What's The Biggest Mistake You Have Made?

[MarkSurrey]

I was just reading a few other threads & am now curious to know, What Is The Biggest Mistake People Have Made With There Tanks?

I know at some point everyone would of made some kind of mistake, no matter how small it may be. This will alert me (& hopefully others) so we can stop these things from happening in future. I'll start...

I once poured a cup of defrosted food into the top of my tank from too high up, As the food hit the water & splashed my trigger fish jumped out & fell behind the tank, luckily I got him out pretty quickly & he survived.

[Mr.Tan]

reaching in to my tank with an open wound on my hand. Besides burning like crazy I got a minor infection which felt like i was being bitten all over my body.... started antibiotics/medication RIGHT away and knocked it out... kind of scary haha

[jeff@zina.com]

Financially, the biggest mistake was walking into the LFS and thinking "Having a tank with some clown fish would be cool..." My initial $100 budget rapidly extended into the range where I could have chosen several decent used cars. :)

Most egregious mistake I made was with fresh water. I did a 50% water change on a tank of 200+ angelfish and about an hour later realized I forgot to dechlorinate. Ran back into the room to find a mass of dead fish on the surface. Only a plecostomus survived.

Jeff

[running scott]

i got frustrated with film algae on the front viewing panal of my glass 150 tall, took a green scotch bright and cleeeened it. TINY SCRATCHES EVERYWHERE! now no matter how good my tank looks i still have to see through all those scratches.

[olemiss reb]

Taking advice from LFS, pre internet days were costly.

[MarkSurrey]

Ohhh, that's some bad mistakes guys, haven't done anything that bad....yet, Keep them coming.

[sophelia76]

Not a life and death mistake, but I'd say starting with a 60 gallon. This hobby is addicting and tanks fill up quickly. Within 2 months, I was trading the 60 for a 125g and then a year later, the 125g for a 300g. The 125g would have been a better place to start.

[LOTUS50GOD]

using chemicals to control/mask unwanted water parameters.

[snorvich]

Buying cheap. Then re buying and re buying again.

[afernandez]

Doing a w/c with the ato still on.... :Lol:

As I sucked water out..... ato topping off fresh water... Big NoNO luckily I heard the pump
Learned my lesson without any loss thank god.

[Catastrophi]

bought a cheap heater that was faulty and fried my tank. :/

[Reefahholic]

painting my stand...lol it was horrible..

not doing enough research before buying a product.

like others have stated above, buy the best, and if you don't have the money just be patient and wait. It will prevent you from buying it TWICE.:headwally:

[tspors]

Taking what people say in forums as a fact.

No one knows your tank and specifics. Only you do.

[sporto0]

My biggest mistake, (made lot's of little ones) was using crushed coral as a substrate instead of sand, after 5 years, it became a nightmare algae situation, have since switched to sand & couldn't be happier.

[KindOfSalty]

I would just recommend tons of research on fish comparability and not take LFS words for it. Lost my cortez stingray this morning from my undulate trigger nipping at her. Biggest $150 mistake ever. Saw it with my own eyes. Sad very sad. Now all I can say is that I have neither fish anymore :(

[Useful_Idiot]

Regenerating purigen and not getting all the bleach out. Didn't use enough prime I guess. The directions don't tell you how much prime dechlorinates how much purigen. Half my coral was gone the next morning. And as said buying cheap and having to buy twice. Buying 4 koralia's then a buying a vortech was expensive. But I learned and when I got a dosing pump skipped the BRS ones and went straight to a litermeter.

[Cahooligan]

impulse buying, and not researching...with what ive put into my 75g, i could have had around a 220g with all good equipment for cheaper...

[Palting]

Thinking I wanted a reef tank.

[MHG]

As it pertains to reefing....Not buying a solana 60XL for $1699 delivered and building my own stand and fuge. 4 months later and I still dont have water in it.


In life...Not doing some research before I had a 158 year old giant cherry tree cut down and removed. Only to find out now that I am into woodworking that the lumber and hundreds of burls was worth abour $50k...

