The Greatest Newbie Mistakes of All Time

[grumpygils]

Originally Posted by sw65galma
I can't count mine....1 was buying damsels....Still have 3 of the buggers from 2 years ago lol!
Not having a skimmer
Using CC
Paying $9-11/lb for LR.
Putting a CC star in with all my snails...
Setting up 6 tanks lol
Getting a Sun Coral
Putting an Air pump and Stone in the tank
"petting" a rock anenome with my fingers

Reading all of these posts is making my heart beat rapidly! What's the matter with sun coral, I assume sun polyps? Is it the feeding every few days? I have sand but a buddy has cc, how bad is that? Nitrate plumes or what?
Mc

 

[grumpygils]

I have bought exactly one thing from ***** and it was 3 days ago while christmas shopping. They had just got in a bunch of stuff and a new guy was putting it out. I told him that the pulsing Xynia was labeled wrong and so was the rock with zoos. Neither are anenomes and neither should be like $7.99. In a very sirly tone (probably hang over talking) he said "it is what it is take it or leave it". I am as honest as they come but his attitude sealed the deal on 4 X 4 inch xyneia stalks and about 50 geen zoos for $17. ***** rocks......maybe I will search out their testimony page?
Mc
Originally Posted by cherizle
Here's my list
#1 buying fish from ***** (why do they keep dying again.....)
#2 putting a threadfin butterfly in a 29 gal!!!!!!!!
#3 when testing my water for salinity i wasn't making sure all of the bubbles escaped the hydrometer so it was testing WAY higher than it actually was
#4 i bought a book when i first started out that said in order to cycle your tank you have to slowly start putting fish in there, i cycyled my tank with a dwarf angle

poor little guy lived quit a while considering.....
#5 not knowing my purple pseudocromis would eat cleaner shrimp- they were gone about 10 minutes after putting them in
i have a 55g reef now & looking to upgrade & i can't believe i did any of these things so embarrassing!

 

[thegrog]

Didn't happen to me but someone I know quite well.
He ordered a fire coral......thinking it was named that because of the color.
It arrived, he picked it up out of the bag after a drip acclimation..........now he knows why it's called a fire coral!!!

For those of you wondering, their sting is worse than a jellyfish. I accidentally touched one while diving. It really does feel like you have been touched with a hot soldering iron!!!

 

[blue20051]

Originally Posted by TexasMetal
...attempting to make a 10-gallon tank work with no prior experience with saltwater.
What's the big deal with Damsels?
Very mean little fish!!! Never get those. Save you money and get something better.

 

[toughguy80]

8 damsels in a 29G :scared: Oh and also a Coral beauty and a bubble tip anemone(under NO)! All within a month(after cycle). Came home late one night drunk off my butt. Walk into my dark room see the heater light on and tank looks foggy? I think no problem, a PH must have fallin and blown sand around...WRONG. The water was a merky brown. So there I am, dizzy as can be stumbling around making new water in a container and trying to catch fish lol. Strangly only the CB survived and he's still with me to this day

 

[tormented]

Back several years when I was first into SW I used to mix the salt IN THE TANK. I went thru so many fish...

Back then I also used to listen to the LFS guy and went thru an amazing amount of fish that died or killed each other. Went thru 2 or 3 mandarins too. Lots of dead anemones too.

 

[75bownut]

OK I had about 40 lbs of lr in for about 4 months , went and bought 60 lbs uncured and put it in . That started a cycle all over again.

. OOPS!!!!!!! :notsure:

 

[happyvac]

Bump.

 

[nanahugs]

Buying an expensive bleached out Sabae anemone for my 20G hex tank with an 18W fl bulb. Lasted a few days. To make matters worse, husband felt bad and said it died because we tried to force feed it, so, he buys another one determined to make it live and not force feed it. A couple of days later this one died. Two weeks after this I discovered this board and our mistakes have been few and far between. Thank god because that was a lot of money thrown away in the span of a week.

