The Greatest Newbie Mistakes of All Time

[jcrim]

Originally Posted by Merredeth
And the LFS made off like a bandit!!
Knowing what you know now, wouldn't you like to throttle the idiot who told you a SFE could go into a 20 gallon tank, not to mention that the clown and SFE were acceptable marine life to cycle with?
Thank God for memories, pens and paper (for writing stuff down) and computers (to look things up on the 'net).
Denise M.

You're 100% right. Think I could still find the guy? I'm much bigger now... I know I could take him.
But in fairness, though, acceptable practices were much different 20 yrs ago than they are now.

 

[boalgf]

A big mistake I made was using tap water for water changes. Apparantly my tap water has an ammonia level of like 0.2. Don't drink the water is right!
Another mistake was putting a lionfish in with an evil puffer. I woke up and the poor lion had an eye missing!!!

 

[team2jndd]

My first reef tank i put a copper fitting into the plumbing because i was told that it was bronze. I couldnt figure out for about 4 months why i couldnt keep corals or inverts without them dieing almost immediately.

 

[uberlink]

I'll add one, as long as this long-dormant thread has returned...
I listened to my local LFS who told me to mix my 20 pound bag of live sand with a ten-pound bag of crushed shells and rock.
After learning that this was a great way to REDUCE the effectiveness of the expensive live sand, I spent hours sifting the live sand inside the aquarium to remove all the stupid chunks of rock and shells. I got 80% of it, and the rest will just have to stay in there...
They also sold me a Skilter, which has worked okay so far but probably wasn't really the best choice.

 

[fish fever]

I restarted the hobby for the first time 4 to 5 years ago (I just restarted for the second time 3 months ago), I placed the tank very close to a window for which I did not have any window coverings. Needless to say I had crazy alge problem and tried to move the tank to the other side of the room. I took out all the LR but left 2" of LS and 4" of water in the tank (it was a 30g tank) with my favorite tessal leatherjacket fish. The water got stirred up and was very cloudy. My fish died shortly after the tank move.

I made so many mistakes last timing including cycling the tank with blue demsels. Live and learn. I am not going to make those mistakes again this time around.

 

[mrdc]

Originally Posted by Aelene
Did somewhat of an impulse buy and converted from FW tank... bought my original setup at Petland after the LFS guy told me, "Saltwater tanks are just as easy as freshwater!! Take that CC and water and you can have fish in your tank within 48 hours!"
Three months later after NEVER having my levels right I finally drained the tank, got LS and LR (had finally found swf.com thank god).
I now give the Petland mgr an evil eye every time I'm in there (for water and catfood only). He's even approached and confronted me on why I buy my stuff from Dallas North instead of him.. and hasn't been too friendly about it lol. I've mentioned to him that his information was inaccurate and he insists that it wasn't. Punk!
P.S Anyone want to buy a bunch of CC?

I'm luck here that my Petland guys are pretty good. They even told me to come here and to another fish forum I won't mention. The bad thing is that I purchased most of my stuff at another LFS and the Petland guys were like uh oh after I told them where. They are neg on CC so I switched to live sand. One guy came over and said some of my "live" rock isn't cured. Anyway, those guys are great and they all came from a LFS and all have several tanks at home. I still take most things they tell me with a grain of salt and check out the info they give before I apply.
I guess my biggest mistake was to trust a LFS before checking out more on these sort of forums. I could have done things so much differently (durso stand pipe especially). I am correcting some things but there will still be things I would like to change.

 

[happyhourh]

I shut off my powerstrip which powered all my pumps so that I could spot feed my corals. I ended up leaving for the night and forgetting to turn them back on. Unfortunately my heater was on that strip as well. When I got home tank was 71.3 degrees. Nothing died but it was close.

 

[puffer32]

My dumbest thing was with a FW tank. I set one up for my son many yrs ago. I went out and bought about 10 small fish for it, next morning 5 were missing, gone. Couldn't find them anyplace. Afew days later i was still looking for them and noticed the screen on the bottom of the filter was off, I then realized where the fish were :scared: Yep, in the filter. 5 fish in about 2 inches of space

, 2 actually lived through it

 

[puffer24/7]

biggest mistake which i just made was having the heater on with no water bam that thing blew and not to mention the smoke

also i just netted out my puffer and what did he do puffed up like a basketball and i was just reading all night not to let the puffer touch air stupid me

 

[corally]

Originally Posted by puffer24/7
biggest mistake which i just made was having the heater on with no water bam that thing blew and not to mention the smoke

also i just netted out my puffer and what did he do puffed up like a basketball and i was just reading all night not to let the puffer touch air stupid me

My old neighbor's little boy caught their house on fire the same way.

 

[tim_12]

I cut the tension brace that goes across the top of my tank. Thats definatly one way to enduce a heart attack. It was blocking a bunch of light from my MH, so out came the knife, and off came the brace. It gave a whole new meaning to my bowfront tank. I had to drain half the water and make a new brace out of acryllic. Shes still holding strong though.

