madducks42
Resident Nihilist
We're considering getting either an algae scrubber or reactor. Would love some opinions on the pros/cons of each for those of you who run one.
Algae Scrubber vs Algae Reactor
- Thread starter madducks42
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Robert M
Non-member
I'm in the process of starting a tank, so have no experience with either, but I'm also considering both. I spoke with the owner of Clearwater scrubbers a couple weeks ago to ask about ATS, and he made a couple of interesting comments worth sharing. One was that their recommended sizes of the ATS are often made for FWLR tanks, but if you're running a reef tank as I will be, he recommends I _undersize_ because the ATS can be so successful at nutrient export that it can starve corals from lack of available nitrates and phosphates. He even recommended I get their smallest model ATS for a 180G reef tank if I was going to run it 24hrs a day with a protein skimmer, and he's currently running a test of a system that completely replaces a protein skimmer with an ATS. Point being that scrubbers/reactors both seem to be extremely efficient at growing, especially vs a fuge.
Now as far as your actual question, the best pros/cons I've found between scrubbers and reactors is that some claim that ATS are more difficult to clean than reactors, so getting a scrubber with an easily removable screen can help. Probably the biggest reason I'd lean toward a scrubber would be because the chaeto that grows in a reactor is basically inedible, while the algae that falls off a scrubber can more likely feed your fish. On the other hand, if I had unlimited money, a big pro of going for a reactor is that then you can get the PaxBellum ARID which just looks really cool. If I get something, I'll probably get a Clearwater ATS, but I'll wait a couple of months as they are about to release another version that will be more easily cleanable.
Now as far as your actual question, the best pros/cons I've found between scrubbers and reactors is that some claim that ATS are more difficult to clean than reactors, so getting a scrubber with an easily removable screen can help. Probably the biggest reason I'd lean toward a scrubber would be because the chaeto that grows in a reactor is basically inedible, while the algae that falls off a scrubber can more likely feed your fish. On the other hand, if I had unlimited money, a big pro of going for a reactor is that then you can get the PaxBellum ARID which just looks really cool. If I get something, I'll probably get a Clearwater ATS, but I'll wait a couple of months as they are about to release another version that will be more easily cleanable.
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madducks42
Resident Nihilist
We don't really have any way to do this. The DT is on the living room so there is no space to do a large refugium. I have some chaeto in one of the chambers of our sump but it's already really messy and driving us insane, plus the chaeto doesn't seem to be doing that well so I don't think it's a good long term solution. We're currently leaning more towards the scrubber than reactor, the question is to do we want to pay $300 for one or take the DIY approach...
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madducks42
Resident Nihilist
We're having major algae problems in our tank currently : /
Jeff.:P
Non-member
I never tried a macroalgea reactor but believe it would be the cleanest way to house it. You could easily build yourself one and save some big $$, see below. I may do this in the near future and looks fun to build!
https://reefbuilders.com/2016/08/31/chaetomorpha-reactor/#
https://reefbuilders.com/2016/08/31/chaetomorpha-reactor/#
blasto_master
Non-member
I agree that statement. Go with the large refugium.
maldenreefer
Non-member
Have you tried adding more clean up crew to balance it out? I personally added an urchin to my tank and it devoured all the algae in sight.
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madducks42
Resident Nihilist
Pretty sure it’s dinos and the CUC has zero interest in it. We’ve been fighting it for about 5 months now.
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madducks42
Resident Nihilist
They were at 0. Currently dosing nitrate to try and encourage other types of algae to grow and out compete the dinos. We have chaeto in the sump but it’s not doing that well and it’s really messy.
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madducks42
Resident Nihilist
From what I've read, Dino can and will thrive in low nutrient tanks. Our problems with it started 5 months or so ago. We had some green algae in the tank but it was minor and kept in check by the CUC. Then we had two fish die and we took the rest of the fish out and put them in QT. The tank was fallow for almost 6 weeks. During that time I didn't feed the much, I fed the CUC once a week or so and fed the corals reef roids a few days a week. The green algae disappeared and dino started growing on the sand. We tried cleaning the sand, more frequent water changes, nothing had any impact. Once we put the fish back in the tank I tried feeding lightly, we ran GFO aggressively, continued frequent water changes. Basically anything we could do lower nutrients, the dino thrived and moved up onto the rocks and started getting on the coral. At that point we did a three-day blackout. That did knock the dino back quite a bit but it also annoyed the corals, made the anemones move, and possibly stressed the fish out enough to trigger an ick outbreak. And the dino came back within a few days but at least so far hasn't moved up onto the rocks again. I started looking at other tactics and that's when I came across a lot of forums and posts stating that attempts to starve out dino rarely work because it tends to do really well in low nutrient environment. In cases like ours where nitrate and phosphate measure zero the best tactic is to increase both of them and encourage other types of algae to grow. It's not a quick or easy fix, but we're going to give it a try. If this doesn't work we'll probably have to do another much longer blackout and I'll probably take the corals out of the tank for that. We'd basically be restarting the tank again which I'd rather not do for obvious reasons, lol.
We ordered an algae scrubber from BRS and it will be here this weekend.
We ordered an algae scrubber from BRS and it will be here this weekend.
Collin
Non-member
For me after 2 blackouts (3 days each 1 week apart) killed off the Dino, the corals and fish were gone also. What proceeded was a large breakout of GHA (better than Dino) and as of now there is only a little but of GHA left and the rocks are mostly clear (covered in coralline) Good luck with whetting rid of it!
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