[Kingsnake]

I'm just getting started but the other day I got my Reef Octopus 200 skimmer and the guy at the LFS told me it would fit in the refugium and that's where he would put it. I bought it home and tried putting it in the refugium several ways but it would not fit. I took it out and from it being wet and all it slipped from my hands and busted so bad it can't be fixed! :headwalls:

[doctorgori]

I'm just getting started but the other day I got my Reef Octopus 200 skimmer and the guy at the LFS told me it would fit in the refugium and that's where he would put it. I bought it home and tried putting it in the refugium several ways but it would not fit. I took it out and from it being wet and all it slipped from my hands and busted so bad it can't be fixed! :headwalls:

you have my sympathies ...truly

....who here has put thier hand in a tank up to the elbow then knocked the light in while your arm is in there?

...I've done it twice w/o getting shocked...dunno why, guess God loves fools & babies

[Kingsnake]

When I had Freshwater I used a green glacial rock like the picture I posted here. When Aqua scaping I didn't judge the room I had while moving the rocks around inside the aquarium and hit the front of the glass. It wasn't hard but enough to leave noticable scrathes! ErRR

It was so freak horriable (In my eyes, being a new tank and all) I sold it at a loss and picked up another 125g aquarium and damn it! Not a month into it I didn't like how one rock looked in the tank and went to go move it and knocked loose another rock that fell forward hitting the front of the glass making another scratch! I lived with it for 3 years.

When the LFS guy came out to do my liverock fish only tank a few weeks ago he was setting the corals up and one fell over hitting the front of the glass. I had day time (Nightmare)! Lucky it didn't scratch a thing!

[trb]

While I had my remaining 6 fish in a hospital tank undergoing hyposalinity for ich, I was not able to get the cannister filter running again late one night after a water change. I decided to work on it in the morning. I also forgot to plug the koralia I had for circulation back in. The next morning, my scopas tang and midas blenny were dead. Luckily the two clowns, skillet fish and sg major damsel were still OK. And I was in week 6 of hypo. I don't do water changes really late at night anymore.

I also dropped a light in my tank, not once, or twice, but three times! Ended up replacing the ballast twice and then I changed the lighting setup.

[nolanrob123]

Buying coral to fill the tank up.....only to realize I should have spent that money towards very nice pieces that I truly wanted but didn't want to wait for. Patience is the key..

[duoc9119]

Buying twice is always a crapper. For me it was buying multiple times..

Started with a pico, upgraded to a 10 gallon with a new T5 fixture, then upgraded again to a JBJ Nano cube, got frustrated so abandoned that and restarted the pico with a Par30, Emerald crab started munching on coral and banished to the abandoned tank, wasn't very impressed with the Nano and consolidated everything back into the 10 gallon and using the Par30, hunted down the 2 Emerald crabs and banished then to the AC fuge.

I'm liking the 10 gallon tank now. It may be a bit small for the dottyback and hawkfish but they are getting along and doing fine. The tank will stay as is so I will have something to take back to college.

And finally decided I want a BIG tank and bought a 40 Breeder at Petco during a $1 per gallon sale. This one is going to be a slow build (looking at about 1 1/2 years before it is up and running) Nothing will be transferred over to this tank because it is going to be a venomous tank with Dwarf Lionfish trio or a single Rhinopias.


Avoid the headaches of upgrading and go for what you want to end with. I went through 5 setups in a matter of a year and now looking to sell the Nano Cube since I am not going to be using it again.

[64Ivy]

Jumping on a bandwagon. More specifically, the Great Crystal Seas Bioassay Migration of '02.* Took me three years to fully recover.

* ask someone; preferably on a dark and stormy night.

[javajaws]

When I tore down my wall to rebuild it to hold a tank...I only made it thick enough for a 24" front-to-back tank. I should have made it enough for 36" or more... :(

[shrimphead]

when i made my first sump i didn't use aquarium safe silicone and poisoned my tank inhabitants when i hooked it up to my nano.
the fish survived but most of the corals and some of the inverts died.
i didn't have alot of coral in there tho.

