What were your biggest purchase mistakes?

[abcha0s]

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?

[dsaundry]

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:

[ponokareefer]

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.

[ponokareefer]

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

[cwatkins]

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

[ponokareefer]

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

[Reefpins10]

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:

[Zoaelite]

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

[spawn]

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

[ponokareefer]

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:

[BigRedSpecial]

"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.

[spawn]

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 though 36in Metal Halide HQI System Advance Plus (http://www.aquatraders.com/36in-Metal-Halide-HQI-T5-Aquarium-Light-p/54263.htm) & I kinda like the setup as it is in the living room


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:

[monocus]

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

[toytech]

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 .

[apex82]

Burrfish puffer... Need I explain?

[kien]

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:

[christyf5]

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...

[MMAX]

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.

[fishoholic]

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:

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

[Madreefer]

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.

[pyke]

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.

[tinman]

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!!!!

[Lance]

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


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.

[es355lucille]

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!

[whatcaneyedo]

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.

[Lance]

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!

[fishoholic]

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

+1 agreed

[Coleus]

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

[Bblinks]

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:

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.

[zum14]

Serious note. 3 x 400 w is way too much for a 210, 250 is plenty enough.
Bigger is not always better.


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.

[BlueTang<3]

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

[lastlight]

Tunze 9002. I fell for the hype and failed.

[Ryan]

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.

[lastlight]

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

[globaldesigns]

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

[The Grizz]

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:

[globaldesigns]

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?

[The Grizz]

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.

[paddyob]

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

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

[randallino]

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.

[phreezee]

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

[Funky_Fish14]

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.



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.

[VFX]

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:

[don.ald]

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

[Lance]

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:

[Samw]

Tunze 9002. I fell for the hype and failed.

+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.

[globaldesigns]

HMMMM, sometimes I think my whole setup!

[DiverDude]

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.

[jon.smolders]

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! :)

[viperfish]

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.

[zum14]

I bought a tank off kijiji. Fine right? Yaaa, pics looked good said id take it. Normally not a big deal, except this one was in kamloops. 5hrs away from my place. Got there. Looked at it, was super scratched. Terrible. Tanks sitting in my yard. Basically a sump now is all its good for. I did manage to get the price down simply because it was soo bad. Second time i tried this, was going to edm anyways so figured id snatch this good deal up and move into that one..... Advertised as a 120gal, got there, yaaa 90gal. Not as scratched but soon found out when doing the overflow that one side of the tank was laminated glass. Come on.... So needless to say i dont think i will be buying anymore used tanks (certain circumstances of course will demand leniency to this but rare none the less)

[Chaloupa]

Purchased a 1-150W Coralife Pro for $550 at King ED :twised:

I'm with you on this one....I paid over $700.00 for my 24" 150w x 1.....and was thrilled....mind you it's still going strong over my 65g hex after 7 years...so I guess it's doing ok. But about 2 months after we bought it, there was a huge price drop and we could've gotten away with paying only what YOU paid! :lol:

[reefbyremote]

Rod!?! And you sold me both the Teklight and the sterilizer!!:razz:

[The Grizz]

MAG 36 pump from a CanReef member from Ft Mac, impeller was seized into the pump. Once I got it out found the cover over the magnet was split and the magnet itself was broken into 3 pieces.

[viperfish]

Rod!?! And you sold me both the Teklight and the sterilizer!!:razz:

... and you were happy with the fixture, it just didn't work for me. I had just bought it, it was on it's first set of bulbs, at half the price I paid, and in brand new condition you did get a good deal. There are lots out there that love their TEK light, so go with your own opinion. As for the UV I sold it to you and bought a larger one right after, again I had just bought it when I decided to go bigger, all together I went through three of the damn things and nothing. I have bought and sold lots of stuff in this hobby and I promise you I have been nothing but fair to everyone. Just because I don't like something, that doesn't mean it's no good, just no good for me.

[ALang]

Fair comment!
Selling off the equipment that's totally wrong for you but might just be the cat's meow to another is fine, as long as the equipment is described/disclosed in an honest fashion.
We are always buying into bigger and better stuff. Doesn't mean the used stuff is not good, just not good enough for your application at this point in time.