ATS's have a big hurdle to over come?

OK, I am going to play devil's advocate here to a point so bare with me and don't shoot the messenger.
The way I see it is ATS apart from refugium types are having a hard time getting full acceptance in the hobby. Now you might suggest plenty if people run an ATS but in comparison to other forms of filtration etc, they still have quite a way to go IMO. I am in the UK and when I talk about my ATS many treat my posts with something akin to suspicion and that they are some sort of snake oil.

Another point people seem quite happy for pay around £400 for a skimmer but not an ATS stating they are expensive. Others simply don't think an ATS can produce the results better than or equal to what they are already running.

I think one of the issues is that no truly big player in the field of aquarium equipment manufacturing has as far as I am aware has so far produced an ATS of their own. No big name has really endorsed them or given them much air time. I am talking the likes of Sprung here or BRS sure they have touched on the subject but nowhere near as much as other forms of filtration. Just what are they afraid of? I have my suspicions.

So we have to ask ourselves why is that? I have my own theories on why and it's all to do with commercialism. At his point, I won't expand on that but would like to hear others opinions on the subject.

 

Yes I agree with most of what you say, however, take a skimmer there is quite a lot that goes into them production and design wise so I don't see that as such a big deal. Depending on size a decent skimmer will or should cost around the price of a good waterfall ATS?
I posted a sample of an exchange of ermmm views I had with a guy on a .com forum here in the UK (there are a number more similar that I have replied to on various forums) on your FB group you may have seen. I find there is still a lot of negativity and resistance to this now so new method of filtration. I recall when I started in this hobby 36years similar negativity against skimmers now look how far they have come.

 

Agreed. However ultimately LED's will fail sooner or later the pump supplying the ATS will fail also. However, both these items if of decent quality should give years of service. A skimmers pump will fail and perhaps some plastic parts will become brittle and break but as with the ATS these should last a considerable time if they are of decent quality. What an ATS might well take away from other manufactures products are things lie NO3 reducing media and the reactors required to use them. Some snake oil products may also disappear, no bad thing IMO.

 

My experiences to date are just about the opposite to everything you state above. Mine was plug and play, set up, running perfectly in a matter of minutes. What research are you referring too as I am sure there are 10x (maybe more) more skimmers on the market than ATS's. How much research do you need to do after all when buying one and how much would you have to do to produce a decent DIY skimmer for instance? I am sorry but those are my experience and thoughts although I guess you must have had some difficulties of one sort or another but not me or my friends who employ an ATS and I have built 2 DIY ones before moving to a larger tank and the need for a larger ATS which I ought this time.

 

Maybe as with skimmers some ATS's require more tweaking than others. I know of a number of people having issues with the Santa Monica rain 2 for instance. Other ATS's like my Atlantis 2 seem easy to set up and there are a number of us in the UK running them and I have yet to hear of anybody having setup and tweaking problems. I was the first to recommend seeding the screen, even the manufacturer was sceptical that seeding would make any difference but it's now been proven seeding give the screen a good kickstart. So well does seeding work that I was harvesting some algae within 7 days of setting it up, I kid you not. After seeing my results from seeding my Atlantis the manufacturer now send a small packet of algae out with every new unit sold.
After just 2 weeks this was the growth I was getting on my screen. What you see is a mixture of different algae's both GHA and Ulva intestinalis.

 

Ain't that the truth, I do very few and little water changes and when I do, to be honest, I am not sure why I am doing one. I think I have done 20% water change this year. My NO3 and PO4 are very low I hardly do testing for them now. I think sooner or later one of the big players will break rank and come up with their own version but I will hold out as long as possible. I would like to see the likes of BRS do a review of say one of Buds and I am sure he would be only too happy to supply them with one for testing. Somehow, however, I feel they would be reluctant and I think we know why that might be.

 

Well, that's a start and good to hear.How long have they had them on test and when do you think they will be reporting back on them Bud?
I guess you have had a fair bit of dialogue with them about your scrubbers and ensuring they run them right etc?

 

Hmmmm, Guess you have thought this one out but have you considered farming the production out? I know you already do some of the parts subcontracted out like the LED panels but mass production as with skimmers should bring down construction costs. Like I suggested you probably figured that out anyway and it's not viable for whatever reason cost mainly I would have thought.