What makes that $$$$ piece of equipment better than the $$ one?

[Bruttall]

7 years old, 4 1/2 as freshwater, sat dry for a couple and now 14 months into a Salt adventure. I'd absolutely buy another Vectra, even with what they cost now. Same with my Reefi Lab uno lights. They may only be 8 months old, but I'd never buy another brand after having used them interacted with the creator.

 

[Kfactor]

your buying the name i love how alot of the high brand lights that have a big price tag only has a year warrenty it shows how much they trust it lol. i wont call it a high end brand but i had alot of ai stuff and will never buy anything they make again dealing with them for warrenty was a joke.

 

[Bruttall]

your buying the name i love how alot of the high brand lights that have a big price tag only has a year warrenty it shows how much they trust it lol. i wont call it a high end brand but i had alot of ai stuff and will never buy anything they make again dealing with them for warrenty was a joke.

warranty is a lot of why i bought Reefi lights. with a 3 yr warranty, it's better than anyone else's in the industry I know of.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

Some products have higher prices because they're manufactured in places with legitimate environmental and labor laws. Relatedly, products that ship directly to the end user from overseas can skirt import fees by selling direct.

Some products have higher prices because the company puts more into post-sale support.

Some products have higher prices because they're paying off R&D costs.

 

[ca1ore]

There are any number of reasons to buy premium gear. I choose to not reward IP pirates, so that drops off the low end. I have found that higher price generally correlates to better quality and a longer useful life. I’ve been in the hobby for a long time so I want 10 years out of my gear …. 20 even better. Sometimes I will pay a premium for aesthetics.

 

[o2manyfish]

I've been in the hobby for almost 4 decades. I started as a college student and now continue as a retiree.

I've owned so much equipment! I've been fortunate to get lots and lots of equipment over the years from numerous vendors of fame and no-name for testing.

And for me there is a great deal of value in buying a quality product. And with most things - quality and reliability comes at a price.

For over 20 years my system has been more than 400g. Which puts me into a different category of equipment than most people. My newest display tank is 750g - 10'x4'x2.5' - What am I going to do drop a few dozen MP-60s in it to get the water moving... Nope.

Over 20 years ago I spent the money and bought Tunze Streams -- I still have one of the original Brown Tunze streams running in my sump (and cleaned it for the upteemth time in citric acid just last week). When the Tunze Stream 3's came out I bought 6 of them. After 6+ years - I've lost 1, replaced a propeller. And some of them have only been cleaned once -- And they continue to pump.

I used to run Dolphin Pumps - Not expensive / Not Entry level.

I used to run Finnex Titanium Heaters - Not Entry Level

I used to use alot of crap - And the problem was when it fails - It wasn't an $80 pump I had to replace - It was the thousands of dollars in livestock that was lost.

You can buy a Jebao DC12000 for a couple of hundred bucks, or a Vectra for $500ish, or an Abyzz for $2k+. The logic of how many Jebaos can I buy to justify the cost of an Abyzz -- What's that 9 pumps... The average lifespan of a hobbyist is only a few years - So throw away a Jebao to replace with a new one every 4 months and you might still be ahead. But that Jebao DC12000 isn't hooked up to a 40g Breeder. It's running your 180g or is it going to run my 750g... And when it fails, with my fish collection if I lose just one fish - that justified the cost of an Abyzz... How many corals do you have to lose before you eat up the cost of an Abyzz... Not that many these days. If you have a well stocked 200g tank in this day and age - what's your investment in your livestock? Don't add up the actual numbers - you're wife might be watching.

Now, when I share my opinions, they aren't based on marketing or speculation. I've owned all the different brands of equipment. I've used them, I've broken them, I've replaced them and I've thrown them away.

Take the Jebao DC9000 and DC12000 pumps. I used them on my 90g freshwater planted tank and they lasted about a year. I use them for flow in my frag tanks - they last about a year. For my frag tanks I buy the Jebao pumps 6 at a time and throw them away all the time. Just last week 8 went into a dumpster. Do they have a purpose yes - For me they are disposable. I use them for convenience and I don't rely on them to keep things alive.

