the rookie mistakes thread

leslie hempel

leslie hempel

Professional Aquarist
Joined
7 May 2007
Posts
18,237
Reaction score
1,344
Location
East London
we all started somewhere... some of us have learnt from our past bad decisions others have forgotten and repeated them. this thread is aimed at creating a collection of past mistakes made by both beginner and seasoned reefer in the hopes of bringing awareness to the newbies. no judgements let's post our mistakes and help alert a reefer as to what to avoid.
 
Overdosing, slow and steady parameter control required.

We are water keepers, the additional livestock(Fish and Coral) we keep is just a bonus based on our water keeping skills.

If we don't have at least 5 of the basic tank test kits there's no use starting with coral care.
 
Buying everything the shop told me i needed.
Everytime a new brand or new additive came out, i bought it. Everything from foods, chemicals, buffers, you name it i used it!
At my peak i was dosing around 12 different chemicals/additives. Besides the cost, my saturday mornings were dedicated to measuring and dosing my collection of things to make my tank pretty.
As i progressed, i realised most were redundant and besides there good marketing and fancy packaging, many did absolutely nothing. At the moment im dosing three things and i can enjoy saturday mornings again (and tank is much happier now that the dosing has slowed).
 
459b said:
Buying everything the shop told me i needed.
Everytime a new brand or new additive came out, i bought it. Everything from foods, chemicals, buffers, you name it i used it!
At my peak i was dosing around 12 different chemicals/additives. Besides the cost, my saturday mornings were dedicated to measuring and dosing my collection of things to make my tank pretty.
As i progressed, i realised most were redundant and besides there good marketing and fancy packaging, many did absolutely nothing. At the moment im dosing three things and i can enjoy saturday mornings again (and tank is much happier now that the dosing has slowed).
Click to expand...

Hi 459b, as a matter of interest what are the three things? I'm starting to dose as well, KH, calcium and mg.
 
Listening to lfs' sales motivated advice, thinking you need the latest equipment, buying equipment with no backup support or spares available.
I dose nothing except aminos and now some Mg due to a bad salt batch, and some kalk.
Nowadays I Test only alk and Mg and salinity once in a blue moon.
 
I test nothing, did one test since the tank is up. That was to ensure its safe to add live stock.
I add reef foundation ABC when I remember and a block of reef Xtra cubes. Other than that, I try my best to mess with the tank. I just let it be and enjoy.
 
Last edited:
some good input here..

youre never too old to learn and deffinatley will make another mistake that could be of consequence to your system.

something i see often happen is people go through the effort of getting a tank sitter for when they go away only to come back to an ammonia bomb because the sitter overfed! saying that: "poor fish looked hungry!!!"

forward planning should include packing daily amounts of food per feed in bank bags to avoid this as one persons pinch may be much bigger than yours!! ;)
 
Another mistake is following somebody's advice on impulse without checking out their system.. ive come across alot of aquarists that do not have a clue on whats going on in their system and have somebody attend to their tanks needs for them only to come online and claim the glory, yet they offer advice.. be careful who you trust check out what their capabilities are before following their advice!
 
Thinking it wont happen to me. Believe me it will. It's just a matter of time.

Make sure you have some kind of backup if something goes wrong. Also have someting in place so that you can check on your tank when you are away, like a wifi cam or a monitoring device that you can acces over the net. And quarrntine, quarentine, quarentine!
 
leslie hempel said:
some good input here..

youre never too old to learn and deffinatley will make another mistake that could be of consequence to your system.

something i see often happen is people go through the effort of getting a tank sitter for when they go away only to come back to an ammonia bomb because the sitter overfed! saying that: "poor fish looked hungry!!!"

forward planning should include packing daily amounts of food per feed in bank bags to avoid this as one persons pinch may be much bigger than yours!! ;)
Click to expand...

I buy those daily pill boxes from dischem
To pre pack each days food for the fish sitter .. works a charm!
 
Listening to your LFS. Not all are the same. My brother, when he started, followed his LFS advice.
Started the tank with tap water, just add whatever to get rid of chlorine. Top ups with tap water.
Selling him similar tangs, 2 yellow, 2 sailfin on the same day, knowing that he was a beginner.
Selling him fish a week after selling him the tank.
Selling him an anemone within his first month. Tank had not actually cycled yet.
Plus the tank came with a bullshit skimmer that can not even skim 50L, nevermind a 500L system.

If your LFS does any of these, put your wallet deep down in your pocket and walk out. There are other LFS that actually care about the fish more than their income. They will sell the fish to some other customer later the week, a customer whose tank is correct for it.
 
another that springs to mind is buying fish to save them and infecting an entire established system, rather walk away no matter how gorgeous the fish!
 
QT QT QT ...learned the hard way when it comes to adding fish straight from the LFS to your system . its not just a case of losing your fish its a 2 month process to make sure you can add fish after your tank has been infected with white spot Etc Etc.Save yourself from this nightmare and invest in a cheap QT (quarantine ) System from the start and avoid the trouble in the long run, its far cheaper than throwing fish down the toilet.
 
And another mistake i see all the time - google any livestock you want to buy BEFORE YOU BUY IT and don't buy on impulse. Check that it is compatible with your set up and your skills and the amount of time you able to realistically spend on your tank.

No matter what the guys in the store tell you.

And don’t be an Askhole – the guy who asks for advice, gets good advice and ignores it anyway.

When in doubt check the advice against google – and as somebody said earlier be cautious of advice from guys whose tanks don’t walk the talk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom