What were your biggest purchase mistakes?
 

I've wasted my fair share of money in this hobby. Usually because I didn't do all of the necessary research first and ended up buying something that wasn't meant for my application. I accept these mistakes as part of the learning process. These products are not on my list.

There are also products that just didn't work as advertised. These are the products i am talking about. This is eternally frustrating and I wish it was easier to return this stuff. In the interest of saving others the time, trouble and money, my list follows:

D-D Nanoscope - $122

I’m not sure what I was expecting here, but this product simply does not deliver. It’s really nothing more than a lens that doesn’t attach to a camera. It’s not submersible and does not have any electronic hookups. The mount is poorly constructed and the unipod (not to be confused with a tripod) connector either came stripped or I stripped it on my first attempt to assemble it. It’s basically a high powered magnifying glass with a very small view hole. Almost useless.

Aqua Medic Reef Doser Quad - $480

Where to start? – The controller is very limited. It does not allow you to set a dosing schedule based on time-of-day and the configuration does not survive the loss of power. I never bothered to use the controller as there was no way I could program any of the complex dosing schedules that I wanted to use.

The one saving grace is that the pumps use AC power and can be easily modified to connect to a controllable power bar (Apex EB8 in my case). It is then possible to set your dosing schedule using an aquarium controller. The problem is – the pumps aren’t reliable either. I had one crack after about a month of use. I could never really get a precise dose and the characteristics between two pumps in the same setup were different. Check valves are required and flow rates are dramatically affected by pressure. Just simply not worth it.

Neptune Systems – Salinity Probe - $80

The idea is great – measure and monitor your salinity. In practice, I tried for months but could never get a stable or consistent reading. I was told by Neptune that my problems were caused by very small amounts of stray voltage in the tank. They suggested using a drip cup to completely isolate the probe. I may try this again on a future setup, but this purchase ended up in the garbage.

Marineland Stealth Pro Heaters - $40

This $40 heater nearly cost me thousands of dollars when it exploded in my sump. In this case, the product isn’t just garbage, it also doubles as a pipe bomb.

Deltec PF-509 Calcium Reactor - $459

I thought Deltec was supposed to make really great products? – Well, this Calcium Reactor fails miserably. The base is unstable and it is easily knocked over. There is no port for a pH probe. Perhaps most annoying is that undissolved co2 gets sucked into the pump and makes a constant hissing sound. (I emailed Deltec about the undissolved co2 issue and they acknowledged the problem but could not offer a solution). I wouldn’t buy this reactor for any price, but at $459 there are many other options that offer a much better product.

Polyp Lab Medic Parasite Treatment - $38

Reef Safe Ich Medicine? – It is reef safe, but it doesn’t work. There are stories of success and it’s possible someone will dispute my position, but there are no clinical studies proving anything about this product. My fish all survived, but most likely because of the healthy stress free environment they were in, not the medication. It’s basically snake oil.

So, what are your worst purchases?

Coralife programmable power bar..didn't reset and wiped out my 34g of all its fish and a few corals..never ever buy one of these p.o.s. .:twised:

Didn't reset? What do you mean by that? I've got one right now.

Getting my current set up brand new. I didn't know about canreef back then. I could have saved hundreds of dollars.

CAUTION. I had similar issues. I'd come home and the #$@^ Halides would be on wayyy past their off times.

You know how you manually can turn the inner dial to turn on or off the lights? You know that distinctive click you can hear? Well mine has stopped doing that.

And I was on my second timer, J&L kindly replaced mine the first time after it stopped working.

In the end... I just went and bought an Apex controller. Peace of Mind....

Oh sorry, I have the one you can plug powerheads in to make them turn on and off. My bad.

Purchased a 1-150W Coralife Pro for $550 at King ED :twised: , and paid for a brand new Tunze 6055, I should have bought a used one here on Canreef for a much cheaper price, and found out it was too small for my tank later on :sad:

Hydor Magnum 8... Do not purchase these if your tank is less than 6' long, you could probably use them as small boat motor.

I wish I'd bought a bigger tank & setup from someone on Canreef. Instead I bought an Rsm 250 for my first setup.

RSM250 is a nice starter tank. Now you just need to buy a 2nd larger tank and use your RSM250 as a specialty tank for something like haddoni carpets and clowns that won't work in a reef setup. :biggrin:

"Algae Grazer Snails" which I bought anyway because I was sure (!) they were conches. Turns out they were predatory Tulip snails. Luckily I got them out before they took out any of my other snails.

It will likely turn into a frag tank as it it's loaded with sps. I'm looking at this as an alternative light for now though36in Metal Halide HQI System Advance Plus & I kinda like the setup as it is in the living room

mistake
 

hilfiger goby-my male bird wrasse loved it-2 min after hitting open water it was lunch-time

orange spot dimond goby , terrible sand storm then 3 hours after i got him he went carpet surfing . Tank is compleatly covered i even put a cover over the feeding hole , still havent figured that one out .

Burrfish puffer... Need I explain?

I purchased a 150g tank a couple of years go. Now I'm out thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars! What a money pit! :lol:

lol, worst purchase evar!!:wink:

god, where do i start. I've wasted a lot of money on useless product in this hobby...

