Biggest Mistake
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Main
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: Posts that don't fit in any of the other categories.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17637
Printed Date: April 29 2024 at 7:37am
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Topic: Biggest Mistake
Posted By: Cecil
Subject: Biggest Mistake
Date Posted: April 14 2007 at 3:49pm
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They say you learn the most from your own mistakes. I also believe you can learn from others mistakes.
I am new to this hobby and love all the things you can learn about reefs. I thought it would be fun to start a post having you tell us what has been the biggest mistake you've made in this hobby. It might be therapeutic, sad, or most likely fun.
Lets here it, and maybe you can help someone else from the same fate.
Fortunately the biggest mistake I have made so far was that I thought the blue yellow tail damsel was pretty. He tormented everything and was a complete pest. I spent weeks getting it out of my tank. Got $1 for it, best deal I ever got.
The couch is yours.
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Replies:
Posted By: Dion Richins
Date Posted: April 14 2007 at 3:52pm
The list is so......................................so long ------------- http://www.customaquariumfurniture.com" rel="nofollow - Bad "censored" Cabinets Best quality in the valley! He is one sexy bald guy, even with out a finger!(MAC) |
Posted By: Will Spencer
Date Posted: April 14 2007 at 3:54pm
| I don't know about biggest mistake, but some of the best advice I could give a new hobbiest is: "Never leave running water alone." If you have to leave it turn it off. I've had more water mishaps due to letting it run without keeping a close eye on it than anything else. This includes letting it run while I'm sitting in the room, but not paying attention to it. |
Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: April 14 2007 at 9:04pm
| My suggestion would be dont change anything on your tank within 2 weeks to a month of going on vacation. |
Posted By: GARFVolunteer
Date Posted: April 14 2007 at 10:39pm
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Any reef related phrase with the word "automatic" in it should have the word "failure" near by.
I get called a lot from people in the area that are on vacation. The person they have watching their reef tell them something in the tank does not look right. I usually dread these calls because I end up doing the best I can to save what is left alive.
The biggest culprit is the "Automatic water top offs". Three times auto top offs have broken. Two failed "on" so the "top off" kept adding fresh water. There is not much reef related left living at a specific gravity of 1.012. One failed "off" so the water was not being added. The water level in the sump dropped with evaporation. There was a power head in the sump that was pointed up so there was surface agitation. When the water dropped enough, the power head shot water out of the sump, into the electrical outlet which of course tripped the breaker.
In each case there was no backup system in place. In each one of these cases a simple backup system would have prevented the massive lose of life.
So moral of the story is:
1. Ensure you have at least one backup system with anything "Automatic" on your tank
2. Have someone reef savvy check on your tank a few times a week when you are gone.
I use a poor man's auto top off so the most fresh water that I could add to my 150 gallon system in a worst case is 7 gallons.
Thanks,
Scott ------------- President Idaho Marine Aquarium Society A fair and biased reef hobbyist "How do you make poor people rich by making rich people poor" Rush Limbaugh on Obama taxes |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: April 14 2007 at 10:54pm
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Worst mistake I ever made was procrastinating the addition of eggcrate to the otherwise unprotected overflow and drain to the sump. "No way a snail will crawl to that exact place in the tank..."
I was wrong, and woke up to 6-7 gallons on the floor.  ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: kgwilliams
Date Posted: April 14 2007 at 11:06pm
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I would say my biggest mistake's when I first started was buying things because they looked cool. I would see a fish that looked really cool and without knowing anything about it I would buy it and it would not be compatible with the other fish I already had. My advise to people new in the hobby is to do your research! If you are to lazy then at least take a book with you to the LFS and look stuff up before you buy it! If your LFS is anything like mine they will tell you that that fish will be fine with the fish you have at home, because they just want to make some money! (Note: I live in Oklahoma and where I'm at the nearest LFS is 2 hours away and they know very little about saltwater)
So research, research, research, before you go spending your money! Or just get on here and ask! That's what I did and it has saved me a bundle! ------------- 75gal reef /sump/ref 150MH 2 96w CF Perhaps I would be better at basket weaving. . . at least it would be cheaper! |
Posted By: Rod M.
