I'm doing a bit of research and was wondering what people wish they were able to hire/rent equipment wise for reef and fresh water aquariums. Something you'd like to use but don't necessarily want to spend the money to buy and own.
I thought of a few,
Par meter
The new Reef delete pen thingy majig
Maybe even a generator for emergency situations
But what else?
PAR meter, definitely!!
I’d like to try out lighting before I throw down $100s of dollars. Seriously, how do you know a Kessil is better than AI if you don’t get to try it! I mean, practical stuff like ease of installation, WiFi, the controller, which accessories to buy, size. PAR on its own can be a little unpredictable. I’d love to see how a Kessil stands up to my cheap knockoff with equivalent PAR and that’d take a few days.
A MICROSCOPE!!! Not just any microscope but one that has the option to save views on a computer. I’ve got one but without being able to save results, it’s hard to compare samples. I think I’d have to draw them like high school. I also don’t have all the lenses i want.
My LFS has some super fancy expensive testing kits that have fast results. I’d love to have those for a few days to test before & after scenarios: new equipment, supplements, etc. I could take in the water every day but that would annoy the heck out of them!!
A really sturdy trash bin on practical wheels (I think it’s a Brute that I’m thinking of) to hold fish and water while I finally fix those giant scratches on my acrylic tank. I mean, maybe even one with a drainage valve. I bought one of the large city trash type cans because it was much cheaper. It was about to pop when filled with water, and I couldn’t move it without tipping it over. It’s black so hard to see into. Now I don’t know what to do with it. I mean, it’s huge and my city only does bags. I don’t want to use it for temporary trash or storage in case I need it for fish or water again. Sigh.
On that note, maybe a temporary tank so I can pull out my live rock and reorganize it without have having a million buckets. I’m sure my bathtub would work but it’ll be a huge mess and quite a messy walk. Similarly, a short term loaned tank could be a hospital tank and hang out on the kitchen counter for a few weeks. Some of us are out of storage room or just don’t want to buy an extra tank if we could borrow one.
Ooooh this list could go on for awhile!