[benzreef]

My biggest mistake was not looking well enough into the vehicle where my 92 gallon was to rest during a move. It had to fit on it's side, so my friends and I positioned it outside the back of a minivan and began to slide it in. What I didn't notice at the time was the gate latch for the back gate of the minivan positioned about 0.5" above flush on the bed. Slid the tank right onto it, shattered one whole side and cracked the other. I have yet to build a reef even close to the beauty of the 92 corner I called "The Coralseum." It was one of the worst days to begin with. Thank god for the healing powers of alcohol and friends!

[Joshausf]

I installed a bronze check valve to stop backpressure when/if the pumps where to kick off.

Knew cooper was bad, didn't give it a second thought til i noticed snails and shrimp dying.

:sad1:

[funkejj]

Oh this is a toss up for me either the fact that I used 200 lbs of crushed coral for my substrate causing high nitrates for a year or the fact I was to cheap to get the edges of my glass baffles I put in my sump polished and ended up cutting my hand, thus causing me to get a MRSA infection. Yep I have made some mistakes but those take the cake for me.

[Mitch5]

buying corals and equipment from the lfs instead of going to meets and using cl

[rtb388]

Not being patient enough.... to learn patience...
and being too quick to treat/medicate

[Hendogg0]

For me it was not doing my research on lighting started with 48" pc fixture then went to t5 then went to halide and I think now I want to get a combo mh and t5 just wasting money for no reason.

[evo@32psi]

Mine would have to be putting 2 Tangs into my tank without having a UV Sterilizer on it. 2 days later every fish had ick. 2 days after that.......i had no fish.

[doublenerds]

As a complete newbie, I haven't had too much opportunity to make mistakes but somehow I have managed!

When buying a sump I didn't measure my stand properly and bough the wrong size...now I have an extra sump sitting in my basement that is going to cost me a fortune to mail back.

I also bought an HOB overflow before doing all the appropriate research, then switched brands after reading about the frequency of problems among the different types.

I figure when all is said and done I'll have enough extra parts to start up another DT :)

[funkejj]

Mine would have to be putting 2 Tangs into my tank without having a UV Sterilizer on it. 2 days later every fish had ick. 2 days after that.......i had no fish.

Did not need a UV light just a simple QT.

[Allmost]

tried to shove a bag of SW and a frag into the tank, without removing the light fixture ...

frag ripped open the bag, and all the SW dripped right onto my MP40 controllers :S

[allsps40]

Mine is neglecting my equipment mainly my lighting and RODI. Not changing RO membranes and bulbs for 2 years will really cause some issues.

[abrian]

Using adhesive velcro to hold anything electrical in the canopy. Came home from work one day to find a MP40ES controller in the tank. Then picked it out in such a way that all the water full of corroded electronics could drain out into the display. Massive water changes, carbon and polyfilters avoided complete amagedon in my tank thankfully.

Lesson: panic over the first stupid mistake often leads to follow up stupidity that makes things much worse...

[Raggamuffin]

I have made TONS over the years, lets see.

buying cheap and having to rebuy, check.

not changing bulbs often enough, check.

not changing RO/DI filters often enough, check.

buying a tank then upgrading, check check check check.

buying a tank WAY to big for me to furnish and having to resell it for a loss, check.

feeding frozen food without rinsing resulting in HA from hell, check.

not stoping and thinking out plumbing before trying to path stuff together, check.

overstocking, check.

buying a full tanks worth of live rock instead of base and a few peices of live, check.

listening to the LFS, check.

listening to the 200 guys on the forums instead of the 1 guy who actually knew what he was talking about.... check.

there are LOTS more but those are the biggies.

EDIT: Forgot a HUGE one, it took my 2 year old son to figure it out for me! I have a 28g jbj and was running a tunze 9002 skimmer, over the course of months the salinity was falling and falling I couldn't figure out why. I topped off every day with fresh water sure but the water level never changed much. 1 day I was dumping the skimmer which I ran wet and my son pointed at it and said "saltwater" and it hit me like a brick I dumped 1-2 cups a day down the drain and was topping off what I thought was evap with fresh water but was dumping saltwater.

