ATS auto turf scrubbers - good or bad

[CRW Reef]

Ok so I'm curious who is running a turf scrubber and or who has tried a turf scrubber.

Do you like it? Are there issues? Is it a waste of time? Did you see value in it aside from the obvious algae growth? Did it decline phosphates and or nitrates?

Curious what those who have one or have tried one think about them.

 

[FishTV]

Bump for curiosity.

 

[jda123]

They grow algae. They do that well. Whether they work or not will depend on your situation. What exact problem are you trying to solve?

 

[Andrew_bram]

I feel they are very effective. I had one on the 125 and it really helped to control the algae in the display. Also over time it lowered my levels. It's hard to say by how much due to the fact u was being reef stupid and still using tap water. It did work you just have to remember to clean it or your not getting true nutrient export.

 

[CRW Reef]

Oh heck I don't have any problems I'm aware of. I was mostly just curious how the progression/ development of these types of additions was coming along in the hobby lol

 

[Walter White]

For my 28g nano it worked well but I really had no other form of nutrient transport other than water changes.

 

[Smiley]

if it aint broke, dont fix it.....


ive never had an algae scrubber, but i thought about it once...... tank wasnt fully cycled and had tons of hair algae...but then started researching and found that most people didnt like the maintenance needed and if they slacked off, they would crash...

My opinion is if you have a mature tank, there should be no need for it... if you have a good skimmer and control your feeding, you wont need it...

Ive heard waaay too many stories of people running algae scrubbers and failing due to lack of maintenance...this is the main reason i refuse to use one...because i can forget easily....

I control my feeding, over skim, maintain waterchanges, and run gfo if i see a spike in phosphates... havent had a problem in 7 yrs with this procedure and will continue so as i have had great success....

Also, i dont carbon dose nor will i ever.... just another thing that may or may not work for people...

My theory is KISS.... keep it simple stupid...the more things you add or try may work and they may not....i like to keep the things simple and have less things that can fail... automation fails....every time....

 

[Munch]

I'll trade you mine, no longer using it

 

[sethsolomon]

+1 to aint broke don't fix it.


I was using 1 for a while and it worked great. but it started spraying water all over the place and I had to turn it off.

 

[MuralReef]

Isn't this redundant if you run a fuge with macro? That and the extra cleaning piece are what deterred me from setting one up. Plus you need nutrients to get the algae to grow if your readings are zero or near zero you are running extra light bulbs for nothing.

 

[Walter White]

double post

 

[Walter White]

One thing I will point out about the one I was using is I tried going back and forth between chaeto and the scrubber. The way I set mine up I could run one or the other with the same light. The chaeto grew like crazy but every time I ran it for any length of time I would get an increase in hair algae in the display portion of my tank. When I ran the scrubber that algae in the display would go away.

Now this is just my personal experience and I think I may know the reason this was happening. In fact the reason seams pretty clear, the hair algae that grew on my scrubber was the same as what would grow in the display. It may not be that the chaeto was less efficient as a nutrient export but that the nutrient export was just a little different for each and the scrubber was just better at removing the nutrients I needed for my particular problem. That said what ever the case may be the scrubber did serve my purposes better. I had a hair algae problem not a chaeto problem so it makes sense that it worked this way for me.

I don't have any intention of running one on either of my new tanks.