I have been in this hobby for fifteen years. Have tried just about everything and was so happy when I found the scrubber. I'd made this hobby so much more enjoyable and I'm very thankful to sm for promoting it.

That being said, I'm a little frustrated with recent developments. Last time I checked the scrubber is a form of filtration and a very effective one. You measure a filters performance by the results. Your n, p and debris is low your filter is effective. If not then you wasted your money.

When did we become an algae growing community? Why does it matter how much algae I get? Why does it matter what color it is? We need to start seeing results. I don't need a video on how to harvest. It's not rocket science. You grab it and dump it. I need a video that says this is my growth and THESE are my TEST RESULTS.

My ats was my ONLY form of filtration on my 120 over a year. My 60 over 8mo and is still going strong. My tank crashed during hurricane sandy and my ats handled the cycle beautifully. I have yet to find someone running a tank on a UAS only. All of the tests from reputable hobbyists have come back the same. It grows algae but it doesn't get nutrients where we want them.

I gave it a try, a bunch of people in my local club did, some people in this forum did and we all get the same results? Where is the proof that this thing works? Because you post pictures and it has algae attached? My rocks had algae. Heck let me throw some nori in the tank and it should filter!

We are driving people away from trying the ats. Not only that. We are deceiving people. There is no clear definition of what an effective scrubber is anymore.

We had PROVEN by trial and error many things.

Eg.:

Dump bucket style: not effective
Horizontal scrubber: not effective
Single sided: less effective
Vertical waterfall double sided: very effective.

Tons of thanks running them with similar results, low to very low nutrients.


As of right now there is no proof that the UAS works. Please let's start posting results of tests, what other kinds of filtration we have, size of tank vs size of scrubber.

These are the kinds of things we need to show the hobbyist that is looking for a scrubber so that he or she can make an informed decision on what scrubber to buy or build.