in the mid 90's observed the same thing when looking at Leng Sy's "Ecosystem" method and I've seen the same thing every time I've put macros in a refugium. My guess is you've been seeing a fairly decent coral growth recently (if you haven't completely stripped out PO4). Before you go through the work of installing an ATS I'd suggest you read these papers on the competative and antagonistic roles corals and algae have, for both nutrients and microbial processes: Algae DOC: https://peerj.com/articles/108/?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_campaign=PeerJ_TrendMD_0&utm_medium=TrendMD https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0027973 https://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201642 Carbon dosing kills coral: https://www.int-res.com/articles/meps2005/294/m294p173.pdf https://www.int-res.com/articles/meps2006/314/m314p119.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddius-maximus Posted November 14, 2018 Author Share Posted November 14, 2018 Thanks for the links. I read them. 26 minutes ago, Timfish said: Micheal Palletta back in the mid 90's observed the same thing when looking at Leng Sy's "Ecosystem" method What was Palletta's observation? Was it lack of coral growth/recession? Or sudden macro algae loss? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Gearing Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 Not sure what size tank you have or if you are still interested in acquiring an ATS, but this seems like a good deal. I read this size should be able to handle up to 125 gallons https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/302-algae-scrubber-trade-fs.502495/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 On 11/14/2018 at 8:02 AM, eddius-maximus said: Thanks for the links. I read them. What was Palletta's observation? Was it lack of coral growth/recession? Or sudden macro algae loss? Here's what he said ". . . for reasons unclear, the algae has never outgrown the filter and has never had to be removed or harvested, . . ." Here's the link to Palletta's review of Leng Sy's Ecosystem in 1997 Volume 14 Seascope if you want to read his whole article. The .pdf has all four issues so you'll need to scroll through them to get to the summer issue it's in. Here's the best example I have: Initially Calurpa growth was pretty robust and was a fair amount was harvested from the two ~40 gallon refugiums 3 or 4 times the first two years. It was harvested only one more time after that and the last two years even though there was a fair amount that showed some growth with new runners overall there wasn't any significant changes in volume and none was harvested. And here's a video of the system. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 18, 2018 Share Posted November 18, 2018 Here's another paper showing algal exudates are allelopathic to corals: http://www.pnas.org/content/108/43/17726 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddius-maximus Posted November 20, 2018 Author Share Posted November 20, 2018 My 4 year old son saw me attempting to figure out how to elegantly fit my new Turbo scrubber into the sump. His solution, utilizing some old toys. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sierra Bravo Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 Engineer in the making! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.