[Jaws]

This happens to be one of my biggest beefs. I've listened to peoples experiences and it absolutely floors me when I hear about someone loosing all or even some of their livestock because of an equipment malfunction. When I started this hobby I decided that I would spend the money and buy the best stuff recommended for the tank size I have. You would think that when you spend that kind of money that the things you buy should stand up but that's hardly the case. I've had a problem with almost every piece of my equipment. In my opinion, when you spend $1000 on something, you shouldn't have to worry about it failing in the first six months. When it's something like a chiller or a heater too, either of these can have catastrophic consequences on your tank. When something fails too, it's usually something that needs to be running all the time on your tank and waiting for another one to come in or waiting for yours to be fixed sometimes doesn't work. I'm just wondering if other people can share what they've had fail on them to see if there's any pattern here that we should be cautious of.

Here's what has failed on me and the price I paid for it. Keep in mind that my tank has only been running for less than a year:


Chiller Fan Motor for Pacific Coast Chiller $700 Huge headache
AquaController II $500
Seal for EuroReef Skimmer $900 2 weeks to come in
Vortech Plastic Disk and gaskets $900 2 weeks to come in
Solenoid for Ca Reactor $100
Blown MH Bulb $150 2 weeks to come in
Red Sea Ozonizer $300

Total $3550

Well, those are the main ones that I can think of. There's quite a few pumps and small powerheads in the list too but they were relatively inexpensive. I want to be clear that this is in no way bashing the retailer, moreso the manufacturer. In fact, every retailer that I approached with my problem has been excellent and more than happy to rectify the situation which I am very thankful for. The problem is that there is no quick fix since a lot of these parts need to be ordered from the manufacturer and most of them are out of the States. Maybe it's just me but I have a tough time spending that much money on equipment that is said to be the best but I am not able to rely on. Ok, I think I'm done. Hopefully there's other people out there that are sharing in my frustration. Please let us know if you are. Thanks.