Tanks crash for a lot of different reasons, here's a list of some of the more common ones that I have procured to try and help out any new hobbyists avoid crashing their first tank.
- Not cycling your tank properly, make sure to test your tanks before adding marine life and pace yourself, don't add everything in all at once.
- Not doing regular maintenance/testing. Old tank syndrome is a thing and it can sneak up on you quickly.
- Heater malfunctions, make sure to have a thermometer in the tank at all times, or get a heater with a automatic shutoff as a safety feature
- Anemones and power heads, if you've got them together accidents are prone to happen. Keep a cage on your powerhead or just moniter when your anemone moves to close for comfort.
- Salinity spikes, make sure you are topping off on a regular basis or invest in a auto top off.
- Doing too big of a clean at once, tanks like stability so doing a large change will tick things off or lead to a crash.
- Dosing too much at first, elevate your levels over time. Reef tanks especially crave stability over anything. Doing lots of changes at once will not go well. Same goes for not dosing after a long time, if you pick it back up start slow.
- Letting other people mess with your tank. Whether your on vacation or helping them learn the ropes always make sure to provide a helping hand and monitor what happens with the tank.
- Wash your hands before putting them in the tank, especially if you were working with chemicals or lotion or anything of the sort.
- Test your source water before doing a water change. Plain and simple.
- Bonus: Quarantine your fish before adding them in, it only takes 1 fish to introduce something that can wipe out a tank.
