what went wrong?

most of us know what to do for a prosperous reef tank. and we all get together to help the next person by giving our opinions on what is better for the household reef environment. life is learning from your mistakes, call this thread a confession for the unknown.

name one thing that was totally and completely devastating that you could share so others can learn from it.

 

lost 5 puffers in a row do to poisoning from red lava rock.upon discovering the cause was the rock the fish store sold me no apology was given and i was actually told to go online and learn for myself rather than bother elmers aquariums with my complaint and goodbye.opps i did'nt mean to put a name but sorry i'm not giving an apology lol.

 

also i tried to keep lps with not enough light.i lost the tongue coral but got a new light in time to save the rest.green open brains need losts of light i guess.also tried to go skimmerless for 3 months and it caused some fish to jump out of my tank to there deaths.

 

The biggest mistake is to take what you read from books by so called "experts" and other things you read online as "gospel". Thesecond biggest mistake people make is not doing their research. Research, research and research more before you ask a question. Most people dont mind helping people, but it gets to the point were people are getting lazy and not doing any research and think they can just ask a question and run with the first thing somebody tells them wether its wrong or right.

 

INSPECT YOUR LIVESTOCK BEFORE YOU BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how many times I have been lazy and just bought that fish or just bought that coral without really looking at it, only to get it home and in the tank and discover something wrong.

Two recent examples:

I bought a Kole Tang that had some fungus growing on his lips. I noticed they looked white when I put him in but didn't really take a good look. Sure enough it got worse and now I'm a Kole Tang short. He also passed it on to my Yellow Tang but the Yellow had it on his tail. That seems to have gone away though, thank god.

I bought a Plate Coral and it died 3 days later because it had a rip in its skin that I didn't see until I already placed him. The LFSs around me offer NO GUARANTEE on their Saltwater livestock.

 

If you don't treat the fungual problem you could loose the whole tank.. I have had more themn a few fish gurus to tell me there in no such thing as a marine water fungus B/S is aLL I'd treat the tank and fish with a dose of Maracyn

Maracyn Saltwater antibiotic (Erythromycin) tablets are recommended for the treatment of body fungus, fin and tail rot, popeye, gill disease and secondary infections. Erythromycin containing B-complex vitamins is a broad-spectrum antibiotic which has been shown to be effective against a number of pathogenic bacteria associated with ornamental fish disease. Maracyn Saltwater Tablets contain B complex vitamins to stimulate metabolism and improve the appetite of fish. Maracyn does not color the water and will not interfere with the biological filter. For saltwater use only.
Active Ingredients: Each tablet contains 400mg erythromycin
Instructions: Add one tablet per 20 gallons of water and repeat every 24 hours for 5 days. Repeat

 

Only one? In that case, using live rock in my first large saltwater tank. Almost 10 years later, and I'm still battling with the bryopsis that was originally brought in on that rock.

A close second would be losing all of my montis to nudibranchs.

 

tangster thanks for advice but your not confessing.

 

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I began this great hobby with a 55 gal tank which I successfully managed to keep up and running for about a year - after making the same dumb mistakes that most all beginners make.

Then I decided it was time to get bigger, so I went out and got a 125 all-glass tank, built stand & canopy, got good skimmer and allot more LR. When time was right I moved all from the 55 to the 125.

After about 3/4 mos fully stocking the tank with corals and other life plus that moved from original tank, my inverts started to die off despite all my best efforts at water changes etc. Then corals, and eventually my LR all started looking funky. Ammonia and nitrates shot through the roof.

Did some back to back major water changes that did little to help for a while, then everything would go south again.

LFS said to bring in water sample for him to test, and doing so, found the Cu level to be nearly off the charts.

Water shouldn't have been an issue as I was getting it direct from the Seattle Aquarium at the time.

I tried to fight the problem by doing massive water changes, and a fortune in Cu sponges and poly-filters.

As soon as I got the Cu down, it would be back to lethal levels in a month or so.???

I pulled tank apart more then once looking for a Cu source somewhere inside (coin?, screw, ???).

Finally after nearly giving up all, my return pump quit one day. Pulling it apart out of curiosity I discovered it had some brass fittings inside that had corroded and caused pump to fail.

I had cut corners and tried to save myself some money by buying a cheap pond pump for a return.

Big mistake. I guess no one told the Chinese that nothing copper based should be used in water pumps that could be used for aquariums.

After about 6 mos. I managed to get all the residual Cu out and started all over with new LR, etc. - has been a happy tank since then.

The good news is the fish made it thru all this just fine, which I attribute to the massive water changes I did (couple times weekly for a while)...

So moral is, trying to save money and going "cheap" in beginning, does not always work out for the best down the road.

- And when starting out, until you know more about the hobby --- it is easy to imagine all kinds of problems before looking at the logical ones. :-/



PS - only benefit from all this, is that I have never had an ICK problem since...

 

Honestly I swear I have never had any major issue with a tank failure and or crash or death ? I did loose a rack of about 75 nicer rare corals from Small to med size when a Lamp cracked and kept firing up and running and nuked them.. And the fact I tried to save a coral and introduced that Byropis into the new system where it seems to find the living conditions to its liking .
Other then that no to many problems This is the first algae issue that I have never been able to eliminate with in a month or so.. I'll either have it solved by March 1st or the tank bites the dust Never been one to mess around I cut my losses and move on.. Like with the montipora eating Slug's I just yanked all the corals and trashed them right to the old green monster outside the back door Problem solved.

But as far as confessing to what I have lost and or screwed up over the years ?? Its been so many years I can't recall have the scares I have and how I obtained them even LOL But when I started as a littler kid it was all mostly unknown so there was a large learning curve . But I was luckier then most as my Grandfather was a well respected and avid hobbyist and he showed me how to not do what he found out to be wrong.