Question of the Day Well, I regret that! What's your worst aquarium purchase?

[Art]

We've all been there. Sometimes you learn by making a mistake. Here's mine, that I can remember. There's more I'm sure.

1. One time I really got into experimenting on the need for flow in the tank so I purchased a very good powerhead. I was thinking I can position it in such as way that I would get general flow improvements. Wrong!! It looks like a hurricane in there. Even the fish were huddled in a corner wondering what the heck was happening. Into the old aquarium equipment box it went...
2. I got really excited with some wonderful stems Tom had in his aquarium. Beautiful plants! I had a new aquarium so I went for it with dreams of a Dutch-inspired wonderland. My wife would be so proud! Yeah, no. Half of them melted right away and the other half grew like weeds in my UNS 90L. If I didn't trim them constantly, they would burst through the top like a volcano. Most of the time, they were either looking beat up because I trimmed them or way overgrown. There were a few days in there that they looked nice. $$$ down the drain.
3. I tried my hand at Jack Watley discus many years ago. I still cringe at how poorly they did and ultimately died. Still painful for me. $$$$

How about you?

 

[Quagulator]

1) I bought a bunch of bags of eco-complete and paid for expensive heavy weight shipping only to find out years later it is a completely inert substrate. I never really liked planting into it, and it turned kind of grey instead of staying black.
2) Same time as buying the eco-complete, I bought a power compact 2x96 watt fluorescent light fixture - it was a great light for growing plants, however the bulbs were extremely expensive and I was under the impression I had to replace them on an annual basis.
3) I took a stab at some expensive discus, only for them to never really thrive and die off. Costly error however I will try again with the knowledge I know have.

 

[ayman.roshdy]

1. Bought 2 stainless steel water heaters, they were supposed to be piece of the art back then, but they turned out to have a problem and can boil the fish to death
2. Bought a lot of stones for the hardscape, and turned out to stack them on top of each other in the balcony
3. Bought substrate more than needed by my tanks (although I could have calculated it), and turned out to use it in my planted pots so that I don't throw them away
4. Bought very cheap acrylic tank, the one that is all-in-one (filter + light .... etc.) and I couldn't use it because it is very small to be used with any fish, but I am planning to use it as a shrimp tank non

 

[GreggZ]

Power heads. Too much flow is worse than too little.

Purigen. Makes no difference in a well balanced tank.

Drop Checker. Not precise enough for my needs.

Alage eaters: Most create more waste than they remove.

Shrimp. In my tank a very expensive snack for my Rainbowfish.

CO2 diffuser. Build a reactor and you will never regret it.

CSM+B. Lot's of reasons.

Liquid Fertilizer. 98% water and packaging. Very little fertilizer.

Bubble counter. BPS means nothing. In a larger tank a flow meter is a much better investment.

Mechanical timers. Smart power strips are 50 times better.

Cheap pH pens. You rent them. High quality BNC connected double junction probes last for many years.

I am sure there are more I just have to look in the box in my basement that has all the useless stuff in it.

Here's a similar question........what is your best aquarium purchase?

 

[JPog]

Worst purchase for me is anything that added unnecessary (IMO) equipment to the tank, which includes:

Heaters
Skimmers
Powerheads

Here's a similar question........what is your best aquarium purchase?

I'll bite, topless, well you know I mean open top rimless. Love that you can extend hardscape/plants above the water and get an unobstructed view of the plants from the top. @GreggZ you need one more tank to experience this. Add in some glass lily pipes because I think you'll really enjoy the maintenance on them.

 

[GreggZ]

Worst purchase for me is anything that added unnecessary (IMO) equipment to the tank, which includes:

Heaters
Skimmers
Powerheads



I'll bite, topless, well you know I mean open top rimless. Love that you can extend hardscape/plants above the water and get an unobstructed view of the plants from the top. @GreggZ you need one more tank to experience this. Add in some glass lily pipes because I think you'll really enjoy the maintenance on them.

Thanks for reminding me I forgot to add heaters!!!

I do love the look of the open top rimless tanks. The problem for me is that Rainbowfish are known jumpers, so my canopy helps keep them in the tank.

 

[JPog]

Thanks for reminding me I forgot to add heaters!!!

I do love the look of the open top rimless tanks. The problem for me is that Rainbowfish are known jumpers, so my canopy helps keep them in the tank.

That's true it would have to be another tank minus the rainbows or you'd have to keep the water line pretty low which would cut down on the vertical plant space, so yeah won't work for you.

 

[BigWave]

Cheap CO2 regulator from Ebay. Close second is cheap scissors, tweezers etc. Stay far away haha.

 

[RazzVegas]

Fluval 3.0 LED lights. Reading reviews on it came highly recommended. For the price, it was prettty much worthless on what I wanted to accomplish. Just made my tank look like somebody took a leak in it it was so yellow.

