10 most common mistakes

[bouraganes]

I have been doing this for awhile but I was just reading this article and I consider it a must for anyone just starting out. Here is the link:
Most Common Mistakes Made by Saltwater Aquarists

Heh Matt I made up my own tag , I hope thats ok.

[m_lacom99]

Great link for newbies or anybody, not cause you've been in the hobby for a couple of years that you dont make anymore mistakes. Thanks bouraganes.

Marc.

[djnzlab1]

HI,
They may want to stick this one on the sticky list, I see all kinds of post, about overstocking tanks that are to new, made that mistake myself, Thought whats all this fuss over tapwater versus R/) hard lessons seem to stick but they can be costly, Many LPS are so into selling they don't really care if the critters don't last a week or not. And I have only one store that questions me whats already in the tank..
Doug

[inwall75]

Great post. I would also add:

Overfeeding. Fish get happy when they are fed so people tend to feed them too much or too often. When you feed fish too much, you are overloading your system with phosphates and eventual Nitrate and algae problems. If you feed them less so all food gets eaten but you feed your fish too much, the excess poo generated results in the same thing.

Too little flow or improperly designed flow. Think of it this way. When you have leftovers from dinner, do you throw them on the floor knowing that you have a clean up crew of roaches and mice that will eat them for you or do you take them out to the garbage? The same thing applies to a reef tank. A small clean up crew is a necessary evil. However, the key is to get as much leftovers OUT of the tank and let the clean up crew get what little bit you miss as opposed to relying on them too much. It's just like the the fish poo problem mentioned above. Remember, clean up crews poo too.

Trophic energy studies place the average waste out an organism averages 90% of what went in. That means that your fish eats and then poos out 90% of the nutrients, a crab eats that fish poo, takes his 10% and poos out 90% of the nutrients but in a smaller form, a worm eats the crab poo, takes it's 10% and poos out the rest, pods eat the worm poo, take their 10% and poos out the rest, bacteria attack the pod poo......

Here's an interesting way to think about this. Assuming you aren't doing any form of export. You add food that contains .005 mg of phosphorus and .01 mg of Carbon (the element, not GAC). After a day, not one single piece of uneaten food is visible nor is one single piece of animal waste visible. How much phosphorus and Carbon from that feeding is still in your tank?