Tank crashes, why?

EFJ

EFJ

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This is for all of those that had the unfortunate tragedy of tank crashing and loosing livestock etc. I would like to know why did your tank crash and what did you learn from it and what advice to give to others? I think this would be a good way for beginners and potential beginners to look out for and learn from.
 
Here are reasons that I have seen over the last 20yrs
1. Complacency
2. The need to change something
3. Failed Research and understanding of the basics, eg. Nitrogen cycle
4. Bad advice
5. Bad purchases
6. Commitment
7. No quarantine or dipping
8. Neglect
9. Over complexity

These are a few but all can be avoided with a little strategy and research. What have I learnt, well that I am not patient, impulse buyer, lazy and experimental. While they seem bad, with a little thought and a strategy I have managed to compensate for then in my designs and current tanks.
 
Hi EFJ

My tank crashed four months ago and i lost +- 2k of live stock. I was devistated and very confused as i couldnt understand why. I then went to my local supplier who asked me a few questions and from there i found the issue. I had a slight out break of red slime algea and a pet store gave me a chemical to wipe out the algea but infact it crahed my system.
 
jono said:
Hi EFJ

My tank crashed four months ago and i lost +- 2k of live stock. I was devistated and very confused as i couldnt understand why. I then went to my local supplier who asked me a few questions and from there i found the issue. I had a slight out break of red slime algea and a pet store gave me a chemical to wipe out the algea but infact it crahed my system.
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Would this have been chemi-clean?
 
Back when I had my peppermint shrimp cleaning tank,it was a basic tank setup with peppermints only. And I used to swap rocks from my display to be cleaned. Filtration chamber had bubble caulerpa in it and the caulerpa grew like crazy. But the caulerpa did crash (went sexual) twice in four months. If it was a bigger system with more caulerpa, it could be problematic.
 
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dallasg said:
1. Complacency 2. The need to change something 3. Failed Research and understanding of the basics, eg. Nitrogen cycle 4. Bad advice 5. Bad purchases 6. Commitment 7. No quarantine or dipping 8. Neglect 9. Over complexity
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And getting to LAZY:tt2::lol: (JOKE) LOL
 
Smirre said:
And getting to LAZY:tt2::lol: (JOKE) LOL
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Lazy is good in a way, as long as you do good husbandry for YOUR system then being lazy will stop the fiddling...

The most dangerous things you can put in your tank are your hands :)
 
@dallasg it was a product called anti red it seemed to have a reaction with my dsb. As when i said what i had used the guys said that was my problem. So from now on i dont use much chemicals in my system rather water changes.
 
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@dallasg you are correct alot of the time its due to bad advise, bad buys and just fiddling with the tank too much. I have adopted for the KISS merhod keep it simple stumpid.
 
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why i ask is that most crashes , and i am guilty of it too dont get me wrong, are caused by not reading the instructions, and our first response is to blame the product :)

A good current example are the cubes :p
 
Well at first i thought the same thing but i put in half the reccomended dosage and sure enough the algea dissapeared but my massive hammer, clam, monti, sailfin tang and chromis didnt make it. So i dont kno i am just going on what i was told was the cause. :(
 
these things can go pear shaped, i used microbelift liquid phos remover and it killed my tangs and foxface, apparently i was supposed to be told to half dose if those fish are present
 
Yup you are correct always ask as much questions as you can as most times they pushing to move stock. I rather say before you try stuff post a thread as there is alot of knowlege and you would probally get the best advise.:p
 
Other reasons could be:

Overstocking
Stocking too soon
Adding too many fish all at once
Fiddling too much with the tank
 
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i like this point
Do not rely on skimmers to do much in the way of gas exchange, like oxygen uptake, ammonia released into the air, nitrogen released into the air and CO2 released into the air as well.Use cascaded waters to achieve these.
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wvdheever said:
Thanks for the read very interesting.
As a newbie to the world of marine tanks this is really helpful.
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welcome! this is a wonderful that takes up 75% of the planet ;)
 
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