Mistakes You've Made

Smokey301

Smokey301

Member
reyno26 said:
Moving a running PH, oh and sucking up a mouthful of brine shrimp. Would have tasted better with some lemon I think.
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lol i had the airhose come loose on my shrimpery,( now i drape the hose over the top of the bottle and have tape securing it lol) but came home from work to find a liter of partially dry bbssoaking into my t-shirts ( had it on the corner of my dresser) :mad:
 
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

Active Member
my BIGGEST mistake was a about 2 months ago, before i was making my own water and SW. I was doing my WC on all of my tanks, and whil doing the change on my pico vase, i accidentally added all FW instead of SW and didnt notice for like 2-3 hours.......needless to say, everything turned to mush and died except for like 2 small snails............. UGH! Now all my SW and FW are labeled.....
 
PIMPALA

PIMPALA

Well-Known Member
that happened to a buddy of mine with his 14G biocube. had it established for over a year, corals growing in nicely, fish loving life and getting big. went to the LFS and asked for 5 gallons of salt water for his water change. they gave him fresh water. he changed the whole 5 gallons, and went to bed. woke up to every thing in the tank dead as can be.

i never did before, but after that, i always test the water before i do a change. (i know... should have been doing it anyway, just never thought about it)
 
SiNNeR

SiNNeR

Member
TylerHaworth said:
Not Quarantining!
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yes. i am feeling that agony right now..
hands down, not having a QT tank for a 6.00 fish.

now all my swimers are in a QT tank for the next 6 weeks. the original sick fish is dead.
lost some coral live stock do to a mini cycle in the tank..

please if you learn ONE thing from this thread
QT
QT
QT
sweet baby jebus, QT

now my poor fishes are wandering aimlessly in a boring tank with only to PVC to play in.
 
Kovu

Kovu

Member
Going to fast and trusting my fish store in the beginning, my tank has not recovered since and now I am taking the steps to improving and recovering the tank right now.
 
B

Builder Anthony

New Member
Transfering baby gobys from tank with a glasss and setting the glass down for ten minutes next to the tank.There must have been a tempeture drop and all the fish died.

Keep your hands out of the tank no good ever comes out of it.
 
F

Felicia

New Member
I made some big mistakes but was lucky enough not to lose any fish or corals. I was topping of my tank water every 3-4 days with water AND salt mix. I thought that I needed to have the salt/water mix for top-offs. Since I wasn't doing regular salinity tests on the tank itself (mistake #2), I thought all was fine.

Once I did a salinity test BAM...the needle would slam to the top of the hydrometer. hmmm that's odd, tried again BAM up to the top.
There's no telling how high the salinity actually was. When I mentioned this at my LFS they said "we'll you're just adding water for the top-offs right...no salt" .
The look on my face said it all.
 
OHmariner

OHmariner

Member
I have made a lot of little mistakes bit the biggest mistake I have made that is still annoying me is, not using enough silicon on a sump. I made a DIY sump and my first go around had a decent design but I ran into problems when the sump dividers started coming apart, while the sump was in use and my whole aquarium depended on it. I have been using CPVC sections to brace the dividers and that has worked for a while. I'm making a new sump with thicker plexi glass and I fashioned a scraper that will allow me to apply more silicon and have it be consistently spread over the joint I'm trying to secure.
 
die4lulu

die4lulu

Member
my biggest mistake was not starting out with a larger tank.
a couple of other mistakes i made was not rinsing out a filter after it was sitting in the closet with some water still left inside, my fish where COVERED in ick the hour after, they died the next day :(
another mistake was accidentally letting my outward flow pipe on my hang on sump get clogged by a filter sponge, half our apartment was flooded LMAOOOO
 
redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
Yep, I did the adding saltwater for top offs and I pulled a heater out of the water, with it still on and well they get real hot real quick, yep it left a scar.
 
Q

qwaz01

Member
Turning the air pumps off on my 80g Malawi tank at work so i could feed my tanganyika eel (he hid in a hole where to bubbles came out), then forgeting to turn them back on as i got a phone call. Came into work the next day to find £1000+ of fish dead and only 2 survivors. I remember putting a £150 L number in the bin almost in tears.

Looking back the tank was overstocked (although mostly due to breeding) as when we removed all the rock work it had about 40g of water in it. All fish were healthy but the air pump must of been keeping them alive.
 
KARussell88

KARussell88

Member
Well I just got this all fixed thanks the the saviors on this site!
DO NOT PUT BIOBALLS IN YOUR SUMP!
Building my rock work up in a wall formation, which cut off flow and built up my nitrates. Always make sure your water can flow around your rock people!
 
C

Coloradoreefer

New Member
Ugh! About 3 months ago I brought home 1 5 gal jug of RO and 1 5 gal jug of SW. Well I did a 5 gal water change using the RO. Luckily I still had 5 gal of SW so I quickly did a 2nd water change once the mistake was realized and everything was tweaked for a minute but ended up being fine. This was when I had my 29 gallon Biocube!
 
Y

yocon34

Member
:bugout:my friend converted his fresh water into a salt reef tank....... BUT HE USED THE SAME WATER FROM THE FRESH AND MIXED IT WITH SALT.
 
jpitt16

jpitt16

New Member
about 5 years ago I bought a clown from the local LFS that was a trade-in from earlier that day. Within a day white spot disease began taking over my tank. I panicked and tried a copper treatment. All plant life died very quick and eventually all fish died anyway. Tank went from beautiful and flourishing to hideous and vacant in about 2 weeks.
 
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