# What's the worst purchase you ever made?



## MiamiAG

I'll start.

Powerhead that oscillates back and forth. Died within a week.


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## Phil Edwards

Fluval *04 series. The handles broke the first time I tried putting it together.


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## panaque

Warm white bulbs for a planted tank...I had a really bad outbreak of BBA that I attribute mainly to them. I switched them out with aquarilux bulbs. They are cheap, provide proper spectrum, and can be found at most hardware stores.


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## MiamiAG

Forgot one. Rio pump. Broke almost immediately. :evil:


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## Chuck H

Totally useless Red Sea PO4 and Fe test kits. I never got a decent reading from either kit despite having reference solutions that were in the middle of the kits' ranges where they should be most accurate. Swapping for new kits didn't change anything.


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## jerseyjay

Emperor 400 - the waterfall. 

This was back in a days. :roll:


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## Gomer

ditto
Totally useless Red Sea Fe test kit. ...anyone want to buy a hardly used test kit ?


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## Raul-7

Fluval 304...almost made me vow never to touch another canister again! :roll:


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## litesky

I dont remember the name of this (supposedly algae eating) fish. It's huge and it's mouth is formed to suck on things. I bought it at an lfs(tong's) for $24 bucks with a two day guarantee. It didnt' even eat a single bit of algae(any type) and died on the beginning of the third day.


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## Wheeler

Man, I really like my Fluval canisters... Never had a problem. Are you guys playing football with them?!

Anyway-- worst thing I ever bought (besides a 30" aquarium) was a product called Aquarium Plant Vital which was upposed to replace CO2. This was WAY before Excel which I hear works well. I think it was a Mark Weiss product...Snake oil, it was totally worthless, IMO.


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## ryuken168

Emperor 400 ??? I love my bio-wheel, I think they work well besides the priming problem, but only good for fish tanks.
The worst filter I brought was the Whisper 3.
Besides that the JBJ algae magnet and the JBJ 2 way powerhead is also on top of my worst list and of cost the plastic plants.


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## jerseyjay

ryuken168 said:


> Emperor 400 ??? I love my bio-wheel, I think they work well besides the priming problem, but only good for fish tanks.


Exactly Ken. 
I was giving my review from plant-geek perspective. Works like a charm on my Malawi Lake tank, but counter-productive in planted tanks.


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## IUnknown

Automatic Water Change System. Never really got it going.


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## gpodio

For me it has to be AmQuel, after more than 10 years of using Tetra Aquasafe for some stupid reason I decided to give AmQuel a shot. Killed all my apistos and rams in one day :-(

Disclaimer: it was obviously due to heavy metals in my tap water than AmQuel is not supposed to fix. Perhaps that was the most "stupid" purchase come to think of it 

Giancarlo Podio


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## ginnie5

*tap water purifier...*

when I first started keeping a tank I thought it would help with my liquid rock. I should've invested in an ro unit instead. I ended up tossing it when we moved. It was a pain and I had to change the inserts constantly. thanksfully I have wonderfully soft water now. Now all I have to do is add baking soda to keep the kh up!


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## Justin Fournier

I have used plenty of Red Sea test kits, P04 always worked great. Fe never worked great..... I wonder if it's operator error? Perhaps the color charts were read wrong or something......

Worst thing I ever bought was glass tops made by Hagen, specifically the ones for non-centerbraced tanks, with thier own plastic centerbrace...


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## nonamethefish

Whats so bad about Whisper filters? Im guessing its cause they are HOB?

I've got an emperor runnign on my 46 gallon bowfront. Even if you arent injecting Co2, is that a bad thing?


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## sergioveterano

I've boght a substrat cleaner, i've used one time.


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## hubbahubbahehe

My stupidest purchase was a canister filter that had a clip missing..... being a canister virgin, i had no idea that it would leak A TON of water into my house.....fellas if you are going to buy a canister filter used, make sure it has all the clips!!!! the dishonest seller might not even warn you about it!!!!


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## aquoi

Airstone (forgot the brand), no air comes out...


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## Daemonfly

Proper pH 7.0


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## hubbahubbahehe

ohhh you wanna hear of another stupid mistake...DO NOT buy those penn plax check valves/air filter/POS ...they don't "check" anything....I see water go straight through and into my air pump....