Date Posted: April 15 2007 at 9:08am
Buying a Chocolate Chip Star for a reef tank!! !! Luckily it was at a meeting and Mike Savage saved me!! Thanks, again Mike!
Have patience, don't get in a big hurry to get things done. That's when I get most forgetful! ------------- Rod Murri Clearfield,Utah 24g JBJ Nanocube - 90g main/ 30g sump |
Posted By: Bob Kripfgans
Date Posted: April 15 2007 at 10:14am
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Not having drilled overflows. Externals will work but IMO drilled tanks are the way to go. There's nothing like your tank overflowing onto your carpet... I definately recommend a backup system. ------------- WMAS is da place! Save the Banggai's! Tooele,Ut. |
Posted By: Toshokya
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 1:09pm
| Mine so far has been buying premix from the LFS and not checking it when I got home. They had given me just RO water and I put it right in the tank. Only after checking my SG in the tank after I had put the water in there did I realize I had a big problem. I was lucky I had salt and ended up mixing it in a 32oz. cup with water from the tank and slowly pouring it in until the SG came up. Lucky for me nothing decided it wanted to die that day. |
Posted By: smatney
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 1:56pm
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Ours was putting the electrical under the tank instead of outside the tank. Thus...the electrical fire and no more tank. ------------- Susan Matney Farmington, UT |
Posted By: cl2ysta1
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 2:47pm
i spill water what seems like every week b/c of this. I'll start pumping water into a bucket than walk to look at the tank and get to looking at a coral or fish, and completely forget it
:( I'm horrible about it!! Other than that i'd say thats my worst mistakes ------------- I <3 Boxers Achilles tang lover |
Will Spencer wrote:Posted By: superman1981
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 4:06pm
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Stocking my tank too fast has been my biggest mistake. With my first tank (a 29 gal) I went super slow and everything thrived. When I got into my 125 I wasn't patient, I introduced a fish with a little ich, and within the next month I had lost 10 fish (Around $300 worth). Long story short, be patient, and stock your tank slowly.
------------- Sure you are, you are Crappy Reef Club Member #1 -Chk4tix 6 gal nanocube 65 gal http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=78639&title=tims-65-gallon-build" rel="nofollow - build thread |
Posted By: CrimsRayne
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 4:11pm
Getting into the hobby... Just Kidding.  But there does come a time when you realize that you know nothing at all about what you have gotten into. Just when you think you are starting to get things right... wham, something changes or you read something that makes you feel like a newbie again. And like kgwilliams said. RESEARCH! Definitely know what you are buying and how to care for it. Or if you just can't live without it, ask the store about it or ask them to hold it for a little while. Explain the situation and see if they can help you out. ------------- "What we know from this hobby is too hard to share with the people who just want to look and not get wet." -Rioreefer "The Puffer Girl" Zoo freak :) West Jordan |
Posted By: KludgeGuru
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 4:16pm
I second, third and fourth that. I have to make sure I watch it without distractions or I will forget. Just yesterday I was pumping water out of my tank and totally forgot about it. suddenly I realized all my pumps were sucking air and I pumped out too much water and I didn't have enough new salt water to refill it. Luckily I have 15 gallons of RO in my storage tanks and I just had to mix some more so I was only low on water for a couple of hours. I'm just glad I was removing water instead of putting it in or I'd have a big mess to clean up.  -Rocks |
Posted By: sukie
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 4:18pm
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Dosing 100ml of Calcium, AK, and Aminos all at once. . . . If I didn't have a backup solution, I think my tank would have crashed. |
Posted By: kdinkel
Date Posted: June 16 2008 at 5:08pm
| Love this post! I have to agree with the running water thing. If it wasn't for my kids catching sometimes I would be in bad shape. Second was compatibilty (I knew the eel could eat my fish, but he was much to small... bad call on my part! I guess I am a slow learner as I have a small shark now!) |
Posted By: mr_tongate
Date Posted: December 18 2008 at 11:30am
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i know exactly what my biggest mistake was i had ick in my system and with no lfs around me and i didn't want to kill my fish i looked around my box's of fish supplies and found a bottle of stuff that said cures ick and some other stuff so without reading i added the amount stated on the bottle......... well it turned out to be copper and it killed ALOT of softies and lps all of my live rock had to be replaced and all of my sand was toast and had to be replaced... on the good note my fish were fine.... all i can say know what you are adding and DO YOUR RESEARCH !!!!!!!!!
