Mistakes I made as a Newbie

One mistake I will never forget - falling asleep with filter and skimmer off after feeding. Ammonia spike from left over food killed my yellow tang.

 

Misunderstood the role that nutrition plays in the health of fish. Now,if I see a fish with ich I don't even worry. I just feed a little more with extra vitamins and HUFA's. Not only do fish need a variety of foods, the storage and handling of those foods is very important. In spite of the fact that I use quality foods, I still supplement those foods with HUFA's and stabilized Vitamin C.

Rather than reinvent the wheel here, if you have more questions on this subject, I would recommend that they are directed to this thread. http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-food/proper-feeding-101-a-63556.html

 

not a bad thread this Inwall

Ill own up to a not so newbie mistake I made the week before last
every week, I do a water change, and some routine maintenance
I remove the 1/5 metre lenght of clear plastic from the channel in my 6 x T5 canopy
I do this weekly, that way salt creep, never gets so bad that it makes the plastic hard to slide out (we,ve all been there I reckon, wet paper towels trying the get moisture into the rebate, so the salt melts and the plastic slides out)

so in order mine slides out I have to turn it over, move it forward , or it hits the canopy on the other tank and then slide out

I miss calculated the balance point for the 1st time ever in over 52 weeks
my 5ft canopy with 6 tubes came crashing to the floor - bits flew off in all directions
5 of the 6 lamps broke, and the plastic I had been cleaning weekly broke in 2 places anyway

fortunately I do my water changes after lights out - so lack of canopy was not a big problem
following day, corals where deprived of light until 2pm, and I had made the 4 hour round trip to buy another canopy and 6 new tubes

the irony in this story is
an imported TEK 6 tube canopy retails at over 10,000 local currency here
the Aquajapan - with Geisseman lamp upgrades cost less than 2,000 local currency

when I made the choice I said to myself "if I get 12 months out of this unit, it will have been good value for money" and I got 13 months out of it!!! LOL

Steve

 

great thread inwall. i think i've made every mistake, most of them pretty well documented.

The root cause of all my noob mistakes - not enough patience. before any step in this process, i'm learning to stop, wait a few days, and re-think my plan from scratch before committing.

 

the biggest mistake i made starting out was buying a tempered tank. i can't drill it and i'm not going to risk a flood with a siphon so i'm stuck without a sump. not a huge deal, but without a sump or fuge i have all my equipment in my DT and i have to be on top of my water chemistry and be careful about my feedings.

the other mistake was to skim on lighting the first time around. i should have just jumped in with both feet the first time instead of wasting money then upgrading

 

Just went too fast with some things. Although I thought I was taking it slow. Can't say I didn't read enough because I did.

 

Oh yeah, My biggest mistake was trusting the cheap coralife digital thermometer as my only thermometer. It was 11 degrees off...Killed most of my corals at 91 degrees. Pretty dumb on my part looking back for not having multiple thermometers.
I won't run a tank without a controller, several backup thermometers and PH probe.

 

I have been very blessed to have a fantastic LFS who, 1) patiently answered all my questions...and still does and 2) directed me to 3reef!

Mistakes:
1. Only buying a 75 gallon the first time around...took less than 2 months to upgrade.
2. Buying a fish from a "cheaper" competitor of my trusted LFS...oodinium swept through my tank, killing all initial inhabitants (only a clown and a tang at that point, but were still my very first losses)
3. Having all of my initial equipment purchases not be upgradable....see mistake #1
4. Thinking this would be an inexpensive hobby...see mistakes #1 and #3

I am sure I will think of more later......

 

LOL....funny post

 

I am fairly new to the hobby as well and my biggest mistake was adding saltwater to my tank as the water evaporated. Luckily I caught the problem when I noticed my salinity was at 1.029. Now I know to use fresh water when replacing evaporation. Remember water evaporates not salt.