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## Stevenl

Daemonfly said:


> Proper pH 7.0


Yes I think that's the worst thing that I bought too :roll:


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## Chuck H

Justin Fournier said:


> I have used plenty of Red Sea test kits, P04 always worked great. Fe never worked great..... I wonder if it's operator error? Perhaps the color charts were read wrong or something......


Hey Justin,

I only just now saw your comment, and thought I'd explain why I pooped on the RS kits.

Operator error is always a possiblity with me, lol, but it was not the case with the kits I had, and I've never had trouble detecting color variations. My belief is that the kits where old -- sitting on the shelf for who knows how long -- and one or both of the reagents had expired. I think this is probably not an uncommon problem with certain "hobby" kits. My Hach kits come with dry reagents neatly packaged and premeasured, and an expiry is printed on the packs. They aren't cheap but worth every penny IMHO.


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## AV8TOR

For me the worst purchase was a skimmer for a reef tank. I bought a Red Sea Berlin skimmer and it was the most finicky thing I ever had. Then I made an ETS style skimmer and later a tall downdraft and really found out how bad the Red Sea really was as a skimmer. Lucky if it pulled out 20% of what the homemade did.


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## paul236313

i would have to sya a large container of jumbo shrimp for my cichlids then i changed over to a new planted tank with a community fish the food is bigger than my fish  it just sit on the shelf


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## mr greenjeans

*worthless...*

aquamedic membrane co2 diffuser. it diffused nothing.


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## plantbrain

Humm so many to chose from........

PO4 remover
Plastic plants
Snake oil algae killers are the most hated.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## midkiffsjoy

Justin Fournier said:


> I have used plenty of Red Sea test kits, P04 always worked great. Fe never worked great..... I wonder if it's operator error? Perhaps the color charts were read wrong or something......
> quote]
> 
> Might have been a bad batch. Thats happens from time to time.
> 
> Personally I was FURIOUS when I sent my mom on a trip to the LFS to pick up the ONLY 30" long glass top for 50 miles (I was busy setting up an emergency temp tank for some apple snails) , and it turned out to be 1/8th" window pane glass. Took 2 SECS out of the box for a corner to break. sigh. Learned my lesson!!! Now I dont even LOOK at anything that isnt 1/4". :lol:
> 
> Disclaimer: I didnt think to ask on the phone the glass thickness. Although (since it was a petco) I doubt the kid on the phone would have known the answer. I should have thought to ask. (Didnt occure to me when I found out that someone ACTULLY had one....pout...I just ASSUMED that it would be well.......of better quality)


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## midkiffsjoy

OHHHH JUST THOUGHT OF ONE!!!!! Mom ordered online, a huge master test kit. And when it arrived the dates on the different chems were already outdated. Wish I could remember where she ordered that from. I was like.......They did NOT !!!!! *sigh* :roll: 

She also says she doesnt care for her sea clone skimmer. I think it does fine......but she's not sure she likes it so I thought I'd list it.


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## Vinlo

I'd have to say..

Jungle Products Fizz Factory CO2 system..

Not only was it bulky and ugly in the tank, it didn't really seem to work at all. At least it came with a half way decent book on aquatic plants.


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## SAWALLACE

Wow... i've bought alot of junk.
Top 3 are:
Seachem's Fe test (worthless as far as i'm concerned)
Fluval 304(threw it away after a few years...PITA)
Kent's pro scraper

Flip side, best items i bought are:
PMDD supplies from greg watson
SAE's
Emperor 400 (works great for me, i don't understand how it's coumter productive for planted tanks)


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## seinfeldgold

The worst aquarium purchase I made is buying the cheapest Malaysian and the cheapest China made airpumps! My advice is DON'T ! Spend a bit more and get something worthy and reliable. Ever since I won't buy something that the dealer himself wouldn't use himself.


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## seinfeldgold

Oops..I also forgotten to also say that one of the worst aquarium product I ever bought was RED SEA marine salt. I have been using Sera marine salt and also Instant Ocean without any problems at all (for 4 years) before that. The dealer was having some specials and so I tried the RED SEA product with many corals dying after a couple of days. It was definitely the RED SEA salt that affected my marine aquarium.
Then I came across the much talked about "SF15 report" from AquaCraft Inc which revealed that independent university testing showed a high number of RED SEA marine salt batches bought for testing to have poor formula mixing and quality variations! Never again will I even take a chance on such shoddy products. Mind you, the packaging was beautiful if nothing else.