------------- 220 reef cell# 760.684.6122 POSTING PIC'S http://zip-zero.com/wmas/imageUpload.php |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: December 18 2008 at 11:56am
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Also see this: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 - http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 In this thread there are links to many useful and extremely informative discussions, including one we started years ago titled "Secrets of avoiding a tank crash" ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: tazman1982
Date Posted: December 18 2008 at 11:57am
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Mine was stirring up a 5 year sand bed and not letting it settle out completly before adding my fish and coral back to my tank, after fixing the leak. I figgured it would be clear in 2 days max. well 1 week later....... about 3-4k in coral dead! should have left them in my emergancy tank till it setteled out. OH WELL! All that de-nitrifing bacteria that hides deep in the bed, stayed around for some time... ------------- 75 Reef 55 Reef |
Posted By: Andreason
Date Posted: December 18 2008 at 12:12pm
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We had a cyano outbreak and instead of changing one thing at a time we adjusted 12 things. When a favorite coral protested we had no idea which thing we did was making it mad. Hard to fix when there are so many things that could be the problem. Patience is a virtue, and one that I do not possess. ------------- Andreason's |
Posted By: Jessi Earl
Date Posted: January 08 2010 at 3:51pm
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I also made the mistake of buying premixed from the LFS, and not checking before adding. More than once I have been given all RO water when I asked for salt, and I was not so lucky as some others the first time. I did a water change of 20%, and replaced with the two buckets marked salt, only to have it almost instantaneously kill everything in my tank. The reason for the instantaneous destruction was another LFS blunder. Someone there told me a boxfish is harmless, and doesnt get bigger than 2". So I bought it, being the niave beginner, then when they gave me the wrong water, boxfish stressed, released poison, it was terrible. Even if your buckets are marked, no matter what, always check anything purchased before putting it into your tank!
So that would be my advice, dont trust salesmen and LFS, research everything before you buy it (which can be frusterating for a beginner because everyone has a different opinion and a different way of doing things), and learn as much as possible. ------------- "You become responsible for all you tame" |
Posted By: thefu
Date Posted: January 08 2010 at 4:15pm
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Removed line to my CA reactor before turning off supply valve. Spray went right onto T-5 ballast...pop goes the ballast! The second was trusting a POS Deep Six Hydrometer.
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Posted By: tileman
Date Posted: January 08 2010 at 5:29pm
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I remember when the power went out. I raised my returns so it wouldn't siphon so much water out. I made the mistake of turning the pump back on and it shot water across aand right onto my new computer monitor. It never worked right after that. ------------- 335G Reef TOTM. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2015/2/aquarium ReefKeepers TOTM Feb. 2012 http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....k-of-the-month & |
Posted By: Rioreefer
Date Posted: January 08 2010 at 5:42pm
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Thinking a 90g was big enough in the first place. ------------- I dont mean to brag but, yeah it's 6ft long. |
Posted By: Sculpin
Date Posted: January 08 2010 at 6:00pm
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I've always considered myself a prudent reef keeper but some of my biggest mistakes have been: -Letting a non-reefer watch the house while I was away for a week (the breaker shut off for who knows how long and my brother didn't even notice). -Drip acclimating some coral or fish in a bucket and walking away (I've done this twice now). -Turning off my calcium reactors flow but leaving on the recirculating pump and Co2 feed and forgetting about it for a month. Thats probably about it but I'm sure the list will get longer the longer I'm in the hobby... right? Micah
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Posted By: GUNDLR
Date Posted: January 08 2010 at 11:25pm
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What a great thread................ Awesome thread.... Mine would for obvious reasons have to be trusting idiots to work on my tank. Second big one that just happened: being taken advantage of because of my situation and not enough knowledge in hobby.........RIP OFF ARTISTS.. To bad cause it hurts my fun but I can only blame myself. great thread ------------- I LUV GUNS..... DEFENSEARMS.COM RECONARMS.COM ASK ME ABOUT BUILDING UR DREAM AR-15 LOADED FOR $300.00 START RECONGLOBALGROUP.COM MARINE RECON.... FOREIGN WAR VETERAN |
Posted By: grateful1
Date Posted: January 09 2010 at 1:55am
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I made the fairly large mistake of setting up my first tank before I had read much of anything or knew what I was doing. I got decent advice from the LFS and the tank is healthy, happy, and looks good, but I spent WAY more than I should have for a tank that size, and it's still not what I want.
