3 biggest mistakes you've made in this hobby

[Fotocha]

1. Dosing alk in a low nutrient tank
2. Not Shopping for prices instead of buying from the first LFS I met. ($130 for a Red Sea refractometer, 2 test kits $85 a piece)
3. Not doing enough research

 

[xxstitch69xx]

Not enough research which led to me not putting new fish in qt or dipping corals.

 

[W.Lane]

1. Getting in the hobby in the 80's
2. Getting out of the hobby in the late 90's
3. Getting back in the hobby in 2016.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

This is a good thread, a lot of similar responses.

1. Rushing into getting my tank setup.
2. Dipping but not QT'ing incoming corals.
3. Thinking that buying every piece of equipment would make my tank run better.(build before my current tank)

 

[ZoWhat]

1) telling my spouse I'm on another R2R Live Sale for the next 12hrs

2) telling the spouse I accidentally killed 75% of what I bought in the Live Sale 2mos ago

3) telling the spouse after this Live Sale we both have to pack our lunches for work and no eating out for "awhile"




.

 

[jkentfite]

lack of patience
lack of independent research
not quarantining

Those had to be kessils! Beautiful. I run xr30 pros with diffusers and put a kessil on just to get that shimmer. Yours is way better though.

 

[jkentfite]

1. Took me way too long to realize the importance of stable alk. Now I test almost every day or every other.
2. Sump/tank ratio. I run triton 44 sump on a 200 gal tank - it’s right at the edge of big enough. Wish I had waited and had a custom built larger one.
Stand is barely y’all enough for my in sump skimmer. And skimmer barely fits in sump. Again. Need more room to work in sump/under stand.
3. Plumbing. I didn’t install a return pump manifold nor a check valve on return line. Every time I water change or “feed mode” my sump nearly overflows. And I’ve got like 3 little pumps for all my reactors taking up space in sump... This is getting fixed tomorrow actually.

Overall, I’m pleased with the way it’s shaking out though. Can’t wait to see it all grown out!

 

[Hermie]

1. Putting corals in a bad quarantine environment
2. Not double checking salinity when doing water changes
3. Starting out with a low-power refugium light (waited a few months too long to upgrade and algae took hold)

 

[Fin-up reefing]

This is a good thread, a lot of similar responses.

1. Rushing into getting my tank setup.
2. Dipping but not QT'ing incoming corals.
3. Thinking that buying every piece of equipment would make my tank run better.(build before my current tank)

Thank you haha, in all honesty I've never dipped a coral

 

[Fin-up reefing]

1. Took me way too long to realize the importance of stable alk. Now I test almost every day or every other.
2. Sump/tank ratio. I run triton 44 sump on a 200 gal tank - it’s right at the edge of big enough. Wish I had waited and had a custom built larger one.
Stand is barely y’all enough for my in sump skimmer. And skimmer barely fits in sump. Again. Need more room to work in sump/under stand.
3. Plumbing. I didn’t install a return pump manifold nor a check valve on return line. Every time I water change or “feed mode” my sump nearly overflows. And I’ve got like 3 little pumps for all my reactors taking up space in sump... This is getting fixed tomorrow actually.

Overall, I’m pleased with the way it’s shaking out though. Can’t wait to see it all grown out!

Beautiful tank!

 

[Sump Crab]

1. Starting with tap water on original tanks
2. Waiting so long to buy an ATO
3. Adding Kenya tree coral to my system (impossible to get rid of)

 

[TexasTodd]

1. Took me way too long to realize the importance of stable alk. Now I test almost every day or every other.
2. Sump/tank ratio. I run triton 44 sump on a 200 gal tank - it’s right at the edge of big enough. Wish I had waited and had a custom built larger one.
Stand is barely y’all enough for my in sump skimmer. And skimmer barely fits in sump. Again. Need more room to work in sump/under stand.
3. Plumbing. I didn’t install a return pump manifold nor a check valve on return line. Every time I water change or “feed mode” my sump nearly overflows. And I’ve got like 3 little pumps for all my reactors taking up space in sump... This is getting fixed tomorrow actually.

Overall, I’m pleased with the way it’s shaking out though. Can’t wait to see it all grown out!

#3, just drill a small hole at waterline on your return in display. Breaks siphon quickly.

 

[TexasTodd]

1. Believing two-part is always fine in equal parts dosed. Ever seen your glass turn white?
2. Believing your Son has correctly calibrated refractometer.
3. Underestimating tank move time needed.

 

[n21benson]

lack of patience
lack of independent research
not quarantining

Great set-up. The lighting looks amazing!

 

[Hermie]

1. Starting with tap water on original tanks
2. Waiting so long to buy an ATO
3. Adding Kenya tree coral to my system (impossible to get rid of)

#3, just drill a small hole at waterline on your return in display. Breaks siphon quickly.

it's funny because 6 months in and I just bought an RODI system (was using tap/store distilled) and just added an air hole in the return, literally in the past 2 weeks. Wish I had done it sooner.

 

[PanchoG]

1. Try to go with a lot of fish from the beginning.
2. Relax the water testing frequency.
3. Play to much with light settings.

 

[Tastee]

I’ve only been in the hobby a little under 2 years to date so I’m sure I have many more mistakes to come (-:

I would say I have only really made one significant mistake to date. I have made many others but I really put them down to learning and developing experience rather than fair dinkum mistakes.

My mistake was trusting a test kit telling me I had high PO4. I even tested my tap water and my LFS RODI which I was using at the time. Both also tested the same as my tank, 0.25 ppm PO4. I blamed the LFS on having poor quality RODI. Stupid me. I was battling GHA at the time and though that was the cause. So I kept dosing LC. Ended up killing a Torch and nearly killing a Sinularia (which are pretty much bulletproof, right?).

In hindsight it was obvious I had a bad test kit over-reading PO4. Being inexperienced I missed or ignored all the other data that was telling me that was a likely cause. More learning and experience yes, but it should not have taken me so long to cotton on to the situation.

 

[Jessesoto33]

1. Forget to turn off skimmer before turning off return pump for feeding
2. Accidentally putting heater on on position instead of auto on apex
3. Putting an expensive coral next to an aggressive coral to find it dead in the morning

 

[Dom]

1. Fixing something that wasn't broken.

2. FIxing something that wasn't broken.

3. Fixing something that wasn't broken.

 

[HB AL]

After 30+ years only 3 come to mind, I'd say between 1986 and 1996. Using tap water back then and fighting algae because of it in fowlr tanks and buying a big beautiful Queen trigger that killed all my other fish in a couple days. The other was buying a used acrylic hex tank that split open after a couple weeks of being filled. My current tank going on a little over 3 years is my most successful, yet simple, with no automation, simple old school.