I'll be the first one to chime in and say that buying the best equipment still doesn't ensure an excellent system. I've been in the hobby for almost three years now. I started out buying the best of the best, slowly accumulating it over time while I ran a 70G sytem with the HOB skimmer and the maxijets to gain experience. I've had my 180G tank set up for a year now and I'll tell you, it was far from easy. Even after spending thousands and thousands of dollars on equipment it all came down to the amount of time I wanted to put in to it. Thankfully I'm addicted to the hobby and time and effort was just as much fun as it was frustration. There were hours and hours spent turkey basting rocks, pulling off buckets of hair algae, and cleaning equipment. Attention to detail is key in this hobby. I feel my system is reaching a point of stability finally and I can enjoy the hobby a little more while spending a little less time. Keep in mind that it does take about a year to establish an appropriate amount of bacteria and even nutrients to have a healthy system so patience is just as important.
With all that being said, it was an excellent learning experience to watch the system mature especially when I added new components to it and could observe the impact each one had on the tank. For example, it was unbelievable to me to see just how much of an impact flow had on my tank. I had about a 30X turnover in my tank for about six months with all kinds of algae problems. Now I have a 55X turnover and I haven't had a problem with algae since. Even with a 40X turnover the algae seemed to disappear. It was partnered with a lot of manual removal of algae as well but the flow pretty much stopped the algae from coming back. In the end, just like mostly everyone else mentioned, the more higher end equipment I added just allowed me to spend less time overpowering the larger problems and more time to spend on the smaller details that can make a system really thrive.
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Jason
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