Oh, well. Live and learn, right? The upside: now I know better what I want and I (sometimes) know what I'm doing. ------------- 37g reef. Frag tank in progress. (801) 403-4006. |
Posted By: speyside712
Date Posted: June 06 2012 at 10:49am
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I've made a few mistakes that's for sure. Never use suction cups to attach powerheads, always go with magnets. Suction cups broke free and I woke up I found the whole tank was a cloud of sand! I had no idea what happened until I turned everything off and gave it a few minutes to settle. Mountain of sand on the left burying everything, and all the way down to the glass on the right... Luckily everything was alright. Another mistake, not using a specimen container to introduce new fish. My flame angel was harassed by my larger yellow tang constantly for the first week. Best buds now, but fought like crazy at first. Although the clowns still don't like him getting near their little anemone... lol Another mistake, buying a 48 inch t5 ballast for a 48 inch tank... definitely didn't fit in the canopy, so I had to use a jigsaw and cut two squares in the canopy ends to let the ballasts feet hang outside the tank. But in the end, everything looks good and is alive and happy :) One thing I did right - bought jet black sand, awesome contrast on white rock and repels light so you never get any cyano growing on the sand. Had no idea it would do that, but just got lucky!
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Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: June 06 2012 at 1:22pm
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Mine was getting into the aquarium hobby :)
------------- Defending Reefscape Champion (I Think) |
Posted By: Trevor40
Date Posted: June 06 2012 at 2:00pm
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Mine was thinking that the brass fiting on my return pump came with was reef safe. ------------- Call or Text (801)834-3119 |
Posted By: Dion Richins
Date Posted: June 06 2012 at 4:34pm
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mine too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ------------- http://www.customaquariumfurniture.com" rel="nofollow - Bad "censored" Cabinets Best quality in the valley! He is one sexy bald guy, even with out a finger!(MAC) |
Posted By: GaryF
Date Posted: June 06 2012 at 4:49pm
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Seeing that small piece of hair algae in my tank for the first time, and not really doing anything to it.
------------- Gary Finnegan |
Posted By: Kaiden32
Date Posted: June 08 2012 at 5:22pm
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Trusting a hydrometer.. Also +1 on the leaving running water. I have had many spills because of this. |
Posted By: Ann_A
Date Posted: June 08 2012 at 6:48pm
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Don't panic! Overreacting always makes it worse! http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=56064&title=disaster" rel="nofollow - Here's my own example of this. ------------- http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53856&title=annes-65g-rsm-reef" rel="nofollow - RSM 250 Reef |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: June 08 2012 at 8:07pm
Lest someone get the mistaken notion that a Hydrometer is not to be trusted, it is completely accurate and reliable when calibrated and kept clean. Calibration is simply a matter of checking where the needle sits or where it floats in salt water of known salinity. Rinsing with freshwater after each use and briefly soaking with Vinegar every 3-6 months, before a calcium build up is noticed, is the way to keep it perfectly accurate. My most recent "biggie" was to take two boxes of Florida LR that my dentist thought was a good deal and which neither of us had the room to keep. He has a narrow 4" hang on the wall tank that I had just converted to a reef. I had, luckily, just set up a 100 gal frag tank. The rock must have sat out of water for a week before it was shipped by ordinary parcel post from FL to UT. In the WMAS Reefkeeping Tips below there is a Tip about the dangers of old dry dead LR. It took 6 months and all my expertise to bring that LR back to life.  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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