Do you buy more stuff than you will ever need?

FishyFishFish · Feb 6, 2022

I am a sucker for good deals and bargains, even if it ends up with me buying more stuff than I will ever need.

I have enough salt to last me about 5 years and I have just bought 20lbs of rock for a Pico tank!

Does anyone else suffer the same problem? If you don't, how do you control yourself? If you do, what ridiculous purchases have you made?

blaxsun · Feb 6, 2022

I try to limit purchases to what I need as opposed to what I want, and immediately get rid of anything that I tried and didn't work (either sell or give it away).

shakacuz · Feb 6, 2022

i am a firm believer in: better over prepared than under.

however, i try to really make sure the purchase is necessary/worthwhile. in my case, it makes sense to not have more than 1 SW container with salt mixed, because i do no water changes. if i did, then having more would be good. so i have more FW available than SW.

fish farmer · Feb 6, 2022

No. I look for deals, but keep the stock within reason. I got back up RO/DI filters and enough salt for a year, I'll buy those when there is a sale.

I've been actually purging a lot of my old stock of pumps, etc. If it don't work quite right...it's gone. I've recently torn down a couple systems.....I think I should hold onto the antique Fiji/Haitian rock....but I don't expect to ever use much of it.

Daniel@R2R · Feb 10, 2022

Yep...I'm a reef hoarder...

galantra · Feb 10, 2022

Reefhoader here I have tons of stuff that you never know my need. Lol

Dahaker89 · Feb 10, 2022

Reef hoarder as well. Can we include corals in this thread? I’m a coral hoarder as well lmaoo

jassermd · Feb 10, 2022

Likewise... hoarder when it comes to testing supplies, salt, medications, and back up equipment.
I have 2 backups of all reagents, 4 months of salt (minimum), and enough meds to treat all my fish regardless of the disease, and a back up of all probes, pumps, and powerheads.
Oh, and I also hoard Legos, but that's another issue altogether!

FishyFishFish · Feb 10, 2022

I've just bought another Pico tank.

My justification to myself is that I have loads of supplies that I need to use up ;Facepalm

bnord · Feb 10, 2022

Did my wife put you up to this question?

Tmrvstyle · Feb 10, 2022

Absolutely I keep more than I need, I won't admit I but things I won't use but after 2 decades I keep everything that works in case I need back up parts or things.

Fishfreak2009 · Feb 10, 2022

FishyFishFish said:
I am a sucker for good deals and bargains, even if it ends up with me buying more stuff than I will ever need.

I have enough salt to last me about 5 years and I have just bought 20lbs of rock for a Pico tank!

Does anyone else suffer the same problem? If you don't, how do you control yourself? If you do, what ridiculous purchases have you made?

I'm a complete reef hoarder, anything and everything that could possibly be used for something down the road is saved.

I also can't pass up good deals on fish, and will build stuff around purchases I made while they sit in quarantine. I also tend to get caught up in @AquaSD 's ebay auctions, and spend way more and buy way more than I should. I'm going to have to get more frag racks at the rate I'm going...

I'm hopelessly addicted to reefing, but my wife's just as bad as I am, so it works out ok

otzhorse · Feb 10, 2022

I have found I am a hoarder as well. Although it's stuff I've tried and somewhat like but buy something else I like better. Lights, pumps, testing supplies, etc. As I learn more I buy more. I need to stop before my wife catches me.

Karen00 · Feb 10, 2022

This is my first tank but I already have enough stuff to start up two more. LOL I have become an equipment and coral hoarder. On top of enough equipment to start up two more tanks I also enough coral to stock them. LOL I hope they're slow growers because I only have a 5g. Haha.

Doofus · Feb 10, 2022

Yep. If I didn't have a basement I would have to rent storage.

Labridaedicted · Feb 10, 2022

Wow. What a callout. Not only do I buy way more nonsense than I need, but I also never get rid of things. I have a public aquariums worth of equipment and tanks around the house now.... much to my wife's dismay.

FishyFishFish · Feb 10, 2022

Well this thread has backfired.

I was hoping everyone was going to come in and give me their techniques for only buying what you need!

Fishfreak2009 · Feb 10, 2022

Doofus said:
Yep. If I didn't have a basement I would have to rent storage.

No basement here, but the double deep 2 car garage sure comes in handy

Tamberav · Feb 10, 2022

I buy salt, bulbs, filters and stuff during sales. Keep about a years worth on hand. I try to purge excess reef equipment yearly but do have a good amount of excess around and I have QT tanks and fish meds and all that stuff.

brahm · Feb 10, 2022

I used to buy a lot of tear-downs. Now I have "a" spare of things given the remote area that I'm in, and try to keep as few on hand of things that I've noticed sell out from time to time (fleece for rollermatt, and trident reagent).

The only thing I'd say I have in abundance is frozen food since it can sometimes be 3 weeks or 3 months between traveling to an area with a LFS and I'd prefer to avoid paying to ship frozen foods.