 

[Art]

Power heads. Too much flow is worse than too little.

Purigen. Makes no difference in a well balanced tank.

Drop Checker. Not precise enough for my needs.

Alage eaters: Most create more waste than they remove.

Shrimp. In my tank a very expensive snack for my Rainbowfish.

CO2 diffuser. Build a reactor and you will never regret it.

CSM+B. Lot's of reasons.

Liquid Fertilizer. 98% water and packaging. Very little fertilizer.

Bubble counter. BPS means nothing. In a larger tank a flow meter is a much better investment.

Mechanical timers. Smart power strips are 50 times better.

Cheap pH pens. You rent them. High quality BNC connected double junction probes last for many years.

I am sure there are more I just have to look in the box in my basement that has all the useless stuff in it.

Here's a similar question........what is your best aquarium purchase?

Wow! Big list!

 

[Art]

Here's a similar question........what is your best aquarium purchase?

Apex controller. Huge peace of mind for me with automation and alerts.

 

[Art]

Close second is cheap scissors, tweezers etc. Stay far away haha.

Yes! Saving a few bucks because I'm cheap and then seeing them rust in no time. Painful!

 

[LeperKuN]

I wanted a tiny pump to put inside my tank. I got a Hydor Pico 70 pump, it is tiny but the output doesn't have the angle I wanted and it comes with a mount that's huge. This happened last month.

Buying a used Fzone filter. It's a great filter but I have no recourse to get a refund. The hose it needs is too big for the tank I have. The lily pipes that fits my tank is simply too long for the hose to go under the pipes without kinks. I don't want to drill my stand but I might have to. Instead I got a oase thermo 100. Maybe the best filter I've bought.

Co2art regulator is probably the worse of the worse purchase I've made. Strongly recommended by many, good reviews etc. I guess a used Honda Civic is a great car until you know what it's like to have a new sports car. The regulator stopped working in two weeks due to (according to them) a vlog, then a month later three working pressure will never go under 60psi.. They were so reluctant to replace it so I simply stopped trying and accept the loss. Went with Alan Le for a custom regulator and I just love it!

I was also a victim of eco-incomplete for same reasons others stated. This was my first "aquasoil", turned out to be bullshit haha. I had 6 bags.

Buying seeds from an India supplier without knowing how to germinate it. It was a good experience that I will visit again.

RO buddie because of the low output. I should have coughed up another hundred or two to get 4x the flow with less waste.

 

[GreggZ]

I wanted a tiny pump to put inside my tank. I got a Hydor Pico 70 pump, it is tiny but the output doesn't have the angle I wanted and it comes with a mount that's huge. This happened last month.

Buying a used Fzone filter. It's a great filter but I have no recourse to get a refund. The hose it needs is too big for the tank I have. The lily pipes that fits my tank is simply too long for the hose to go under the pipes without kinks. I don't want to drill my stand but I might have to. Instead I got a oase thermo 100. Maybe the best filter I've bought.

Co2art regulator is probably the worse of the worse purchase I've made. Strongly recommended by many, good reviews etc. I guess a used Honda Civic is a great car until you know what it's like to have a new sports car. The regulator stopped working in two weeks due to (according to them) a vlog, then a month later three working pressure will never go under 60psi.. They were so reluctant to replace it so I simply stopped trying and accept the loss. Went with Alan Le for a custom regulator and I just love it!

I was also a victim of eco-incomplete for same reasons others stated. This was my first "aquasoil", turned out to be bullshit haha. I had 6 bags.

Buying seeds from an India supplier without knowing how to germinate it. It was a good experience that I will visit again.

RO buddie because of the low output. I should have coughed up another hundred or two to get 4x the flow with less waste.

This is a great post!! Much to be learned there.

 

[BagOcroW]

Worst purchase? Marineland C360 filter. That thing sprung a leak by cracking in the middle of the plastic housing. Not a seam, not an edge, just right in the middle of one of the side panels. Made one hell of a mess.

 

[BigWave]

@LeperKuN, eco-incomplete hahahaha good one.
Joking aside I still keep my eco complete around some 8 yrs later because it makes a great cap for soil tanks. But yes it grew plants well until the nutrients wore off (a few months).

 

[*Ci*]

To revive this (useful!) thread:

1) Seneye Pond system - so wildly inaccurate as to be entirely usless.

2) Marineland Magnum Polishing filter - long ago I had a Votex DE filter that did wonders for polishing water, but they seem to be unavailable nowadays. I bought this and it just does not work the same. In fact it doesn’t work at all with food grade DE and I can’t find pool grade anywhere local or online in Canada!

3) A lot of stuff on Greggs list - drop checker, bubble counter, wave powerheads, cheap pH pens, supposedly accurate ‘lab grade’ test strips, etc.