I think it depends. I expect that some brands will offer more value in some respects but not always.
I use IO because I have not found any value in paying for more expensive salt. I use bulk Ca/Alk/Mg additives, which I would have to buy anyhow to dose my tank with to compensate for losses thereof due to coral growth - so I have it onhand regardless - to match parameter for parameter those values you might expect in a more expensive salt. It's just that experience has taught me that I pay less for the additives I use to achieve that, than I would be paying extra for the more expensive salt. So I save money on salt and the tradeoff is I put a little extra effort in the form of testing a new bucket (which experience has also taught me that you should do regardless: just because a salt brand is more expensive does not mean that there aren't the occasional bad batches). In this case I find I defray my purchase price by investing a little bit of time.
Also in the case of LED's I did find that certain products may be overpriced. Knowing what I know now, I realize I could have built a DIY solution for far less than what I paid for the off-the-shelf solution I elected to go with. That said, I didn't really want to do a DIY solution at the time just because I had other projects to finish and I felt my time was worth more (I guess because I need more time to test my salt buckets
)
But this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquattro
I expect that my 8 year old Tunze will still be going long after my WP60 dies.
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I am a long time Tunze fan myself but lately I am finding that I am not getting more longevity out of the units. I still have original $20 Maxijets from 12 years ago and they run fine, but I've replaced probably 4 out of 5 Tunzes on my big tank in the last two years because of premature failure. To be honest I was starting to think that if another one goes soon I might just go with Jebao's or whatever they're called, if I pay $80 and get 1-2 years out of it, that's a far better cost proposition than paying $200-260(*) and getting 1-3 years out of it.
(*My wavebox is now also having issues, I'm not sure if it's in the connector or the pump, but to replace THAT particular pump (6100) is $260 whereas to replace a 6105 motor core is closer to $200. One of my 6105's died altogether last month so I chose to replace that one first.)
I still like Tunzes in the meantime because .. I just like what they offer.