What's the best piece of equipment you have purchased for your reef?

[Belgian Anthias]

I didn't buy it, I made it myself. I have several of them, with different functions. Refugia!
In the sense of an open bio-filter or and a closed MBR ( moving bed bioreactor)!?
Refugia can have any function you want. If you use it for live food cultivation, at the same time you are also able to manage the nutrient balance in the system as desired. What is not fed can be harvested and exported, even end up on your dining table.

 

[725196]

This is too difficult to choose. Maybe impossible. You can’t have an aquarium without a tank so... but I get the intent of the question. I will answer this from the piece of equipment I think is doing the most important job for me at this point in time, or rather I piece I want to “brag” I have.

The Icecap ATS. I was having a bad issue with hair algae and tried everything I could think of. Then I got an ATS and with in weeks the HA was gone. It has not come back in over 5 months. I harvest ever 7-10 days and my phosphates and nitrates are right where I want them.

Runner up: my ATO. Also an Icecap (not planned out that way but I am very happy with it).

Wanted equipment that I don’t have. Neptune Apex. “It will be mine. Oh, yes! It will be mine”

 

[725196]

This. It’s a prefilter for an ro/di booster pump that I use to stabilize my calcium reactor effluent drip. I modified it to accept a generic nylon automotive fuel filter screen. My effluent drip rate has been at exactly 1 per second for over two weeks now.



This is my backup just in case

Can you give a bit more info on what it does and how you use it?

 

[Crustaceon]

Can you give a bit more info on what it does and how you use it?

Sure! The idea here is that our little ball valves/ needle valves that we use to set calcium reactor effluent flow get clogged really easily by tiny particulates that normally float around our system or break off of the media in our calcium reactors. The slower the drip rate, the faster the clogging because there’s simply no space within the valve to “pass” even the tiniest particles. By placing a filter just after the calcium reactor and before the ball/needle valve, we’re able to prevent those particulates from reaching the effluent valve and clogging it and as a result, run a very slow drip rate through our effluent valves. This will also allow the Co2 bubble rate into the calcium reactor to be reduced.

I did a write up on it here (I’m testing my backup version right now and it’s doing great too):

Crusty’s Mark I Effluent Valve Filter

I posted a pick in a different thread of my version of what some big names in the hobby use to stabilize the drip rate of their calcium reactor by preventing effluent valve clogging. In a nutshell, the idea is to place a filter before the effluent valve so any crud from the tank or calcium...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[mattdg]

I suppose I take my ATO for granted, but I have to say that easy to clean, high output, reliable pumps such as my MP40's and Tunzes, make this hobby SO MUCH more manageable and enjoyable.

I've been keeping reefs long enough to remember when it was nearly impossible to get the proper turnover in a large reef tank, without 3x20 amp breakers and hardware that took a seasoned plumber to install.

Equipment might be WAY more expensive now, but it is SO much better that it used to be.

 

[Eric Miller]

Apex and Kessils 360 we, also my Eshopps Skimmer120 does a pretty good job.

 

[Ryan Wolf]

Neptune Apex— bar none! Automation, alerts, dosing and piece of mind. Makes the hobby fun too!!!

 

[Jen1978]

Def the RO/DI. My not so LFS is over 45 minutes away.

 

[Dana Riddle]

I have preferences on lighting (ReeFi) but I must say the Trident/Apex has been a game changer. The ability to monitor calcium, magnesium and alkalinity and control their concentrations has resulted in coral growths that are apparent daily to my eye. I'm dosing Fauna Marin Ca/Mg/Alk supplements. Incredible.

 

[danschoenherr]

I gotta say the Tunze ATO. I have one on every tank, and no failures.

 

[tippin.turtle]

I like all my reef gear but I must say the most bang for the buck for me is this little gem.
VCA's random flow generator...fantastic!

 

[MoH]

I have bunch of reef gear that I value but without some type of ATO reefing would suck