Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Ask whoever wrote that to produce a study that shows that algae produces any of those. They won't be able to, because it is an unsubstantiated claim. I am pretty sure the same user that fed you that line fed it to me as well. I asked SM about it and here was his response:
What I find most disturbing is the vast amount of data out there that shows the algae is actually used to remove phenols as part of wastewater treatment facilities. And this information is readily found in no time. Yet, there are users out there trying to scare you away from using and algae scrubber by shouting boo.
I posted a response similar to the one above several times in response to the skatole/phenol/creosol issue, and then asked for a study to prove it, and to date I have never seen a response.
So you could look it up yourself, or you could go and find the hundreds of users who properly maintain their ATS systems and don't have any kind of issues even remotely connected to "skatoles, phenols, and creosols".
Even if it were true that algae released these in any quantity, it is highly unlikely that it would do so in the 1 week between cleanings. You would have to have a screen that had so much growth that the algae underneath died off, algae detached, found it's way back into the DT, and dissolved back into the water and released everything it absorbed. Then the chemicals it released would have to not get absorbed back by the new algae growing back in the place where it detached.
This kind of situation could possibly occur if you didn't clean the screen often enough, or didn't adequately light the screen (which would prevent heavy algae growth from occurring anyways, so it is unlikely you would have algae detach). But that is why you clean the screen every week, among other reasons.
So the bottom line here is that whoever keeps writing this stuff
1) has likely not ran an ATS in the last 3 years
2) has likely based their information on data/findings from old dump scrubbers (IA, Adey)
3) does not understand that we don't really use "turf", but Green Hair
4) thinks everyone still cleans the screens in the tank, and that we all have nasty yellow water and our sump area smells all nasty
5) may very well work for a skimmer manufacturer, or has some other kind of vested interest against a product that creates it's own filtering media
6) fears change
What I find most disturbing is the vast amount of data out there that shows the algae is actually used to remove phenols as part of wastewater treatment facilities. And this information is readily found in no time. Yet, there are users out there trying to scare you away from using and algae scrubber by shouting boo.
I posted a response similar to the one above several times in response to the skatole/phenol/creosol issue, and then asked for a study to prove it, and to date I have never seen a response.
So you could look it up yourself, or you could go and find the hundreds of users who properly maintain their ATS systems and don't have any kind of issues even remotely connected to "skatoles, phenols, and creosols".
Even if it were true that algae released these in any quantity, it is highly unlikely that it would do so in the 1 week between cleanings. You would have to have a screen that had so much growth that the algae underneath died off, algae detached, found it's way back into the DT, and dissolved back into the water and released everything it absorbed. Then the chemicals it released would have to not get absorbed back by the new algae growing back in the place where it detached.
This kind of situation could possibly occur if you didn't clean the screen often enough, or didn't adequately light the screen (which would prevent heavy algae growth from occurring anyways, so it is unlikely you would have algae detach). But that is why you clean the screen every week, among other reasons.
So the bottom line here is that whoever keeps writing this stuff
1) has likely not ran an ATS in the last 3 years
2) has likely based their information on data/findings from old dump scrubbers (IA, Adey)
3) does not understand that we don't really use "turf", but Green Hair
4) thinks everyone still cleans the screens in the tank, and that we all have nasty yellow water and our sump area smells all nasty
5) may very well work for a skimmer manufacturer, or has some other kind of vested interest against a product that creates it's own filtering media
6) fears change