[Rustics]

Filling my basement with RO/DI water. It still happens about 2 times a month. I'll never learn.:headwally:

[frank2926]

Filling my basement with RO/DI water. It still happens about 2 times a month. I'll never learn.:headwally:

Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.

" for my next hobby..... I plan on flooding my basement while tearing up 100 dollar bills and banging my head against the wall! "

[nivekid]

Worst thing I've done is turn my ATO to "On" instead of "Auto". It dumped 5 gallons of Kalkwasser saturated water into my 37 Gallon with sump. Surprisingly not a thing was harmed. I did do water change immediately to bring the salinity back up.

[solitude127]

Buying cheap. Then re buying and re buying again.

+100 on this one.

[MinnesotaTwins]

Filling my tank up with tap water :headwalls:

I hated myself for a month after doing that

[sanchoy]

Bringing the ocean into my living room. I could just go diving, but wanted to make more work for myself...

[obaptista]

Started in the hobby when I had no money
Started with tap water and chemicals - constant water quality battle
Started with < HO lighting and wrong spectrum. "Oh - FO tank? No lighting requirements"
Cheap Heater - stray voltage
Cheap skimmer(s) - never dialed in
Buying a good skimmer rated for my tank size
Buying a just right return pump it. It's always too small.
OEM overflow too small - annoying
HOB overflow - Insanity
Buying one pump for each piece of gear - All those pumps in the sump adding heat and taking up way too much space.
Overpriced hi performance name brand carbon- You know what I mean
All kinds of scrubbing, polishing, de-<insert unwanted algae or pest or molecule> pads, pellets, sponges, etc
Using live rock introducing all manor of algae and pests - Sure, hitchhikers are like gifts at Christmas till your tank gets the hobby's equivalent of the plague.
Drilling a 10 gallon, again.
Buying a UV sterilizer rated for my tank size.

Uttering the words, "I'll only grow out one or two hatches of Clarkii, to see how it goes"

This is like therapy.

[demonnite57]

My biggest mistake so far has to be the fact that I didn't hang up my Surge suppressors or any outlets away from the tank.

I went to the movies, came back home to the smell of burning electronics and flipped breakers in the house. My Phos reactor sprung a leak and had dripped onto my ReefKeeper PC4 Power Strip/Surge Suppressor and had fried not only that, but a couple other components of the ReefKeeper system, also about half my bulbs for my lights (Geisseman t5 bulbs).

[boombox3]

I purchased a clown that I thought was healthy so I threw em in the DT instead of quarantine but turned out to have brook a few days later. Went to the LFS where they recommended a reef safe medication to treat in my DT. Was rushing because i had to be at work and instead of adding 30 gallons of medication I added 180 gallons worth of medication I ended up doing major water changes that day and not showing up to work. My cleaner shrimp didnt make it but everything else survived. Lesson I learned was never rush when adding medication!

[Essense]

Not being careful and cautious when running my RODI unit. I have had a few issues where I forget it's running and I'm met with small floods.

Worst time was a night after I had done a ton of prep work to get my tank going and I was filling it with RODI direct from my RODI unit. I just ran the 1/4" hose direct into my tank. It took a very long time to fill. I kept a watchful eye on things, but it was a long night and I feel asleep on my couch from exhaustion of the previous day... feel asleep while the RODI was dumping water into my DT, albeit at a slow pace.

Woke up and the 1/4" hose had fallen out of the tank for what must have been 2-3 hours, my floor was flooded for about an 8 foot diameter.... carpet. I thought my GF was going to make me scrap the whole project at that point.

Now I am very careful to make sure I only run my RODI into containers in my bathtub with those hose securly fastened so it cant slip out of the bathtub. Most people may not have to do this, but I have forgot enough times while i'm running my RODI that I can't risk any more floods.

[ganjero]

Getting in the hobby when I was unemployed, I got into a lot of debt. Thankfully a few years after that is all paid off.

