Don't waste your money on....

S

Scott Comstock

[Seeing as most of us don't seem to live on reefcentral (I can't stand how EVERYTHING seems to end up with bickering and flaming!) I thought that I would restart one of my favorite threads here. I think it's a good thing to help newbies avoid some of these products or animals.

In your opinion what is an absolute waste of time, money and/or energy in the marine aquarium trade <u>and why?</u>

I'll start... Seaclone skimmers. They need almost constant tweaking to produce skimate. They are worse than some of my coworkers, leave them alone for an hour and they stop working.

:p]
 
[Rio powerheads (old style, new hyperflows are supposed to be ok) They will melt in your tank

Kalkwasser, find it at Albertsons labled "picling lime" for 169$ a pound

Prepackaged live sand from the LFS. Buy some southdown and borrow a cup from an established system.

Cheap saltwater test kits, Several of the tests are pretty bad but the tha ALK reads, High, OK, and low..]
 
[Additives in general - if you do water changes like you should, you will never have to add those additives (at 20$ a bottle its rediculous)

Pet Store solid calcium - go to Leslies Pool Supply, look for or ask for the Water Hardener, look at ingrediants and make sure its calcium. 10$ for 15 lbs, compared to the 20$ for 12 ounces at the pet stores. Just mix 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons in a glass of freshwater till dissolved and then pore into tank.

Pet Store frozen food - why pay 5$ for a pack of mostly water cubes when you can make it yourself so much cheaper with a maximum variety of ingrediants from the grocery store, or better yet buy the food I bring to the meeting, only 5$ a QUART bag!]
 
[This one may be controversial still ...

Bio Balls

They are nitrate makers - they work for awhile, but then your nitrates go up after only a month or so.

Good for slingshots, though, and they make a wonderful WHIZZZ sound!

Oh - and those plastic tongs for moving rocks around. I use mine to feed my fishies, but even then, they break really easy!]
 
[Whoa Whoa Whoa... why we bashing the SeaClone. Haha, just kidding, they are pretty bad. Mine skimms pretty good, constantly foaming, i have to empty it out every night. And it helps keep my nitrates and every thing down. I'm at 5ppm right now. It went up from zero because i'v been over feeding. I wouldn't use it on anything larger on a 55 though. I totally agree about the aditives. If you do weekly water changes, most salts have every major and minor trace element needed.]
 
[ZooMed powersweep powerheads. Nifty little gadgets that have a sweeping motion on the water outlet. They get blocked up and stop working easily. They also add LOTS of heat to the tank. Not worth the trouble.]
 
[Everyone may not agree but I would like to add PC lighting and skimmers that retail below 200$.

PC's
The cost of PC lighting is too much considering you can do VHO's or halides for the $$ spent. The cost of replacements bulbs almost are the same as halide bulbs. To replace 4 65 watt bulbs would cost 30+ each (120+$) for 260 watts. You could just as easily buy XM halide bulbs and get better results, 350 watts(if have duel 175's). I have 2X96 Pc as supplement but sooner or later will by some VHO's.

Skimmer's less than 200$
With a few exceptions (smallest euroreef or remora w/MJ) they are almost all a waste of money, not to mention time trying to get a cheap one "dialed in".]
 
[Profile and azoo air pumps. They are so loud! I had a couple on my tank in my living room and it was so loud it distracted from my tv. I couldn't imagine them in a bedroom. I just discovered Tetratec deep and it is MUCH quieter. Still can be heard but, wow, the difference.
laura]
 
[I agree with most that was posted above but never had an issue with rio power heads... lucky I guess.

The cost of MH fixtures and bulbs vs. the cost of a PC fixture and bulbs as said above you get more bang for your buck with MH.

Crushed coral that is just those little shells (not crushed)which hold stuff inside the shell that can't be vacuumed out... hate phosphates.

Anything that is used like algae be gone.
Seachem reef buffer which falls under additives that someone mentioned. (only works for a short time)

Things I love and will never part with.
My refractometer
My hand held pH meter. (color blind here hea)
CalxMax 2 parter cal and alk buffer combo.]
 
[Won-Pro heaters (titanium usually), mine just burned up once again and got my tank to 90 (luckily nothing important's in it yet). It was in my sump and when I took it out, it looked as if something corroded it to the ceramic. Gee, I thought they were to be used in fresh AND saltwater!

I'll also say Rio pumps, loud and non-trustworthy.]
 
[silversides at LFS. sell for $1.69/lb at any asian market. they are called smelts or silverfish.

and sea weed at your LFS. at the asian market they sell nori a huge pack for only 2.50]
 
[New widows, women that wear pearls with plaid, women in therapy nor women who have tattoos of daggers anywhere on their body.]
 
[
In your opinion what is an absolute waste of time said:
hmmm tough one, I'm going to have to say most liverock from a LFS. I don't think most LFS put the time and effort into properly curing thier rock for the best results and the results are often pretty poor at best.

I've never heard a good thing about a weis product...

DAS built in filters. I think DAS makes a great tank, but I think thier filters are junk and are part of the reason for so many bad looking reefs and algae problems. The skimmers are to small (new model looks a little better) and the bio-spool is a joke and goes against everything that is known about fish keeping in general IMO anyways.]
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@blide wrote:
[One word! "Petco said:
"]
[I agree with that almost. Their is ONE, yes ONE in richardson that has some corals and some good deals on fish. 20$ fairy wrasse anyone? No one can beat that price, not even online.]
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@blide wrote:
[One word! "Petco said:
"]
[Well some time petco will throw a sale on you like when I got my 80 gallon tank for 80 bucks. to bad they didn't have the 120 gallon tanks for a $1 a gallon.

Some times they have some nice fish also.
The one by parks mall would let me order my fish that they had on the list they have. They make the money on all the other stuff like heaters and filters etc...

Fish Paradise cures the rock they have very well and never had an issue with that.

Non floating algae scrubbers are a don't get item.]
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