 

[tscuda]

My Brothers mistake.
Leaving his 2 young sons alone with his 4 tanks and a bottle of Mr. Bubble. That was over 25 years ago and now he's thinking of starting over. There goes me buying his 300 gal lol

 

[harial]

I am still a newb but I have done some pretty stupid stuff during my time int he hobby.
I did the heater thing. mine did not explode but it did shatter and spew glass into my tank. I spent over an hour with tweezers picking out all the pieces from the cracks in the rock.
Also I did not dip a new piece of coral into flatworm exit before adding it to the tank. I had a sea spider infestation for a while but I got it under control and they are all dead and gone but not before they took out my entire mother colony of teal centered zoos.
Also I am a duster fanatic! they are my favorite marine animal and I USED to have over 20 different colored dusters(not the drab brown and white kind) I was having a flatworm problem and I was told that flatworm exit has a tendency to kill dusters. So decided to remove all the dusters for a day or so in order to treat my tank and do a couple of water changes and then reintroduce the dusters back into the tank. Unfortunately one of my coco worms was completely covered by a large stalk of xenia and the xenia was also attached to the LR. So I was like "No big deal, I'll just remove the xenia as well and put it into the holding tank as well". BIG MISTAKE My xenia preceded to 'bleed out' and poison the water and killed EVERYTHING except my two coco worms. This massacre included the death of my 4 inch purple duster, my two 3 inch bright yellow dusters and my brand new 2 inch BLUE duster. It was the color of this little emoticon

. I have never seen another like it or since and it was probably my most expensive buy.
I think I just stared at my tank for two days in desolation. I have since purchased other dusters but the ones I listed above were kind of 'once-in-a-lifetime' I have not seen any others with their coloration or size since then.
I am going to my room to cry now.

 

[rgmason]

well my biggest boo boo was when i hard plumbed my 75 gallon tank i forgot to drill and siphon hole and flooded the whole kitchen with about 25 gallons of water what a mess! Can laugh at it now but then i was this

. and now i can do this

 

[azocean709]

OMG let me think for a minute on my mistakes....<this takes a moment...HAHAH>
I was given my tank. it had a snowflake in it...we drained the water at his house all but just enough so the eel could swim....drove it to my house....heres the good part...LOL set tank up....grabbed the water hose..... drug it through the window and comenced to fillin er on up adding salt as it filled... This led to the " NEVER KNEW ABOUT CYCLING A TANK" <neither did the guy i got it from...it was given to him from his boss> suprisingly...My tough little eel took it like a champ...he is still alive, but i traded it to a friend..
<MISTAKE 999>.....I had the fattest fish on the planet...LMAO oh yeah...they ate 3 times a day just like me....i think i may have given them a midnight snack too!
<MISTAKE 1000>.....Dont ever go fishing and catch a cool lookin fish...<i caught a baby toad fish> and think to yourself..." HMMMMM THIS GUY WOULD LOOK AWESOME IN MY TANK!!!!" yeah....he ate everything ...fish...shrimp. rocks, tried to take one of my fingers off......LMAO.
Now i have a nice little reef up and strong. Thanks to this website and all the cool people on here!!!!! now i just have to figure out how to get pics on here!!!

:hilarious

 

[rgmason]

lol

 

[watertight]

My first mistake was listening to my LFS about 15 years ago, when i first tried a s/w tank. He sold me a 55 gal tank, complete with single WHITE fluro light tube, u/g filter, airpump, EXPENSIVE imported CC, a whole bag, for around $90.00, I spent a fortune on it all (nothing was cheap), then listened to his advice. His idea of cycling was to mix up the water, put it in the tank, let it sit for 2 weeks, then add damsels. Every time they died I would take in a water sample and he would say "No wonder they died, the ph level is out, you burned them to death. Here's a couple more, for $20.00 each, now drain your water and start again."

Needless to say I soon turned that tank into the world's most expensive goldfish bowl, and didn't touch s/w again until recently, after I learned about the nitrification cycle and fishless cycling through reading up on f/w keeping.
I'm still a raw novice, and I'll no doubt make plenty of mistakes in the future (And possibly am at the moment!), but I've managed to keep a 10 gal nano now for about 8 months, and I've just upgraded to a 40 gal tank. Fingers crossed

 

[speg]

I like this thread, I hope everybody no matter how 'elite' someone thinks they are to post We all made mistakes!
My biggest mistake was when the LFS guy was trying to explain to me how to turn my lights on. It seemed like he was telling me to turn one on first... then turn the other on...
Anyways I didnt understand what the guy was mumbling about.. so for at least a month my lighting scheduel was >> daylight bulbs on, then a hour later the actinics came on and I turned the daylights off.. then 6 hours later the actinics went off and the daylights went on for 1 hour and then off
Oddly enough... my coral all expanded and did fine... thats why I never thought anything of it.. I was probably beating the crap out of my bulbs though.

 

[michelle l]

Originally Posted by jdragunas
Mine takes the cake!
I was jogging along the beach in Hawaii (on my honeymoon). It was beautiful!!! I was so busy watching the scenery, i didn't see the dip in the road. I fell of the cliff (all roads in hawaii are on cliffs, what is that all about???), hit a few trees, rocks, and bushes on the way down, and landed on the beach. I only fell 25 feet, but I broke both legs, both bones in my right arm, shattered my foot, and broke my collar bone in two places!!!
jenn

Holy crap, Jenn!!!! Not a good way to enjoy Hawaii....and I thought my sis-in-law took the cake when she broke her ankle jumping in the ocean as the current went out and she landed on rocks. (That'll teach her to show off for the surfer boys! :scared: ) Your mishap was far worse!

 

[michelle l]

"<MISTAKE 999>.....I had the fattest fish on the planet...LMAO oh yeah...they ate 3 times a day just like me....i think i may have given them a midnight snack too! "
You mean my fish aren't supposed to have pot bellies?? Oh oh........