Wasted money on UV Sterilizers back in the day. Never decreased algae or killed ich.

I have to say i've had the exact same problem! Not as many times, but once for the controller itself and twice for the element!

Another one for me:

Fluval Spec: Purchased and started to leak instantly. (though it wasnt discovered till two hours later... luckily it was only 2g of SW on my desk).
Fluval 304: Leaky! Brand new. Returned. Eheim wins.

Biggest mistake is my 1st tank when I was in my early teens.

That set the snowball rolling that has so far led to a 6x2.5x2 currently sitting in my basement & a 72g in my living room.

Lord knows how much it's cost me in terms of time, money, blood, tears & probably relationships!

But in the spirit of the thread, biggest mistake so far is a Via Aqua skimmer, UV filter, heater all-in-one HOB thingy. That thing was louder than a 747 on take off & pulled as much cr@p out as broken down Red Sea Prism. At least I never had ich with that UV going.

Best part was parting somewhere around $500 for it :twised:

my first skimmer was a skilter....and i thought it was cool!:redface:

I got a good price on a new Aqualight Pro 3x 150W HQI, 4x 96W CF and 4x LED moonlights. I had no issues with the fixture, the problem was me. The tank was going to be a FOWLR and the light was plenty good enough. I soon changed my mind and turned the tank into a reef, making the light underpowered for corals. So I had to buy another light. :redface:

+1 on the skimmer.

Another mistake that I can think of right now are buying Acroporas when my water quality was poor. Wasted most of my livestock money on those by far.

Also wasted money on various MH single bulb setups and pendants when in the end, the dual 150w HQI was the better choice for my system at the time.

HMMMM, sometimes I think my whole setup!

For me it was buying a 28 Gal tank (with no sump and an HA problem). The rationale at the time was that it was small enough that if I totally screwed up, I couldn't kill as much as with a larger tank. While I've learned a lot from this tank, the biggest lesson was that 90 Gal -IMO- is the smallest tank a noob should get.

When I first got into the hobby my filtration consisted of a Seaclone fluidized bed filter powered by a HOT Magnum canister filter. I supposed it worked ok... great mechanical and biological filtration, but it's no wonder I had hair algae problems! :)

TEK Light Fixture has to be the most poorly built flimsy thing I've ever seen. The flimsy piece of acrylic that's a poor excuse for a bulb protector. The legs and hanging kit they charge you extra for... all crap.

UV Sterilizer Didn't do a damn thing.

Maxi Jet Sure Flow Mod Kit Crappy rattling POS... junk.

Skimz Skimmer First one arrived with a broken body. Second body had the holes in a totally different place so nothing on the first matched the second (without drilling). The pump sounded like a turbine running in my cabinet. In order to get it started I had to blow into the air line or all it would do is chug and rattle. It took two skimmer bodies and two pumps to get one working skimmer. It looked really cool in the pictures... that's about it.