What keeps my 1500g system flowing.... (2) Abyzz A200 Pumps. (1) Abyzz A200 on a shelf, (1) Abyzz spare controller on a shelf. The Abyzz pumps have been running for 4 years and other than submerging a controller, they have not had any kind of hiccup. It's a pump that comes with a 10 year guarantee.

For heaters... Do you know how much heat it takes to keep a 1500g system warm when 750g of it is outside in the yard during the winter when the temps drop to 30 degrees? It's not something you are going to trust to a bank of Hyggers and an inkbird. Even Finnex 600,800,1000w all titanium heaters last only about 18 months.

So instead - Process Technologies Titanium Immersion Heaters - 220v and 3500w each. As long as you keep them in the water they don't fail. Temperature control is only handled by Ranco Controllers - Made for the commercial refrdigeration industry -- these controllers last forever. I have had them outside in the elements, screen cracked and fried. Buttons broke open from the UV rays -- And they stil keep the temp dead on. But we still use 2 just in case.

Calcium Reactors --- These aren't cheap toys to begin with. Do you get what you pay for... Well not always. I had a Bill Wann Calcium Reactor - These things look like they came off the reactor of a Battleship. Lifetime guarantee. Of course the unit arrives with multiple parts not glued. It never performs as promised. And the lifetime guarantee only lasted as long as it took you to read it. What's the most expensive reactor you can run.. Dastaco. Yes I got one, and a big one. It is worth the money --- Well with 2 40"tall 10" wide chambers it holds almost 220lbs of media. It produces a ton of alk and kalk and I only have to refill it 1 or 2x a year. But it's a delicate little thing and if you fart too loud next to it it might break. I would not repurchase it.

Flow pumps -- 1 10' tank, 3 8' tanks -- I have my Tunzes, I have my Jebaos. And while I love my Tunze stream 3s when I went from an 8' 400g to a 10' 750g tank - they just weren't going to cut it.

I didn't want to do closed loop. And i didn't want to notice the pumps. I didn't want big pumps hanging in plain sight. I started with the Panta Rhei ECM63. And it's a formiddable pump. I don't think 5 or 6 of any other pump - Stream / MP's / Nero / those silly Gyres are a maintenance and longevity joke - but still they can't move as much water as a pricey ECM63 for as little wattage.

But then that wasn't good enough so I got 2 Abyzz AFC 150 Flow Cannons. I have 3 pumps in my tank that literally rock the water out of a 750g tank.

The 750g tank is 1.5" acrylic instead of Glass. The lights are Radion G6 Pros, The ozone is Clear Water tech. The Skimmer is Bubble King. The wholehouse generator with autotransfer switch is Generac.

Could I have found equipment to run my system for less than 1/2 the investment I have in backup equipment - Yes I could.

But I have thrown away dozens and dozens of Rios, Jebaos, Eheims and Danner over the years - and still do. By spending the extra money I have the piece of mind that I have done the best I can to protect my livestock, my investment of time and the investment of money.

If you can afford the better equipment for the safety of your livestock and the piece of mind - without taking food off your kids plates and keeping the heat on - then you should seriously consider doing it. Will it pay off.... One catastrophic failure of a lower end piece of equipment - will cost you way more than you saved.

Someone compared expensive reef equipment to the equivalent of spending money on a Ferrari when a Civic will accomplish the same task of getting you from work to home and back everyday for 15 years.

But an aquarium is not the equivalent of a car or sports car - If you want to put it into an auto analogy - you need to think of aquarium equipment as being like a truck. You can buy a pickup truck and drive the hell out of it. But if you want to put your big fancy as fast as a Ferrari speedboat behind it an go back and forth across the country every month --- A Ford F150 ain't going to cut it. You're going to want Diesel, you're going to want 3/4 or 1 ton frame. Your'e going to need a much more expensive truck.....

I have all the big named toys - and many more that I haven't name dropped. When people walk up to my tank - Do they know there are a bunch of Abyzz pumps at work. No, unless they take a moment and realize that there is +40k GPH of flow in a 10' box with zero noise or vibration. The toys aren't on display to show off. They sit hidden somewhere covered in salt creep, and coraline, and crap - and do their job day after day, month after month, year after year --- that's what I paid for.

Dave B