What's the best piece of equipment you have purchased for your reef?

[Zionas]

TBh I don’t understand why anyone still thinks an uncovered tank is okay. Don’t they want their fish to live, and maximize their chances of achieving that?

 

[Nevets9333]

I voted my hanna checker, but putting wyze camera on the tank so I can check on in whenever and wherever gives me piece of mind. And its fun..

 

[WVNed]

The tank to put it in. I made a reef in the middle of the family room floor but it was a mess.

 

[Zionas]

Lol can’t beat me lol. I’m gonna have my tank on the second floor (near ground level though) of my rented apartment. And it’s a 6’ tank lol.

 

[jsker]

Controller,

If I had to prioritize, controller, lighting, dosers.

 

[Heabel7]

Dosing pump, ABSOLUTE MUST have. Keeps parameters super stable with almost zero effort. Game changer all the way.

 

[David S]

I'd break this down to most important product and best buy cost wise:
Most important was getting a Vortech pump. Before I had very little internal flow and couldn't keep SPS. Once I added an MP10 raising corals became much easier.
Best buy is the Jebao DP5 doser. This is a 5 channel dosing pump I picked up on EBay for less than $75. I added a few bucks for a 2 year warranty.
I've had it for a year now and it's never let me down. I use 3 of the channels for ALK, CA, and MG and I use the remaining channels for a daily water change. Yes it is supposedly not for water changes but I do 1/2 gallon changes daily; no problem.
I will eventually get their slave doser so I can dose Potassium and other things as the situation presents itself

 

[Sonor]

My tunze ATO #1, and made the single best addition to making reefing easier.

 

[Dave33]

No question about it... My Neptune Apex system (with redundant probes & Trident controlled dosing).

Also controls my Water Room. Most important feature next to monitoring and alarms is my Auto Top Off and Auto Water Change setups.

 

[Ike]

+1

I'll never buy a different wave maker. You get your money's worth. Built like tanks, easy to fix and maintain when something eventually does break after a decade, lol. Ran my MP-10 for 4 years with no problems. MP-40 for 2 with no problems.

I bought cheap Jaebos before and they always died. Usually right about at the year point. I wish I'd just bought quality from the start, would have saved money!

I only have two MP40 QD and they were bought around release and they've both been trouble free. I have been considering finally making the leap to LEDs with my display, I suppose I should support @ecotechmarine becasue their products have served me well and get some radions, but ATI has also also been good to me and the price of a 5' T5 vs. a few radions is startling, and I know how to grow a pretty good reef with T5's, just not so much with Radions.

 

[DiefsReef]

I'm just getting started so all of its a game changer for me but I love this post!
Get to see what everyone else's thoughts are and can build my tank around that.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

I just bought some XR30 gen5 blues yesterday and i gotta say i really like them clear crisp color.

 

[SixtyFeetUnder]

For those of you who moved from simply keeping softies to LPS and SPS, how much of an equipment upgrade did you need? Was it a significant rise in spending?

That really depends on what type of equipment you have in your system now. The biggest difference is that SPS are less forgiving. So something like an aquarium controller to make sure your temperature is it a consistent range is going to help. If you don’t have a lot of Flow you may need upgrades in that area; same thing with lighting. So depending on what equipment you have it might not be much of a difference at all but if you have more starter tank gear and low flow low light hardware it’s going to be an expensive jump.

 

[kingdog22]

I can't believe that RO/DI isn't mentioned almost 100%
There is not any other piece of equipment that even compares to a RO/DI unit.
99% of my problems and troubles went away once I got it through my head that a RO/DI was a must for a successful reef tank.
Only problems I ever have now are caused by me.
I only need to clean the glass once every 2 or 3 weeks. And then it's just a light film.
My tanks have been so healthy and almost maintenance free since I wisened up and started using clean water.

 

[SixtyFeetUnder]

TBh I don’t understand why anyone still thinks an uncovered tank is okay. Don’t they want their fish to live, and maximize their chances of achieving that?

I’ve had only uncovered tanks for 15 years and I’ve lost at most five fish to jumping. It looks much better open and just makes you choose fish more carefully.

 

[scubajoe]

I would say my clarisea was a huge game changer. No more washing filter socks and takes most of the load off my skimmer. Hopefully my 165 gallon salt water reservoir and automatic water changes will overtake first place in a week when it's running

 

[SMB]

Tunze ATO. Stabilization starts there.

 

[AquaLifeStudio]

GHL Doser Maxi for automatic water changes. My best investment ever!

 

[jschottenfeld]

My Digital Aquatic controller....oh and my ATO

 

[LardLad]