Rookie Mistakes

[btkrausen]

Even as a seasoned reefer, sometimes I make stupid mistakes that could have easily been prevented.

Example, last night I did a water change on my quarantine tank, but didn't measure the temp (did measure the salinity though) . Doing a 40% water change with 90 degree water is apparently bad, haha. Because I forgot to take the temp, it cost me about $700, as my baby Naso, male eightline flasher, and Mitratus butterfly as died last night.

Somehow (luckily) the most delicate fish in the QT, a Jewel leopard wrasse was fine.

What mistakes have you made like this?

 

[Reef Breeders]

Wow, that really sucks :( I added cold water when I first started, it made the fish lethargic, but fortunately no deaths. Another thing to look out for is adding a non reef safe fish to a reef tank, or an agressive fish. I saw an undulated trigger for 25 bucks, and would have taken it myself if I was a begginer, and did not know.

 

[wysiwyg]

i did the exact opposite of you measured the temp but not salinity nothing died but they wernt happy. did a 20% change and added the new salt water that was 1.029 raised my tank salinity to 1.027

 

[FaviaFreak]

I was doing a water change and rushing around, poured all fresh water from my top off jug into my reef instead of the new salt water...take your time doing things lol

 

[ritter6788]

Dang! That's a tough one! Sorry for your losses. I've never even measured water temp during changes. It's all in the same house with the same A/C so I guess it's usually pretty close anyway. I don't run heaters or chillers on my tanks.

I lost a really cool mantis shrimp (O. havanensis) after adding a rock to it's tank that I would have swore was cured. It spiked the ammonia and the little guy died.

 

[Rob.D]

Dosing ALK with out testing for it....6.5DKH at the start and 17 DKH two weeks later.

 

[clowns101]

Purchasing cheap, crappy items at first thinking it would save me money in the long run. Not true, do NOT buy a cheap skimmer, light, power head, etc, in the end you will always want the best, and purchasing those items of crap will just make your cost more expensive, save and then buy.

 

[jerky48183]

Sorry for your loss when I first started I cycled my tank wrong and killed a couple of fish. Also last night doing a water change was to rough moving live rock go get at some sand and crushed a cleaner shrimp I got to be much more carefully never know who is hanging out on the rocks.