What Reefkeeping Lesson Cost You the Most?

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Most experienced reefers have paid some form of “reefkeeping tuition.”

Sometimes the cost was money. Sometimes it was livestock, time, sleep, frustration, or the painful realization that we created a problem that could have been avoided.

Maybe you moved too quickly, bought the wrong equipment, ignored a warning sign, chased a parameter, trusted questionable advice, or brought home an animal before fully researching its needs. Whatever happened, the lessons that cost us the most are often the ones we remember forever.

CONFESSION: While putting this poll together, I realized I’ve committed every mistake on this list except failing to research an animal’s needs. I've literally done and regretted every...single...one... that's on that list. Apparently, my reefkeeping education has been very thorough...and occasionally expensive!

The good news is that sharing those experiences might help another reefer learn the same lesson without paying the same price.

So, which type of mistake taught you your most expensive reefkeeping lesson?

BONUS POINTS: What happened, and what one sentence would you tell another reefer before they make the same mistake?

 

[Just John]

Letting nutrients sit at zero was my mistake. I got a bad case of dinos that left my first tank a wasteland.

 

[X-37B]

Letting all my halide gear go away after getting into leds 8 years ago.
I run 1 halide system and 5 led systems now and have more halide gear than I will ever need, lol.

 

[keagan]

Not addressing what would happen in an extended power outage. Lost everything after a big storm and 2 weeks without power. Always have a plan for emergencys, something to keep life support going on your tank in a power outage is essential.

 

[vlangel]

Mine happened last year at this time and I should've known better.
After 25+ years of reefkeeping and setting up 4 different tanks in that time, I made a rookie mistake,,,,
I added too many new fish to a system that had not fully settled from the transfer of my prior tank and on top of that, the fish were not QT. I got a disease event in the tank and in an effort to save my fish, I hit the tank with Prazi and Cipro probably further disrupting the biological function. I lost 7 out of 17 fish, something that hasn't happened to me since my 1st tank. It was painful and even now 9 months later, I am still fighting sandbed uglies. Maybe that would have happened anyway .

I have since made some changes to reduce the likelihood of a repeat. I am running a fully cycled 20g QT/observation tank for new fish. If they dont show disease after a month, they go into the display. I also added an oversized UV sterilizer to help manage disease because I do not run a disease free tank. This has worked well for me most of my reef keeping years but not when I added too many fish too fast to a 3 month old tank. Live and learn, some times the hard way.

 

[exnisstech]

Buying fish housed in low salinty and low level copper which suppresses disease that becomes active when acclimated to normal salinty. Unfortunately this is a very common practice that many vendors do. Only buy from tanks also housing coral and or inverts.

I'm answering the thread topic not discussing QT vs non QT

 

[mfinn]

It's a mistake I still seem to be doing.
Not leaving stuff alone when it's doing fine. Doing an upgrade when it's not needed.

 

[quicksand]

I just started my tank up, but I’ve learnt quite a few of these from watching the other tank in the house and my freshwater days.

For example, my tank was at the tail end of its cycle when the other tank had a dosing issue made because sleep was needed. Now the livestock from it is in my tank while that water gets back to where it’s supposed to be through daily water changes. That same tank had an unquarantined fish added which gave the clowns in there brook, and crashed the whole tank 10 months ago. The rockscape in that tank was also made too big to properly place corals. The wave maker had to be replaced because it barely made a ripple, let alone real movement.

And in my freshwater days, I bought ocean direct not realizing it was for saltwater. Got my tank all set up, added a full community of fish, and slowly watched them all die without knowing why. Almost made the same mistake a second time five years later until the pet store employee asked some questions and explained why it was a bad choice. I research everything now.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Not allowing for lateral expansion of coral.

 

[Biokabe]

I've had to pay some very expensive lessons.

First was on my first tank: I didn't have enough redundancy on my heater. It failed in the on position while I was on vacation and cooked everything in the tank. Full livestock loss.

Second was on my second tank. I had a HOB overflow that I plumbed to my sump with flex tubing rather than rigid plumbing. The flex tubing exerted a small but constant pressure on that corner of the tank... 3-4 years after setting it up, that seal popped. Lost almost everything for the livestock (about half of my stuff didn't make it), plus the leak took out my controller, the power supply for my DIY light, and a few other pieces of equipment.

Third was just last year. My tank at the time was a Reefer, and it started to do what Reefers do. That's not what cost me, though - what cost me was that I failed my tank transfer, took way too long to get everything set up, and almost everything died in the holding tanks. Almost completely avoidable.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Getting a Red Sea tank.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I tried to save a buck and bought a cheaper unit and soon had to buy another proper unit that I should have bought in the first place. I'm not sure what category that falls into. This mistake cost me the most because I did it a few times.

 

[EnterName]

While I'm not 100% sure yet, it very much seems like hermit crabs do in fact eat Berghia nudis...

I removed all shrimp prior to adding the nudibranchs, but I didn't think much about my hermits.
That was a very expensive mistake.