I thought it might be funny and educational to here about everyone’s goofs while getting started in this hobby. I thought I would start out by listing a few of mine:
Carbon should be rinsed before using unless you like everything in the tank covered in black dust.
Damsels should be avoided unless you like ripping your tank apart to get them out later.
When draining water from your tank into a bucket don’t walk away… this usually guarantees that you will end up with a gallon or two on the floor…
Mix your saltwater at least 12-24 hours ahead of time to give the ph, temp, salinity, ect… time to stabilize.
Keep enough water mixed up to do a 20% water change on your tank in an emergency.
Use an RODI filter or be prepared to battle unwanted algae. My first reef tank back in 1994 was full of algae. In fact you could hardly see the fish I had so much grape caulerpa growing in there. If I can find the few photos that I have of this tank I will scan them and post them up. It was an old 30 gallon oceanic. It had lots of soft corals, a ton of algae, and a yellow tang. I would be tarred and feathered now days for keeping a tang in a tank that small, but hey I didn’t know it then.
Lets hear from some other senior members about their beginner mistakes.
Ya i know, but technically chromis’ arent damsels. the come from the same family but chromis are from a total different genus it think, cant remeber the article i read. Right?
Ya, thats gotta sting. Bad fishie… The other day i took a rock out of my tank and i spent the next minute chasing a emerald crab around my floooor… A**hole crab hit under the computer desk.
today i came home and my mom told me my tank fell over ???. luckly there was a couch and a chair that cought it perfectly PBJ!(tank is a still in back yard).
Im sorry i just can envision it… how big is the tank… got blown over by the wind!! i know it was ripping today… and how did the couch catch it… im soooo confused… how does the wind push a tank…