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## arcflame

VHO ballast kit. I figured I'd save money by just overdriving standard tubes. The standard tubes are cheap, but overdriving fries them in about 6 months, so you have to buy 3 tubes for every CF bulb. And overdriving the bulbs generated almost as much heat as a MH system.

55 gallon tank. Ok, I didn't buy it (it was given to me) but this has got to be one of the worst tanks, gallon for gallon, to use for planted aquaria. It's only 12 inches deep, and way too tall.


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## sumoarigato

Carbo-Plus CO2 system.
('nuff said)
:retard:


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## Nick

Worst planted tank purchase I made was a Dennerle substrate heating cable. Nowt wrong with the brand-they make some good stuff, but heating cables are rubbish. I turned it off and I swear the Crypts perked up. Dennerle ones are probably some of the most expensive you can by. I think heating cables are in general are rubbish and would never bother with them again.

Nick


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## joephys

An aquarium starter kit. The only origional piece of equimpment I have from the kit 8 months later is the tank. I have replaced the filter, heater, hood, and light (the new light was my second worst purchase. I wish I new about AHsupply).


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## Pyro

A $12 bottle of cycle from the LFS. Apparantly it's suppose to add benifical bacteria that improve fish health and cycle the tank and such. 
I didn't actually consider that bacteria probably didn't sit in a bottle at room temperature for 6 weeks.


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## plantbrain

Marc Weiss' Living Water Vital is one I recall vividly.
pH controllers
Heating cables

I really have few things I brought that where regretable.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## upikabu

Snail-removal gadget with a little ferris wheel type head that supposedly traps the snails as you move it back and forth on the glass and a small compartment for the snails to fall into. Trapped maybe one snail if I was lucky, the rest just got knocked off the glass & onto the substrate by the stupid thing.  It was an impulse buy on an overseas trip (Taiwan) - seemed like a good idea at the time.


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## Elkmor

pH test (shows weather in Australia), Fe test (shows weather on Mars), algae eaters (eats plants instead of algae), algae-killing-chems (changes one type of algae to another), yellow lamp (looks terrible) and HEATERS (lamps are real heaters)

I think, we could speak of greatest purchase too.  My cents are:
RO filter (now I can really control water), KH2PO4 (break away from old-tech myths)


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## ScottH.

I ordered the jbj lighting system with the fans. Great lights, but the fans are loud and after a year the three fans all failed. I ordered new ones and they are still noisy and they need to be cleaned or they make weird noises. When the lights turn on it sounds like the vacuum is on for about a minute.

Also, convict cichlids. I love them, but they love to destroy my tank everytime I make a layout. They think that their scaping skills are better than mine. I finally found a home for my last three.


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## mrbelvedere138

Is it just me or does it seem like anything made by Marc Weiss is snake-oil?


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## Chris S

silver dollar fish and rainbow cichlids. I added them to my planted tank and they where like goats and ate every pice of vegetaion in the entire tank to the hardscape.


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## Burks

This glass diffuser that refuses to work. Even trying to get air to go through it from an air pump is impossible, let alone a DIY CO2 system.

Great waste of $10.


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## GraFFix

130w PC light from aquatraders....The fans were so loud I thought the fixture was going to take off. That had to go quick!

Ohh and Python Glass cleaner....why did I fall for it. Well sell you vinegar and water with some green dye for only 4.99 a bottle!


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## tfmcder

Black Mystery snail....that I was told would not eat my plants!!! In one night it had a very yummy and expensive salad!!! It was an apple snail and it got to be the size of a baseball...when he died I kept his shell as a reminder to NEVER listen to some little kid working part-time in your LFS making $5/hr!!!


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## Ozgur

Red Sea FE test kit.

I have made several tests with it in my main tank, in different times but it always showed 0. 

Then I have made some experiments with an empty tank. I overdosed for different liters but the result didnt change. The color in tube was always equals zero.


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## AlexTal

Chris S said:


> silver dollar fish and rainbow cichlids. I added them to my planted tank and they where like goats and ate every pice of vegetaion in the entire tank to the hardscape.


Hahaha I love this. I love my silver dollar fish, but they did that to me when I first put plants in. Now they're in a fish tank with fake plants. They're huge and wicked fat.


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## defdac

Fluval 404. Things that have annoyed me with this filter: 

1) Noise is louder than my computer.
2) Aquastop have broken 2 times in 5 years.
3) Hose nuts have broken 3 times.
4) 3-4 new impellers without less noise.
5) The underside of the pump house comes off when I open the filter.
6) The filter leaks for about 5-10 mins when I've had it open.

