Algae Turf Scrubbers

[pat8you]

Hello all,

Been a few years now since I was really active on this forum. I looked into turf scrubbers a while back and wasn't able to find very much conclusive evidence about their effectiveness and more importantly the rumors going around that they would leach chemicals into your system that could harm or stress coral.

Anyone seen any good evidence based articles/experiments on turf scrubbers they can link me to?

Thanks
Pat

 

[Mebbid]

Send a PM to gregcoyote. He has been using turf scrubbers for a long long time.

 

[Redwolf91]

I don't have near the expertise Gregg does, but I run one on my system... I doubt I'd do a tank without one now. What chemicals are you referring to and any other question I might be able to answer I'd be happy to help

Sent from my Z750C using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[pat8you]

I can't find the article I read before but this is a link to a paper with a few of the same issues.

Microbial to reef scale interactions between the reef-building coral Montastraea annularis and benthic algae

I just don't know what proximity algae can be in before it starts harming coral. Can any negative effects be offset by UV filters or activated carbon? I haven't been able to find any information that directly studies ATS systems in a closed system similar to our tanks. It may be a non-factor but I'd like to know since I plan on doing a heavy coral system.

 

[pat8you]

And a lecture power point that seems to list both some benefits and as well as problems with turf algae.

http://www.stri.si.edu/sites/taxonomy_training/Docs/phycology_docs/4_1_Introduction_Turf_Algae.pdf

Hard to tell with out the lecture but it seems to imply that certain kinds of turf are very helpful and some are detrimental. I'm not really fighting for or against ATS. I just want to know what I am getting into before I put one in my system.