 

[daninct]

I thought the air intake to my skimmer was way to loud and so did my family. I eextended the air line to go below the tank into a lined basket to work as a muffler. Nice and quiet. My wife still didn't like the noise so she unplugged the skimmer. The long air line had no check valve of any kind so we lost about 15 gallons on the carpet before anyone noticed.

 

[jacknjill]

i was trying to acclimate a coral beauty, and he jumped out of thye bucket about 4 times. i ended up throwing him in the tank ( yes i actually slammed him into the water) with no acclimation and a lot of carpet fuzz stuck to him. amazingly he survived and i still have him
Reefnut, the part about the 60 1 gallon bottles just CRACKED ME UP!!! i nearly died laughing when i saw that!!!

 

[morales67]

I havent started yet. Cant wait to see what I do! :scared:

 

[maeistero]

my biggest mistake was thinking i could do salt in an apartment. i had to give away just about everything when i moved. all my rock and sand is reseeding, but it doesn't look anything like it should. hopefully i will never have to leave my house.

 

[unleashed]

stupidest mistake i ever made was let my hubby talk me into buying a dragon wrasse cus he thought they were so cool looking .ok thats not that bad but then he decides he wants to get a lunear wrasse to go with the smaller dragon wrasse.I knew better and I even warned him it was a bad idea but i gave in within 2 days the tail of my dragon wrasse was completely eaten off by the lunear wrasse.so the stupid thing on my part was to save this poor dragon from being chewed apart slowly was my idea to toss it into my fowlr tank with a 7 inch lion thinking ok the dragon is 5 inches it safe. um wrong .answer he became breakfast as soon as I turned away

 

[mystic7]

Adding a full grown French Angel to my 75 gal tank 30 years ago. It (obviously) constantly harassed the other fish (yes there were other fish in the tank too) and I used to beat it with a stick to try to get it to behave.

 

[phixer]

Thats funny, looking at a Moorish Idol next. This may prove to be my stupidest mistake yet.
Phixer

 

[sw65galma]

Originally Posted by Phixer
Thats funny, looking at a Moorish Idol next. This may prove to be my stupidest mistake yet.
Phixer

Don't do it unless you have alteast a 300gal or larger system that has been up for over a year....
If you don't have that, just take the money and light it on fire...and save a poor fish from dieing in your tank...

 

[mr_bill]

First time I did a water change and used the vacuum siphon with the big clear cylinder......
Everything was going good and I had my 13year old son standing to the left of me ready with towels and stuff in case I screwed up. Got past vacuuming the bottom and had a full 5gallon bucket so tried to stop siphoning... I started to panic .... bucket almost over flowing.... yanked siphon out that was full of water still.... after the end of the vacuum broke the waters surface and lost siphon it shot it's whole load right on my sons head.

He stands far back now.

 

[bailey52]

I have once, and im not newbie.. just happened recently.. Well I bought a big 10" long 4" wide algea scruber with a long detachable handle.. and I have always been careful of scratching the glass.. well I must have cought some shells or sand in it.. and not there are scratches on the front of my TANK its soo depressin!) and its a glass tank

 

[nytrillium]

well....
1. Damsel... (enough said)
2. Trying to do a DIY skimmer.. not worth the hassle and my time when there aren enough cheap well made ones out there.
3. not building the new stand before i set up the tank... Now i have to drain it remove some rock, transplant hte tank, water change. check for a cycle and then replace the fish.... not cool.
4. I did the skimmer air tube thing too... Shut off the pump to check the skimmer and walked away for a few minutes and saw the water level in my tank wasa about 5 inches lower than normal.

All on my floor still flowing out the air intake on the venturi.
5. Didnt drill the tand before i set it up.
6. didnt find this site until i had the tank set up.
Good things
1. I was patient
2. Bought the Marine aquarist book by Fenner.

3. Only added clean up crew LMB and damsel to my newly cycled tank (all lived, damsel is a

[hr]
)