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Products to avoid

14K views 40 replies 21 participants last post by  GulperEel331 
#1 ·
Due to a request, I have decided to start a list of products that really suck. I'd be happy to help some, but if I tryed to list everything out of my Foster's & Smith Catalog that was complete junk, I'd be here all day. I'll try to hit the main ones though that pertain to marine aquaria. Feel free to chime in with your experiences as well.




- Any phosphate removing substance that is not GFH based. Aluminum based media like Phosguard works but has been shown to cause adverse effects on some corals

- CPR Overflows - notorious for loosing siphon and causing floods. Must be used with Aqualifter pumps that can easily clog and still cause a flood.

- bio-balls and other bio-media are not necessary in tanks with live rock and/or sand beds

- Kent Pro Scrapers - these really don't work that great and are far inferior to the Easy-blade attachment for the Mag-floats.

- Reef-safe Ich treatments - none of these have been proven to consistently work. The best proven treatments for Cryptocaryon are Hyposalinity and Copper treatment

- most phosphate test kits - The only ones that are reasonably priced that I am aware of that will measure down to the levels that are capable of causing algae problems are the Salifert and the Tropic Marin kits. The best kit is the kit by Merck, sold by Rowa, however that kit costs around $80.

- Aragamilk - This stuff does nothing beneficial and may even reduce you calcium or alkalinity. See prior discussions on calcium/alkalinity for more info.

- RO buffers - These are not necessary - if anything, just add a little pickling lime to your RO water, but not if you are using it to mix up new seawater.

-swing arm hydrometers - these are notoriously inaccurate and have caused many tank problems. Instead go with a good refractometer calibrated with a 35ppt salt solution.

- Seaclone skimmers - why do they still sell these things? They can be made to work pretty good with a lot of modifications, but why go to the trouble when you caould have a good skimmer

Red Sea Berlin skimmers - also a pain to deal with and for the money you could have a pretty good skimmer

Red Sea Prism Skimmers - I have not personally used these, but have also heard they are a pain to deal with

Visi-Therm Heaters (aka Visi-Fry) - notorious for getting stuck and cooking your fish, not sure if that has changed

Coralife thermometers (anything Coralife as far as I'm concerned) - notoriously inaccurate. I've had a lot of trouble with many of their products from bulbs to salt to timers. I've heard their skimmers were OK, but I won't be buying one.

Purple-up - just like Aragamilk - complete waste







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#28 ·
You guys need to pray to the fairy god of funding and buy one of these.

http://www.vernier.com/labquest/

Save you lots of time/energy/headaches and you'll never need a test kit again.

phytoplex is rubbish, unless someone else has a use for it, you can scrub the glass.....does the same thing.
 
#29 ·
Save you lots of time/energy/headaches and you'll never need a test kit again.

yeah thats A sweet looking gadget
 
#30 ·
OK, I have a couple to add to the list. Won heaters and Ebo Jager heaters. I know a lot of people swear by Ebo Jager heaters, but I have had at least 2-3 ofg them that just were not calibrated anywhere close to the range on the knob of the heater. I have one that is currently keeping my clownfish babies at 80 degrees. The problem is the heater is set at 72 degrees. At least the Ebo Jager heater does seem to be consistent when you do tune it in though. The Won heater is all over the place. All I have to do is touch the controller and the heater comes on. I had it set for 80 for 3 days and it was pretty close and then all of the sudden one day it heat the water up to over 90 degrees.
 
#31 ·
"- Kent Pro Scrapers - these really don't work that great and are far inferior to the Easy-blade attachment for the Mag-floats."

I use 'em every week with great results. My beef with them is that it's only 2.5" wide. Care to guess how long it takes to scrape 72 square feet of acrylic ? By the time I finish, the algae is already gowing where I started :mozilla_laughing: The trick is to use a fine metal file to maintain the business end of the scraper.
 
#33 ·
I have always considered the knobs on a heater to be a suggestion .. there has to be a better way to heat our tanks
 
#34 ·
My rule with all heaters is set them as if they had no markings on them at all. And if it's an important tank, use 2 heaters each 1-2 watts per gallon, with one set about 3 degrees higher than the other, instead of 1 heater at 3-5 wpg. That way if one gets stuck on, it won't have the power to boil your fish quickly and you'll have more time to notice the slow rise in temperature. Odds of both getting stuck on at once are vanishingly small. Similarly, if one stops working the other will keep the temp from crashing before you can notice the problem.
 
#35 ·
OK, it's official. Koralias suck. I've had 3 seperate ones shock me now and while the company replaced the first 2, this past time they didn't even return my call. That's pretty lousy when a device shocks you and they don't even have the decency to call you back about it. Maxijet mods like the Sureflow are cheaper and give better flow anyway.
 
#36 ·
brandonberry said:
OK, it's official. Koralias suck. I've had 3 seperate ones shock me now and while the company replaced the first 2, this past time they didn't even return my call. That's pretty lousy when a device shocks you and they don't even have the decency to call you back about it. Maxijet mods like the Sureflow are cheaper and give better flow anyway.
Great, now I have to grab a total of 5 to see if they shock me. After my heater fried all my coral and inverts, I don't think I could handle much more. Thanks for the heads up Brandon...m
 
#38 ·
Reef Vital DNA or any other MArk Weiss product Nothing like dirty apple juice and algae food to bring out the best in your tank.
Aquasweep Powerheads They move for a whole day
Any kind of instantcycle product
Live sand in a bag(Ya Right)
Those pathetic looking "Authentic" Replica Corals 3d backgrounds in blacklight colors
300.00 2x250w Halide Reef lighting from Odyssea
Any Zoanthid that costs a hundred dollars a polyp no wait hell 30.00 a polyp
Any 1/2 in coral frag that costs more than 20.00 (c'mon people)
Just a couple I had to throw on here that I thought of
 
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