Be honest - did you waste your money?

[alysak6075]

an E-Shopps PSK skimmer. Pump isnt powerful enough to start on its own.

 

[Mkvc]

My fancy Vectra L2 return pump is way too powerful even on the lowest setting, so I can't really take advantage of any of its features. I should have just bought a normal one for half the price.

 

[dank reefer]

I have a couple for sale, and I've reduced the price greatly, sure you don't want to give them a try again?

I wouldn't take them even if you paid me! Nice try Sir!!!

 

[Fishko]

Havent really wasted any money on poor equipment because i was really reading up on others mistakes. I have overpaid on some livestock but not too much.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

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!

$7 dollar stream pumps, $8 pH sensors, I can go on and on. Pretty much waste of the money on cheap equipment.

 

[doodledreads]

Sounds great but also sounds like if I wanted their idea of a lighting setup I'd have to sell a kidney, one of my dogs, and my dvd collection of Clint Eastwood films.

Just sell both kidneys and get a skimmer to do the work.

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

wasted a fair amount of $ on various snails before I found that the only ones my puffer and trigger won't attack are large turbos. They somehow seem to survive. Kinds wish I had only gotten snail safe fish, but do love my trigger and puffer.

Relassy fuge light. built in timer resets every time the power goes out and screws up the lighting schedule.

A slightly undersized pump. Ended up selling and buying the largest one before I was happy with the flow. Smaller one worked, but I wasn't happy with it.

 

[AlexG]

JBJ Power compact lights - While they did work on my first reef the second reef tank I did with them proved to be a waste of money unless you wanted to grow lots of algae.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Too many to count. Am reminded of them every time I walk by that section of my garage.

 

[fish farmer]

Hanna phosphate checker....sorry I really disliked the fact that I had to go online to figure how to use it, the vials scratch easily, reagent packets are a pain to use. I don't dose phosphate, just need a ballpark which Salifert does for me.

 

[fresco194]

Orbit Marine Led light for my first light on new setup. Worst purchase I've made in the hobby.

+1 along with Current USA wavemakers. Went through 3 of them in about a year.

 

[38bill]

Not so much on the equipment end but I have wasted money on all the snake oil treatments trying to cure ick. None of them worked!

 

[Wes10C]

The koralia wave maker thingy was the biggest waste of 100 bucks.

 

[DSEKULA]

Apex display module was the worst buy ever for me. It came and didn't work out of the box, I sent back and was told it was water damaged even though I never got to even set it up thankfully brs stepped in to fix it since it came from them and potentially got damaged in shipping or storage etc. After having it a year everytime there's an apex software update it flashes orange for about 24-48 hours so I can maybe use it 1/3 of the time. Absolutely a waste of cash I'd buy a cheap pad if I was doing it again.

 

[Mike Kearns]

InTank chamber 2 media basket for my Fluval Evo 13.5. Not really their fault, the aio area is just badly designed. With the chamber 1 media basket in place, the water flows out near the bottom of the chamber straight into the input for chamber 3.

 

[btackerman]

For me unfortunately was the aquapure nitrate reactor. I purchased it with the tank and the gentleman before was able to keep up with it and his tank was amazing. I on the other hand ended up working 60+ hours a week being voulantold for overtime. Due to me not doing the proper maintenance I had a sulfur leak and I lost close to 3k of value in live stock.

 

[fresco194]

The koralia wave maker thingy was the biggest waste of 100 bucks.

+1 this also.

 

[bevo5]

I've wasted so much money during my 30ish years of keeping fish that I can't imagine. Easily five figures of pure, wasted money.

Some of the most wasteful - selling equipment when I take down a tank only to put it back up a couple years later and have to go buy all that stuff again. Buying large skimmers is expensive!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Purchasing a cone snail and being told it was a conch snail...killed everything in my aquarium.

 

[Jstn]

Apex display module was the worst buy ever for me. It came and didn't work out of the box, I sent back and was told it was water damaged even though I never got to even set it up thankfully brs stepped in to fix it since it came from them and potentially got damaged in shipping or storage etc. After having it a year everytime there's an apex software update it flashes orange for about 24-48 hours so I can maybe use it 1/3 of the time. Absolutely a waste of cash I'd buy a cheap pad if I was doing it again.

Junk for 100 bucks, I have had 2 died on me before giving up, it would be nice to have an easy way to tell temp without opening my phone