Share your NOOB experience and WIN a TUNZE Reefpack 250!

[Mig]

This happened some years ago with one of my tanks,

When you always want better and better and not satisfied with a redox what just a monitor value is to indicate when something might be wrong...you raise your ozon generator from 200mg full open for a night on a 55 gallon tank. Believe me your redox is on the value You wanted to be in the morning.... But so sad that all your fish and shrimps etc etc also die....

So ozon not satisfied with good is a disaster....

 

[Reef Fever]

so when does the winner get announced?

 

[Isoprene]

ITs usually 30 days so sometime around the 3rd or 4th?

 

[aaronlp]

When i first started into the hobby i use to get damsels(not realizing how nasty and hard to catch) and i used to do water changes with regualr water stright from our tub i also use to think xenia was the best coral(like an sps coral) untill i found out it was invasive, also used to use a salt meter with the arms tha filled with water to test my salinity instead of a refratometer....othe days of being a noob haha

 

[Iceman13579]

I've always been the type of person who researches a lot before I jump into anything. So after months of research I finally decided to start a planted 40 gallon breeder tank. Being my first attempt, I decided start with freshwater and not marine, but the big mistake I made applies to both. I bought some of the best equipment that I could find and went all out of this tank. I knew that I had to do regular water changes and what-not, so while doing one of my first water changes, I removed the tank cover and I drained about 25% of the water from the tank. I have my buckets of water treated and ready to go. As I start to refill the tank, I hear this crackle sound, and then a loud pop. I immediately stoped what I was doing and began to investigate. I decided to investigate around the filter intakes and I stuck my hand into the water. I received a nice little shock and that's when I realized my mistake. I had failed to turn the heater off before doing the water change. Luckily no fish died, and I had two smaller heaters in the tank instead of one larger heater. I had a nice little tingle for a few minutes and I had to replace the heater, but there was no long term damage done to my fish or myself (at least I don't think so, it would explain a lot of things though, lol). Noob moment by far.

 

[sean151]

When I first started my tank just under 3 years ago I did all my research for months and bought all the equipment I would need (light, filter, koralia nano, etc). So when I went one of my local stores to buy lr, I still hadn't made saltwater yet as I figured I could just get saltwater while I was there. I bought my 5lbs of rocks for my 5.5G and then noticed there wasn't much water in the bag. I ended up buying a used 6G saltbucket and 5 gallons of water. Now that I've moved up to an AIO 10G I still use that bucket to make water.

 

[john_the_reefer]

Adventures of the noob

I was taking marine biology in high school and the teacher had us set up a tropical marine tank with gravel and an undergravel filter...TOTAL nitrate trap, but that tank actually made it until i tried to switch it to sand(using unwashed play sand)...it was a complete crash and I lost all the stock

 

[WesMeeks]

Decided to set up a 55 gallon tank and wife wanted certain fish. Ended up with yellow tang and regal tang along with a large imperial angelfish in same tank along with several other fish. Total bio overload, not to mention spacing issues galore. In the end sold everything and am now starting to re-buy equipment and everything to try again. This time doing it right!

 

[shibbyplustax]

Decided to drill a tank with a tempered bottom. :thumbdown:

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk 2

 

[kovfunk22]

I pulled the stand pipe in the overflow and flooded the sump!

 

[pahong]

I set up my 40 gallon breeder, put in a homemade sump, checked all my fittings made sure the water was all up to the proper levels and fired everything up for the first time. Once I was happy with how it was all functioning i started adding in my rock. Then I had to turn the pumps off one day for some reason. That is when I learned that the sump will overflow if no buffer is allowed for when all the water in the pipes flows back into the sump. thankfully it was only a couple gallons at the most. 

 

[ReefMoto]

when i first started i though it would be ok to use amquel to "clean" tap water to use on my new reef... not a good idea

 

[ReefMoto]

forgot to glue my return line and turned it on and left for an hour to get more stuff at home depot...lol water every where

 

[Dublo8]

This story takes place both when I was noob aquariest and a noob father. My son had just turned 2 and my 40br just turned 6mo. I decided to ignore the warnings of my friends with tanks and children and put no safeguards in place to protect both my investments.

I was sleeping in on a Saturday morning and I awoke to hear my son clapping in the other room and I smelled a distinct fishy smell. As I walked in the living room he was sitting in front of the sump clapping and a once full jar of reef roids coral food sitting empty on the floor, tank water tinted dark brown and a smell I will never forget. He was so proud of himself for feeding the fish. I flipped out on my son and my wife as I was yelling something about a delicate Eco system blah blah blah and some other reef related jargon to try and drive my point across to both of them. Neither of them understood what my incoherent ramblings were about. After about eleventy thousand water changes, filter sock changes etc. Things started to come around again. The tank eventually recovered and so did I. My son is now almost 4 and still loves the tank just as much as he did before and to this very day, when his friends come over he tells them not to touch or put anything in the water as its a "vewy dewicate weekosystem". I love this hobby but most of all I love sharing it with my son. Oh and I still don't have child locks on the sump cabinet.

 

[Beast1961]

The first spring I had had my reef tank up I applied flea and tick repellent to my dogs, A couple days later I must of petted one of them, Without washing my hands first I started reefscaping and all my shrimp and pods started freaking out swimming every which way but right side up. An 80% water change saved the rest of the live stock.

 

[iretthepirate]

I didn't do water changes the first year cause nobody told me to.was just topping off with RO

 

[Tony_D]

For the first few months when I had my first reef tank, I was using tap water straight from the faucet to fill and top-off my tank. An RODI unit and a mulligan later, the algea problem never came back.

 

[revhtree]

Picking a winner today!

 

[Budman's Corals]

i bought a carpet and thought it was a coral...Now im stuck with a carpet that nobody wants

 

[Sharki]

Picked up a beautiful carnation coral at a store. Was told by the staff that it was very easy to care for and hardy. Needless to say it didn't last more than a couple months.