[flameangel88]

Adding fish, adding again and then adding more fish. Also what Steve said, not getting the right equipment right the first time and end up buying the second time.

The number one issue on my list is not becoming a marine biologist before getting into this hobby. lol

[bradjc]

Having a larger freshwater tank sharing the same airpump as my saltwater tank. Airpump stopped working and siphoned a lot of freshwater into my saltwater tank. I lost a lot of fish due to the stress caused from the reduced salinity and an outbreak of ich followed.

A simple solution would have been to use check valves but I also decided to make the saltwater tank the larger one.

Lesson learned!

[SaltwaterAdict]

Doing to many changes at once!! Can lead to many problems. Keeping it simple is probably the best thing I did for my tank! :)

[SaltwaterAdict]

Mine is neglecting my equipment mainly my lighting and RODI. Not changing RO membranes and bulbs for 2 years will really cause some issues.

Yeah, this is pretty crucial. I mark when I changed my ro/di filters and change them every couple months. Seems like a lot of problem are caused from the source water you're putting in your tank. Keep up on changing them and you'll be rewarded. It also saves the life of your membranes and di resin!!

[SaltwaterAdict]

Bringing the ocean into my living room. I could just go diving, but wanted to make more work for myself...

Automate, automate, automate!! ;)

I can go a month without touching a single thing. :)

[sporto0]

Filling my basement with RO/DI water. It still happens about 2 times a month. I'll never learn.:headwally:



been there, done that, still doing it

[kv2wr1]

I added alk directly to the aquarium without mixing it first with rodi water. It touched several corals and snails. It killed the corals and the snails were not happy.

[Allmost]

needed to empty and move a 60G reef tank,

got a vaccum cleaner that connects to the kitchen sink.

emptied the tank, and was thinking "WOW, this is easy, half way empty and no work"
then my foot got wet !

the sink's drain clogged, and filled up both sinks and was purring out, my kitchen and living room were flooded with salt water lol

Luckily, I cleaned it up fast, and mopped it hundred of times with clean tap water. the hardwood is fine (this was 2 years back)

I went back to the good old bucket method.

[jws0318]

I did what seemed like months of research, and decided that a 24g tank was the perfect size to try out maintaining a reef. I bought everything new, and everything top-of-the-line. The $300 tank/stand combo quickly grew to the $2000 moneypit, but the tank was great and i just needed to let everything grow out. Problem is that everythig grows except the tank itself, so now it's time to do it all over again on a larger scale.

I read it thousands of times, but i still didn't heed the warning - should have started bigger in the first place.

[Playa-1]

Not taking the QT process seriously when I first started. That was, by far, my biggest mistake. My second biggest mistake was repeating my first biggest mistake. I gotta do things the hard way sometimes. :lol:

[ken55]

Ya'll are going to love this.....

My 1st adventure in this hobby was about 15 years ago. I did everything imagineable wrong yet never really suffered any harm from it.

Tap water, no test kits (why should I test, everything looks ok), bad lights, bad filters, mixing salt right in the tank (!), no QT, impulse buys on livestock, no acclimation, it just goes on and on. I actually remember thinking at the time "Everybody says saltwater is difficult. There ain't nothing to it". Why my tank didn't crash twice a week is beyond me.

Now for my mistake: Thinking that any of the above was in any sort of way an acceptable method when I got back into this a year ago. I used up all my luck years ago and now I'm learning everything the HARD way.

[ezerasurfr]

my biggest mistake in this hobby was joining "the reef tank" forums. their attitudes over there almost pushed me from this hobby.

[ldallen95219]

My biggest mistake (and still is) is reaching into the tank to move a rock (when I buy a new coral) without any gloves and a darn fireworm throws its quills on me. Then my finger flares up, etc. Still do it, will never learn. Those gloves are so cumbersome hate wearing them. I will, however, when and if it comes time to move to another location.

