Your worst and best purchases?

tank o tang · Mar 23, 2018

What is the worst purchase that sticks out since you started reefing? Your best purchase?

My worst is probably a prism skimmer (absolutely useless) that the lfs sold me as a newb.

My best are my mp40's. I hate seeing any wires in the display tank and love the flow.

pelphrey · Mar 23, 2018

Worst - Small tank!

Best - Sand, I started without sand and added sand 6ish months into the tank being running. Much happier with the look of the tank with sand. Much more natural.

Crabs McJones · Mar 23, 2018

Worst - cheap return pump (ended up failing on me)
Best - Good return pump

still going strong to this day

Kamden Uelton · Mar 23, 2018

Worst - Protein Skimmer, Took all the nutrients away from my sponges
Best - Feather Stars, Not something everyone gets to keep alive. Having success with them is even better

Greybeard · Mar 23, 2018

Worst, well recently, at least, Reefkeeper Lite. Started loosing it's mind 6 months in, no support from manufacturer, bad decision all around. Thankfully, it's gone now, and I'm an Apex user.

Best deal is probably the used Vertex 180i skimmer I bought. A friend bought it new on black Friday, couldn't get it to run right for him. I bought it, cheap, from him, found that it had a broken impeller shaft, which I replaced. Been the best skimmer I've ever owned.

The one thing I'm the most happy with, probably my RODI system. Bought a dual home/reef system from AirWaterIce, plumbed it to my ATO reservoir, filling station, and to a drinking water faucet and icemaker. My install makes it very easy to maintain, and I have excellent water quality both for the reef, and in the kitchen. Honestly, if I were to shut down my reef, I'd keep the RO system, though I might close down the DI side, since it's only used for the reef.

jp_75 · Mar 23, 2018

what do you mean by cheap? jebao?

twf0369 · Mar 23, 2018

Worst for me was the Gen 1 Radions....Best, probably my ATI fixture.

AdamNC · Mar 23, 2018

Worst - About 10-11 years ago was a Sea Clone skimmer. The absolute worst even more so than my Remora.

Best - My Apex. Self explanatory.

hart24601 · Mar 23, 2018

Best? ATO. I can't think of anything that wrecks a tank faster than salinity changing and requires that much daily work if manually adjusting. Plus can dose kalk via ATO which can be enough dosing for many tanks.

Worst? Well the most expensive is a custom 120 aquarium for several thousand dollars. The tank is great, but I don't like big reefs I found out. I prefer nanos and pics. Updgrade = smaller, downgrade = larger although I am well aware I am in the minority. The 120 is now a FW tank and I upgraded to a 4g cube reef.

Honestly over the years I have wasted a lot of money on gear that just didn't work or didn't live up to the product claims. AKA underpowered LED lights, some filters, heck I can't remember it all. Plus supplements that really didn't do anything I could see. I am lucky that from what I can remember my bad choices have only wasted money, not killed livestock at least.

EDIT: Ok the last worst buy I did was a 1st gen SURF 2 floating scrubber. It was expensive (300 I think?) and I wanted it to be my only main filtration. I even had a thread on algae scrubbers forums documenting progress. Not only didn't it work to reduce nutrients that set the tank back months if not years to correct, but the thing literally fell apart despite me babying it.

madweazl · Mar 23, 2018

Worst - 55g aquarium around '95; dimensions are terrible for everything.

Best - Probably the MP40s; they are probably the single most beneficial item in the system. The ReefAngel would be a close second as it provides a tremendous level of convenience and consistency to the system.

Opus · Mar 23, 2018

I can't decide on my best purchase. Love my Buildmyled lights. I believe they were the best LEDs on the market, they look just like T5s over the tank. Wish the pot business hadn't gotten so lucrative and they still made them. My other great purchase was my Deltec HOB skimmer, I believe it is a MC500. Got a great price on it and it truly is a great skimmer for a HOB. I've had many HOBs over the years and it blows them all away. I always stayed away from them because of the price but now I'm a firm believer that they are worth it.

Worst would have to be the Majano Wand I bought. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I can't get it to kill anything.

hart24601 · Mar 23, 2018

Opus said:
I can't decide on my best purchase. Love my Buildmyled lights. I believe they were the best LEDs on the market, they look just like T5s over the tank. Wish the pot business hadn't gotten so lucrative and they still made them. My other great purchase was my Deltec HOB skimmer, I believe it is a MC500. Got a great price on it and it truly is a great skimmer for a HOB. I've had many HOBs over the years and it blows them all away. I always stayed away from them because of the price but now I'm a firm believer that they are worth it.

Worst would have to be the Majano Wand I bought. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I can't get it to kill anything.

Forgot about Majano wands, I had one and it was a waste of money too. Neat for a few min, but just didn't work at all for me.

FredsNJReef · Mar 23, 2018

Best: Tunze 3155 ATO. Keeps salinity steady and saves my back every other day lol.

Worst: Zoa colonies on rock bases. Even after dipping, I am getting hitch hikers that I am battling now :-(

Bouncingsoul39 · Mar 23, 2018

Best: Tunze ATO
Worst: GARF Grunge (I wanted to seed my dead rock tank with life and instead seeded it with dog hair and Aiptasia)

Runners up:
Best: Inkbird controller from Amazon to control my fan and heater. Gives me a nice big temp readout too.
Worst: Dead Pukani/Fji Rock

lbacha · Mar 23, 2018

Worst: going cheap and getting a Reefkeeper lite with thoughts up upgrading it

Best: new apex 2016, it gave me everything out of the box

I'm hoping my new best will be the Orphek Atlantik v4 that arrives today

Jeepguy242 · Mar 23, 2018

Best: reef octopus skimmer

Worst: digital aquatics archon used from a member here. Couldn’t get it set up on my network.

Adele · Mar 23, 2018

Best: probably my dual Maxspect Gyres. Love the back and forth flow. My candy canes have never been happier and no/minimal dead spots anywhere in my 90 Gal.
Worst: nice concept bad design. An Acclimate acclimation container. Suction cup design came off the tank sending two fish and a cleaner shrimp skidding across the floor.
One word - Magnets!

JBKReef · Mar 23, 2018

Worst- The marineland stand included with my 93 cube. I had toyed with a custom stand build and kick myself every other day for not going down that road. Limited access, poor materials, and inadequate support.

Best- Becoming a Reef2Reef supporter. (Gotta suck up when you can) In honesty I would say my Apex, having the piece of mind to know the tank is functioning properly when away from it is a piece of mind you can not compete with.

sundog101 · Mar 23, 2018

Best: ranco temp controller

Worst: tunze nano ato (not osmolator)

XNavyDiver · Mar 23, 2018

Bouncingsoul39 said:
Best: Tunze ATO
Worst: GARF Grunge (I wanted to seed my dead rock tank with life and instead seeded it with dog hair and Aiptasia)

Runners up:
Best: Inkbird controller from Amazon to control my fan and heater. Gives me a nice big temp readout too.
Worst: Dead Pukani/Fji Rock