Coralife super skimmer and a Kole tang that lasted less than a month and introduced marine velvet into my tank. I'm using a Stealth heater plugged into a Coralife power bar and have no problems with either. I don't use the timers on the power bar, I have separate ones for my lights.

Couldn't agree more! Only mine's a 230g tank :lol:

Years ago I bought a Seaclone 150 Protein Skimmer for only $300. The store I got it from has since drastically dropped the price to $200 for a quick blowout. It took me a while to get rid of this highly recommended peice of equipment free for the taking.

Basically buying anything new
 

When I started in the hobby I had this faulse perception that the Inexpensive stuff would preform what I needed it to do.

I bought a cheap coralife light, turbofloater skimmer and cheap powerheads, pumps etc. only to Upgrade them with better equipment. What I should have done is buy good used equipment.

buying a new pc light was dumb when I could have bought a used halide system for the same price. Same for the skimmer.

worst purchase!!
 

it all started many years ago with a little 20 gal freshwater now, i've got the biggest collection of weird stuff that i'll never use but won't sell or throw out either! man i'm such a gear junkie and i want more! kein i know what you mean!!!!

So true! I'm one of those types that has to have the newest, biggest, bestest product on the market. And not just SW either; I do the same thing with woodworking tools. I must have every router bit known to man. If I used half of them I'd be exaggerating.

Giesemann Infinity
 

Geismann Infinity Light - So any of you that think that buying high end is the total way to go!! I got a dud.......first all the balasts burned out.....external and internal. Just recently there was a short in the socket connection and took out a plug on the aqua controller Jr. Then my wrasse jumped the other day and broke the lens on one of the HQI......maybe the fish don't like it!! LOL! (fish is ok)

This thing is just cursed!

This looks like a fun game!

Coralife PC fixtures. I've had two 65W ballasts burn out within a year for no reason.
Coralife Aquagloves. I've bought two sets and within a year three out of the four gloves leaked through the seams.
Coralife timer powerbar (anyone see a pattern here?). The little sliding covers broke very easily and the timer would occasionally not shut off the lights!
AquaMedic Biotherm Controller. They don't even make these anymore... Two of them lost their their calibration within two years and cannot be re-calibrated. What good is a temperature controller that is out 8ºC?
AquaMedic Titanium heaters. I bought three and had to send three back when they would no longer heat up. All within a year.
RedSea Prizm Skimmer. Needs no explanation.

Coralife, Aquamedic and Red Sea. Yup, I've had experience with all three brands and they're crap!

+1 agreed

My only regret is that I should never come to Kien's house and see his tank : ). Because I would happy with my 45 bow font with Rena xp 3, couple cheap powerheads and couple fishes and some softies.

Now couple years later, looking at my tank and Kiens tank and after spending tons of my money and still wonder if I am in the right hobby lol.


Ok back to the main topic. My worst purchase would be any thing to help my tank cycle faster like bateria liquid, nitrate destroyer. The are all bs except for biopellets


S

Hahahahah, that's awesome, I started with a free 20 gallon and upgraded to a free 55 gallon tank. 6 years and 20k plus later. What kind of hobby is this? But if I had a choice I would probably do it all over again. Any one looking to purchase a kidney? I want a bubble king 250. :mrgreen:

Serious note. 3 x 400 w is way too much for a 210, 250 is plenty enough.
Bigger is not always better. Coralife power bar, I am on the third one in less then a year. Free if anyone interested. Hydor 1000 skimmer. Try to take the cup off is like pulling teeth. Aqua doser is 50/50 works decent but could be a lot better. Zeovit, good product but absolutely not a necessity. All ki d of magic potions. The things we go through to try to grow some coral.

Ya I bought 3 X 400w on a good deal, they were nice but im not sure how I convinced myself my power bill wouldnt go through the roof. There currently stored in the basement away from any plugin. Just to be safe.

Worst thing i bought were the finnex titanium heater and asm skimmer.

Tunze 9002. I fell for the hype and failed.

Really? I love mine. I have it on a 35g frag tank with only 5 small fish but it keeps the tank clean. I dont think I would want to run it on anything more heavily stocked than that.

In my Solana I could never really get it to do much besides make noise.

Tunze 9010 - couldn't get it to pull any skimmate.

I got that sucker to work like crazy, had to empty the cup every second day. Don't know what I did but it worked. :biggrin:

I know... That ****es me off :biggrin:

Glad one of us got it to work. I sure couldn't. You still have it?

It's in Penticton with the 67....and you know that story.....when I get it all back I will be keeping it all and setting it back up in my office.

+1 Finnex 300 watt. POS. Although... it does keep my 20 gallon make up bin warm.

Okay I can play this game too...
Solaris LED lighting, need I say more. Anybody what a fixture for a DYI project? :redface:
Aqautronica controller is another example of a high end P.O.S., don't get me wrong it works, and I'm one of the lucky ones! With no recent updates or upgrades for firmware, etc. the last update was 2008. I can't program it using a computer because it just wouldn't log on.. I could go on and on.....:mad: It's diffidently past its prime compared to the more reasonably priced Apex, D.A. and the Cadillac of controllers GHL.