Biggest mistakes/regrets

anarchy

anarchy

Active member
What are some of you guys biggest mistakes or regrets so us newer guys don't repeat them or even just good advice for newer people

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Buy the biggest tank possible started with a 72 went to a 120/110/180 and now a building a 460 wanted a 1200 but not yet :( and guess what all three are still setup lol.Also first started out with a fx5 on a 72 I was worried about the whole sump thing :) definitely don't use a filter, sump/ refuge all the way.But it's all a learning process I believe to this day I'm changing buying new products vortechs now Jaebos and on on good luck
 
one thing to remember is to turn off the heater in AIO systems like biocube when you are doing water changes and are siphoning from back chambers ..
 
Not learning to QT fish until about 8 years into the hobby. I always know I should do it. I just never had the means and was willing to take the risk. On three occasions, I lost all of my fish. Never again will I add a fish without QTing with meds.
 
3 years ago, when I was still rather noobish, I was lazy about changing the filter pad in my sump. It got clogged, overflowed the sump, burned out the pump, fried my powerstrip and flooded the living room. Saltwater is a great conductor of electricity, so when I went to unplug everything and clean up the water, I got a rather large shock. Frankly, I am lucky I didn't get electrocuted. Since then, I have taken many steps to insure that does not happen again.
 
I think the biggest regrets are starting a tank on a hardwood floor. I had a few overflows and it started to really ruin the floor so I replaced it with the fake wood tiles from Home Depot. That was a mistake because any water spilled from buckets, overflowing, etc. can get between the panels and cause them to come undone. Finally I replaced it with one big sheet of vinyl and now I am problem free. Of course it would have been easier if I hadn't had any floods but that was when I was stupid enough to be running pumps through my walls into a refugium in my basement. That also rusted out any metal in my basement.

Long story short make sure you can't ruin your floor and keep the plumbing as simple as possible to prevent floods.
 
Sawdonkey said:
Not learning to QT fish until about 8 years into the hobby. I always know I should do it. I just never had the means and was willing to take the risk. On three occasions, I lost all of my fish. Never again will I add a fish without QTing with meds.
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I totally agree with this being my major mistake as well. After back to back outbreaks of ich that killed a great number of fish as well as $$$$ lost, I will never take the risk again. I use tank transfer and prazi pro and it has worked well for me.

My other mistake is that I ever started in this hobby to begin with. It is an expensive addiction!!!! :biggrin5: Gardening seems so much cheaper and we would then have enough extra money left over so that we could actually retire some day.
 
I would say every setup is different....and gettin' advice from different people can sometime just confuse things ... find that someone to help u and just stick to that one person to help u with ur setup. For example the best thing i have ever done was to get rid of my sump and i now use a canister filter on a 40gal ...been using it for the past 3 yrs...but others may say a sump is the best way to go....
 
Sawdonkey said:
Not learning to QT fish until about 8 years into the hobby. I always know I should do it. I just never had the means and was willing to take the risk. On three occasions, I lost all of my fish. Never again will I add a fish without QTing with meds.
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Been there, done that, now QT all fish. Also, remember to dip your coral !! Some folks QT their sps but I've only dipped and been lucky.

Also get a controller, at minimum, to run your heater. When heaters malfunction, they malfunction in the "on" position and boil your tank.
 
I've been keeping saltwater for 30 plus years The mistakes I've made are numerous I never stop learning and researching 1 Never buy cheap to try to save a few bucks (It costs more in the long run) and 2 PATIENCE!!!!!!
 
EricTheRed said:
Been there, done that, now QT all fish. Also, remember to dip your coral !! Some folks QT their sps but I've only dipped and been lucky.

Also get a controller, at minimum, to run your heater. When heaters malfunction, they malfunction in the "on" position and boil your tank.
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+1 Dip all corals. Don't dip smooth skinned SPS corals because they will die on you, but I think you can swoosh them in the dip for a few seconds. Take them off the frag plugs or rocks they are on before you place them in your system because alot of the flatworms and other pests like to hang out on the plugs or rocks that the frags are on.
 
Save money and get better/best equipment. Even though I knew this piece of advice, I still went against it.

The one piece of gear that makes life so much easier is an ATO.
 
I regret just buying random nicely colored corals to stock my 5 gal. Now everything has grown out, and things are... fighting each other.
 
not the biggest but thought id share as there are too many ppl using controllers these days ..

so i was re arranging my wires ( behind the tank) and plugged in everything correct ..

i saw after an hour or two that my heaters wont turn off forever .. i thought they went bad from moving them and stuff .. but guess what ..

i tucked on the Temp probe wire a little too much and its up in the air instead of the water :marchmellow: so air temp never reached 79 and the controller turned on the heaters .. good thing my heaters are only set to 80 even with out controller ( another safety measure to do with heaters incase controller fails)
 
Research, planned out your build, ALWAYS dip your corals! I don't do qt because I believe that ich is everywhere, in the water, in the rock. In the wild, fish are able to fight the ich so they are healthy. Therefore, it is best to make sure the fish eat, and feed them adequately so they are healthy.
Buy decent equipments, by decent I mean not a cheap stuffs shipped from China, not high end expensive Ecotech/ radion, ect ( if you have deep pockets and can afford these then good for you! lol), but equipments in the mid range works best as long as you keep up with maintenance and replace parts when worn out. Get in a habit of atleast looking at your tank's equipments once everyday to ensure everything is running as they should be. And always - IF IT AIN'T BROKE, THEN DON'T FIX IT!
 
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