Be honest - did you waste your money?

[Jax15]

I know it’s not equipment but.... gosh darn cyphastrea. Every couple months I’m like okay this one will live. Nope.

I've never had good luck with that coral either. I had big dreams of WWC Bizarro forests...

 

[reefaroo]

Being Friday I thought it would be fun to get a list of item (gadgets, gimmicks, exciting 'new tech', etc.) that you purchased over the years that you can honestly look back on and say "yep, wasted my money on that". It's OK we are only human and we won't judge you (much). Off the top of my head when running freshwater I fell for the undergravel filter "you'll never have to clean your substrate if you use this" deal. If you want a giant detritus trap yeah those work GREAT!

I bought a used salt aquarium in the 70's. It was my first. I think it was a 29 gallon. It had an under gravel filter that looked like green Eheim tubing! Didn't last. I guess it was a waste of money. LOL

 

[Crashnt24]

All the short cut methods I did when starting a saltwater tank. Sure it got me in the game a lot sooner than saving up 20grand but in the end, it was wasted money.

-DIY HOB overflow(it worked great actually)
-DIY sump glass baffles in a 20g(also worked great)
-Marineland reef pro leds(only grew softies and a lonely goni)
-Cheap skimmer from Petco(didn't work great)
-Cheap powerheads
-Swing arm hydrometers
-Beginner corals that became so invasive that I tossed good rock.
- Neptune Dos dosing pumps. Bought two units and all 4 heads will not keep a prime after 24 hours. Literally hand dosing daily on Triton core. I'm actually the most upset about this one. Not only were the dosing pumps 700$, but I replaced tubing and tried everything to get them to work except replacing all four heads. I refuse to give anymore time or money on trying to get these to work.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I found some various chemical additives that I really have absolutely no use for now. And then there was a pair of powerheads that would not for the life of me stay put on the glass; so ended up replacing them with Aqua-Clear powerheads.

 

[terraincognita]

Being Friday I thought it would be fun to get a list of item (gadgets, gimmicks, exciting 'new tech', etc.) that you purchased over the years that you can honestly look back on and say "yep, wasted my money on that". It's OK we are only human and we won't judge you (much). Off the top of my head when running freshwater I fell for the undergravel filter "you'll never have to clean your substrate if you use this" deal. If you want a giant detritus trap yeah those work GREAT!

For me,

If you want to get into serious SPS Keeping and tanks.

Buying any non DC Pump is really a waste unless you're using it for mixing.

Why do they even make non/dc for saltwater when the Jebao is like 50 bucks.

sheesh.

 

[CMMorgan]

Add one more on the Orbit Marine Current Regret Wagon....

The Orbit Marine LED isn't terrible. I got that on my first tank and it's still functioning. I have it on an angle so it casts a nice glow on the front of my rockwork. I have since subsidized a couple of older AI fixtures for the heavy lifting though.
I doubled down on the Current bug and ordered Eflux wave pumps. This was the biggest regret. They were not cheap. I have three of them. They move a ton of water... and they are supposed to be controllable. Yea, clearly I must be an idiot then because I can never get more than one working at a time and it runs full blast. You have to use them with the manifold and the stupid 5 cent remote. So far... biggest waste of money. I'm embarrassed that I did it.
Yes... bought both before I found Reef2Reef... can I get a 30 day chip or something?

 

[snorklr]

another vote for the current orbit...first generation....dimmer than my power compact fixture....boy could that light grow cyano though

 

[Superlightman]

Two KZ Zeolite reactors....(but I love KZ additives)

Why?

 

[Dr. Jim]

Why?

I bought them when they first came out. Besides both pumps going bad in a couple of years and becoming obsolete with no possible way of replacing them, these reactors were a lot of work (pumping them every day, etc) and I didn't see any improvement in my tank in any way.