Lets hear some rookie mistake and failure stories

[michaelr]

Hey everybody,
I have finally come to somewhat peace after two years with my first failure.:mixed: I am willing to share it and would like to hear other peoples stories too. OK so it was two years ago and i went snorkeling in st johns. I saw all the fish and it inspired me to start a saltwater tank. I had kept a freshwater for a year before that so had a tiny bit of experience. I went to petco with very little experience:headwally:* mistake number one. I got sand, a small hob filter and a 10 gallon tank. After two days i went back and according to the employee was ready for clowns. I got two clowns, a cookie star and a piece of liverock.:headwalls: For a few days the clowns were ok.(looking back probably pre cycle) Then it turned for the worst, the water became murky and the clowns got pop eye. I tried to save them but could not.(probably died from ammonia). Btw the cookie star disappeared never to be seen again.(probably died due to the cycle and didnt help anything) This hit me hard and i couldnt see clownfish for a few months later. In the end i did my research times 20 and started up a 120 tank which is doing great.(with clowns ironically) Now that i admitted that others need to share to. Ps please dont think of me differently because of that i know what im doing nowadays

[SushiGirl]

I guess I've been lucky. A former boyfriend gave me my first tank. A 3 gallon Eclipse. After it was up for a couple of months & I found this BB, it was generally said that it was impossible to keep a 3 gallon reef tank. I had it for 4 years before I broke it down & added the corals and rocks to my bigger tank LOL. Kept a peppermint shrimp, a porcelain crab, and small snails & hermits along with mushrooms in there.

[LauraBay]

Bought an adorable little (3/4 inch) orbi batfish for my 75. It was so cute I just couldn't resist bringing it home. It's mouth was so small I worried it wouldn't be able to eat the frozen brine I bought to feed it. Four months later it was over 6' mouth to tail and I (a broke college student at the time) was dropping big $$$ on a 180. At eight months it was the size of a dinner plate, ate from my hand and splashed large amounts of saltwater on my hardwood floors when it wanted attention or felt it was time to eat. He was with me for over 13years before I lost my beloved "Orbi" in an extended power failure during a nasty winter storm. Not sure I'd look back at it as a mistake b/c I adored this fish but can assure you I never again bought a fish with researching it thoroughly first!!!

[michaelr]

I guess I've been lucky. A former boyfriend gave me my first tank. A 3 gallon Eclipse. After it was up for a couple of months & I found this BB, it was generally said that it was impossible to keep a 3 gallon reef tank. I had it for 4 years before I broke it down & added the corals and rocks to my bigger tank LOL. Kept a peppermint shrimp, a porcelain crab, and small snails & hermits along with mushrooms in there.

Wow that is either a lot of luck or a great amount of skill. Or a little bit of both. I didnt even get to the coral stage in mine haha. thank goodness or thatd be another check in the death toll.

[michaelr]

Laura,
I wouldnt consider that a failure though. 13 years is a pretty long time.(maybe not a full life) besides you were willing to buy a bigger tank for it and it only died due to a power failure(sorry to hear that btw)

[LauraBay]

Buying without knowing ANYTHING about the fish was definitely a rookie mistake ;)

[SushiGirl]

Wow that is either a lot of luck or a great amount of skill. Or a little bit of both. I didnt even get to the coral stage in mine haha. thank goodness or thatd be another check in the death toll.

Well, I did feed the aiptasia in the beginning :D

[Felixc395]

I got aefw after 2 months of my first SPS in a new system... :(

[crankbait]

Well back before the internet i set up a 30 gallon sw tank before even having a fw tank. Undergravle filter crushed coral sub and coral skelectons for decoration. Water mixed with salt right out of the tap right into the aquarium. I had a yellow and a hippo tang a clown and some damsles all living in 30 gallons of harmony. Thats not the worst part. I actually set this tank on fire!!!! Oh yes let me explain. One day i came home from a weekend trip and my tank was half empty and there was a layer of smoke damage on my wall. The powerstrip under the tank shorted out caught fire to some silk plants i hand there to hide the wires. The fire built up high enough to melt the acrylic tank. When it sprung the leak the escaping water put out the fire thus saving the apartment complex. Even after all this the fish survived long enough to give to a friend. I only have this to say.........Tangs might be a little more hardy than people give them credit for around here hahahahaha

[michaelr]

Laura, You are totally right but at least you made it right. Batfish are quite a surprise for no research though haha
Sushi: Haha i did the same thing in my 120 gallon tank. I thought it was a button until it one day was on the back wall. It was pretty big when i found out.
Felix: That stinks because there probably wasnt much you could do at the stage you found out right?
Crank: all i can say is good job setting a tank on fire :p. At least you have the no internet excuse i have none. How did there manage to be enough water for the fish to breath afterwords?

[Felixc395]

Felix: That stinks because there probably wasnt much you could do at the stage you found out right?

No, I certainly couldn't! And unfortunately I'm still dealing with it! :headwalls: It's very frustrating to say the least! :lol:

[crankbait]

You know the ending scene in finding Nemo? Well I can only assume that my Nemo told Dori to plug the hole with her fins until I got home.....hahah Just kidding. I think the hole pluged itself up with sand and gravle. It was a wierd deal. The tank was dark and cold when I got home.
I imagin Im the only man in the world who has managed to set a box of water on fire

[michaelr]

You know the ending scene in finding Nemo? Well I can only assume that my Nemo told Dori to plug the hole with her fins until I got home.....hahah Just kidding. I think the hole pluged itself up with sand and gravle. It was a wierd deal. The tank was dark and cold when I got home.
I imagin Im the only man in the world who has managed to set a box of water on fire

yeah you probably entered into a very few individuals by doing that

[porksmash]

I researched the hell out of SW tank keeping for about 6 months before I started my tank and have only made a couple mistakes so far, both non-fatal.

My first mistake was turning on my RO/DI filter to refill the tank before I went to bed. I didn't have an ATO at the time, so my filter output just went straight into the tank since I operated it manually. I forgot about it and went to bed. Water all over the floor and salinity dropped to 1.013 by the time I woke up, but I was able to get everything back to normal with some super water changes. I haven't felt that 'Oh crap, I've made a huge mistake' feeling for the longest time until that squish when I stepped on my carpet as I got out of bed.

Second mistake was made when I was in a rush to get ready for vacation. I set up my ATO, but in the mass of cables and outlets I managed to plug my refugium light into where the ATO pump should have been. My refugium ended up being illuminated when the water level got too low. I came home a week later to my return pump churning in nothing and my tank level waaasy too low. Luckily I had powerheads inside the tank that kept up circulation decently and the ambient temperature was in the upper 70s, so nothing perished.

LESSONS LEARNED!

[dzfish17]

I made the mistake of using a coralife skimmer on my first tank with no GFCI outlets... it overflowed and almost burned the house down. I learned my lesson and do things the right way now. My current tank has two dedicated circuits with GFCI outlets on everything except the main pump.

[carolgyrl1]

I went out of town for a couple of days, after working on my tank, I accidently forgot to turn back on the pumps, fortunately, I have led's or my fish would have been fried. all ended well, but I learned a valuable lesson, I always double check my pumps. I got a new durso standpipe, so now my tank is so quiet, I sometimes look under the counter to make sure the pups are on!!