Eheim sludge extractor - "Let's suck up ammonia from the substrate and spread it evenly across the whole tank! Not"

Eheim surface extractor - "I like cleaning the small surface pipes everyday and the endless rattling from the counter weight is awesome! Not".


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## DaveS

Another vote for the Fluval 404 here. I have been through three "upgrades" (kudos to Hagen tech support however) and this thing still leaks like crazy when power is off. You would think after five years I would have just upgraded to an Eheim ...

Dave


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## LilLou

Carbo plus I won on Ebay. What can I say I was new to this and it seemed like a good product until I found a post saying otherwise about 15 minutes after I won the item. Now have a pressurized system and am much happier. At least I didn't pay full price

Lou


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## acbaldwin

My worst was a rio 2100 plus that was supposed to be the main return from the sump on my old 55 gallon. While I was testing the plumbing and possible overflow problems, I found that rios are notorious for having startup problems after the power is pulled. That's okay when it's just being used for water current, but absolutely unacceptable for a return pump. $60 down the drain.


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## discuz

Dymax T5 light , eballest down on 2nd day ... again on 2nd month, day before I go for holiday ....

mk


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## Burks

Burks said:


> This glass diffuser that refuses to work. Even trying to get air to go through it from an air pump is impossible, let alone a DIY CO2 system.
> 
> Great waste of $10.


Finally got it to work somewhat. Stupid thing shattered in my hand while trying to take it off the air tube. It wasn't "glass" either, it was a hardened plastic.


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## ringram

I have two that I can think of:
1)Buying some Triton T-12s when I first started w/ planted tanks and didn't know better --- had bad outbreak of gw and plants, of course, did not grow.
2)Via aqua "probe" heater. Thought it would be cool to get one with the external controls, but it didn't turn off and the tank got up over 90...no deaths, but when I was draining the water for a wc and took it out, it was so hot that the plastic clips that hold it on the back glass melted. I threw that p.o.s. away.


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## ringram

priming problem?? I love my Emp400 and have never had a problem priming it after having it turned off. I simply plug it back in and within 10 seconds it's back to working like it should.



ryuken168 said:


> Emperor 400 ??? I love my bio-wheel, I think they work well besides the priming problem, but only good for fish tanks.
> The worst filter I brought was the Whisper 3.
> Besides that the JBJ algae magnet and the JBJ 2 way powerhead is also on top of my worst list and of cost the plastic plants.


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## T-Bone

I second the standard 55 gallon starter kit. At the time I thought it was the best thing ever. Now I shake my head. :noidea:


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## Reefcrack

Do engagement rings count?


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## Marauder

The worst thing I've ever bought was my All Glass Aquarium stand. 

My first tank is my current 75 gallon. I seen the nice wrought iron stand under a 55 at the LFS. I asked "can I get one of those for my 75?". "Sure Thing!" they answered. But they had to order it, and I had to wait to fill my tank. 

A week later, it finally came in. The stand was nothing more than four peices of angle iron! NO decorative curved wrought iron on the sides like the one I seen under the 55. This thing looks like a cheapie garage shelf! 

For some reason I brought it home. I filled the tank. Now I have a 75 gallon tank that wobbles when I drag my Mag-Float across the front of the tank. It's frightening! Cost me $110.


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## werner

A giant gourami (_Osephronemus gorami_)- thought it was a great deal for $10. About 2 days later he ate $50 worth of my other fish. Then I had to get a new filter ($150) to set him up in another tank.

I did end up keeping him for several years (he grew to almost 2 feet), but had to give him away when I moved. He went to a guy whose family ran a Chinese restaurant and apparently had a 200+ gallon show tank. Afterwards I read somewhere that these are a prized food fish in Southeast Asia... maybe he became the Sunday Buffet Special. I never had the heart to go check


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## xcooperx

SAE i bought two 3inch of them and guest what, they are not eating algae, then second a Nitrite tesk kit, i dont really need them i have a planted tank and last is the 80 watts Shoplights i bought at home depot, still have them if you want PM me


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## mousky

A Bumblebee catfish. The moron at the local petdonalds assured me that it was an algae eater so I put it in with a school of cardinal tetras. It ate 7 of them in two days! :mmph: 

A standard 4ft tank. Why on earth did I think that a width of 14" and a height of 18" was good? #-o


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