Also, for those of you who run RO/DI water from a hose/faucet. I run mine in the garage as there is a sink out there and I fill up 5 gallon buckets (1 at a time). I immediately then go in and set the timer on my stove for the length of time it needs to fill that 5 gal. bucket. By doing that there is no forgetting and no water overflow on the garage floor.

[BigCountry74]

Not being careful and cautious when running my RODI unit. I have had a few issues where I forget it's running and I'm met with small floods.

Worst time was a night after I had done a ton of prep work to get my tank going and I was filling it with RODI direct from my RODI unit. I just ran the 1/4" hose direct into my tank. It took a very long time to fill. I kept a watchful eye on things, but it was a long night and I feel asleep on my couch from exhaustion of the previous day... feel asleep while the RODI was dumping water into my DT, albeit at a slow pace.

Woke up and the 1/4" hose had fallen out of the tank for what must have been 2-3 hours, my floor was flooded for about an 8 foot diameter.... carpet. I thought my GF was going to make me scrap the whole project at that point.

Now I am very careful to make sure I only run my RODI into containers in my bathtub with those hose securly fastened so it cant slip out of the bathtub. Most people may not have to do this, but I have forgot enough times while i'm running my RODI that I can't risk any more floods.

haha bro I have forget about mine twice now in the last 3 weeks....flooded the laundry room both times....my wife was super ****ed as well. I blamed light beer and computer games, she did not go for that excuse....
:beer:

[iamjoefox]

buying the cool looking 1/2 twin spot wrasse from my lfs without researching it.

over time he turned into a 6"+ snail and hermit terminator. he was nearly impossible to catch so i could evict him, i had a lot of rock work and 4" of sand. every time i almost had him he would hide in the sand i ended up fishing him out with 5 lb test and a mini hook i made up.

[jake koppen]

My biggest was listening to lfs guy and trying to do things in the cheap. Guy told me that ”sand is sand, you can go to home depot and use cheap play sand”. ” also you don't need a hydrometer, the nah of salt says how much to add per gallon” thanks buddy! That was the owner of the store too. Had to dump the tank to get the sand out (it was so fine it would just cloud)
another time (tank is full again) (girlfriend and her friend waiting for me to go to a nice dinner) I was running my return plumbing up the side of my stand and was attaching it with brackets and screws. On this stand it has trim to cover the bottom plastic rim of the tank. Well I shoot a screw into that piece of wood not thinking the glass was behind it, heard a crack,.backed the screw out and saw the water coming out! Drove the screw back in to plug the hole, ” girls, grab some buckets!” It their dresses they helped me bail 100 gal of sw to the bath tub. What great girls hanging with such a dumb man lol

[jake koppen]

Oh, so I had that tank filled then emptied with salt water 3 times before I actually had it running. The cost of the salt alone almost made me walk away. 300gal

[anbosu]

Attempting to re-use a deep sand bed when moving my reef across the room. It nuked the tank killing almost all of the fish and my corals.

[megatron8121]

My girlfriend dropped a rock on a clownfish when moving to a new tank once, that's probably the worst mistake in tank for us so far.

My biggest mistake though was when I bought a fish tank off craigslist, guy listed it as a 90 gallon and it was pouring raining when I went to go pick it up, I didn't bother measuring the dimensions and I knew for sure it was wider than the 55 we had so just rushed and got it. When I got home realized it was a 75 gallon and was ****ed off.

Thank god I turned it over to someone new in a week and only lost 50$, still though lesson learned. Even if it's a tornado make sure you measure first.

[Robin764]

Selling my equipment when I moved.....Knowing full well, I never get rid of the reef bug....am currently in a deal to buy the same size tank I already had...lol!

[Humuhumunuku]

Buying a premade stand. Particle board has no business being around a reef tank, as soon as it gets wet, it swells like on one's business. And who trusts 2x1s holding something that weighs half a ton. Next tank I start, I will definitely be going with a DIY stand.

[Cloudburst2000]

Becoming a reefer. Me never has any money now :p

But seriously, the worst mistake I made was flooding the kitchen while running RO/DI water. I know do it in the tub :lol2: