I don't know exactly what you've heard about them, but yes, I think the idea is basically the same, maybe a little different. Turf Scrubbers are specially designed to grow specific kinds of algae's. These algae's are chosen because of their fast growth rates, and their nutrient absorption properties. Once grown to a certain stage, these algae's can be harvested, thereby removing many kinds of nastie's from the system.
Algae Refugiums use fast growing caulerpa's, and manual removal by the hobbiest, to achieve the same goal, basically. Personally I think refugium's are better, as they give more room for bugs and slugs to grow and reproduce. While the algae's in Refugium's may not grow as fast as the turf's used in Scrubbers, they do an adequate job. All of this being MHO of course...
- Mac