does an ATS replace a fuge with DSB?

SPotter

SPotter

Active member
I have been running a fuge with a 5" DSB and I am thinking about making a switch to an ATS and was wondering if I did that could I do away with the DSB in my fuge.
 
why do you want to remove the dsb? if anything you should add a little bit to make it deeper. 5" is just barely a dsb. If you've got the space, it doesn't hurt to run both. The dsb doesn't take anything active to work other than real estate at the bottom of the fuge.
 
I am happy with my DSB and will add a couple of additional inches to it. I guess thinking about my initial question, I should have asked if adding the ATS would be overkill. I have been looking at the diy's on here for it and I am going to give it a shot. I definitely have enough spare parts in my basement to build this so it wont cost me anything.
 
well a dsb refugium with algae should be more then enough, so adding an ats probably would be overkill, but overkill never really hurt anything, at least in this case it wouldn't. if you have the parts already might as well set it up, if for no other reason then a learning experiment.
 
from what i am reading, after you add your ATS, your macros wont do well since most of the nutrients are being consumed up.

I'm hoping the ats is the answer to everything... lol
 
Although your DSB with macro may be doing a great job, a good ATS will allow you to run a much heaver bio load. Once established you can feed your corals/fish a ridiculous amount without increasing nitrate or Phosphate levels. You will also get a lot more copepods in your tank.
 
pskelton said:
Although your DSB with macro may be doing a great job, a good ATS will allow you to run a much heaver bio load. Once established you can feed your corals/fish a ridiculous amount without increasing nitrate or Phosphate levels. You will also get a lot more copepods in your tank.
Click to expand...

Dumb question what does ats stand for?
 
I finally got around to putting an ATS on my tank 3 weeks ago. Just harvested a pile of algae off it tonight. In those 3 weeks I have doubled the amount of daily food I put in the tank, run the skimmer 6 hours/day instead of 24/7, and removed the lighting from the chaeto in the old fuge. Nitrates & phosphates are undetectable, algae in the display tank is almost nonexistent, fish are fat & happy.
An ATS is the cheapest & most effective thing I've ever done to improve water quality. I wish I had built one sooner.
 
JohnnyB in SD said:
I finally got around to putting an ATS on my tank 3 weeks ago. Just harvested a pile of algae off it tonight. In those 3 weeks I have doubled the amount of daily food I put in the tank, run the skimmer 6 hours/day instead of 24/7, and removed the lighting from the chaeto in the old fuge. Nitrates & phosphates are undetectable, algae in the display tank is almost nonexistent, fish are fat & happy.
An ATS is the cheapest & most effective thing I've ever done to improve water quality. I wish I had built one sooner.
Click to expand...

Johnny,
Can you share your design and how you built it with me?

Steve
 
I didn't have room under my tank, so I made one out of a rubbermaid tub and put it on top of my canopy. I feed it with a pump from the display, and it drains back down to the display.
To be honest, it has some minor issues like noise and micro bubbles, but they can easily be resolved when I have the time to address them. For now it is functioning well in a filtration capacity and that's what is important to me. With a little better planning and circumstances you should be able to avoid such annoyances.
I will gladly share details and answer questions. I'm trying to get things together for an out of town trip this weekend, but I'll see what I can do for you tonight. If you don't mind I will switch over to email communication as it is more expedient for me and easier to attach pics.
 
I had a DSB and chaeto fuge. When I added a ATS, the chaeto disappeared. I don't know if the DSB is doing anything. I feed my fish and tank from 1-2 times daily depending on my schedule. The ATS is doing really well, especially when I added a Calcium reactor 3 months ago. I did not believe some of the stuff people were saying on how effective an ATS system could be, but they were mostly correct. What I used was an old Inland Aquatics horizontal turf scrubber from a friend and I just ran it vertically. You can make it out of a bucket. There is drawings from other posts. Also I run a mag 3 pump. What I do which is different is I run 6 18 Watt Cree LEDs. 3 front and 3 in the back. They have the same effect as CLFs but I don't have to worry about them. I found the lights from Coscto if you would believe.
 
I am going to build an acrylic box that will sit on top of my fuge. I have an open valve on my manifold so it will be fed by the return line.
 
JohnnyB in SD said:
What LED's did you get from Costco?
Click to expand...

They come in a package singly. They were $40 each. I don't have them right now. At work now. But they are Cree 2watt LEDS 6 LED lights on each light. It looks sort of like a outdoor floodlight. Mine was near the lightbulb area. Maybe go to Costco.com or something and they will have it there. Hope this helps. You have to position them a little further than your other lights to get coverage, but that seems the usualy case for LEDs.
 
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