what went wrong?

I think what reef guru wants to know is if, during your many "experiments", what, if anything, has come back to bite you hard in the butt....for example, using a deep sand bed Major problems that may have been caused by using live rock or a piece of equipment. Problems caused by not regularly checking the powercord of the powerhead that was in your then fiancee's sump and zapping a prized deresa clam to death. You know....your "oopsies"

 

About 7 months ago I was really limited on the cleaning time I had to clean my tank and I went to charge a bag of Purigen. I did not de-chlorinate the bleach off of the Purigen bag long enough, I think I did it for half the of the instructions time and dropped it into one of the rear chambers in my tank. the immediate effect was I lost my cleaner shrimp, pom-pom crab, 2 Oc. clownfish, Diamond goby, Royal Gramma, and a sixline.

 

tangster you would make a good politician

 

the worst thing I ever did was buy a wang heater It stuck on and got the tank to 165 degrees in a matter of 4 hours all the corals where stinking and dead not a thing to wake up to at 130am. My wife says it was one of the grossest things she has ever seen. And she reminds me of it everytime she sees a coral receipt for over 100.00. Btw I still have the thermometer that was in that tank still stuck at 135 degrees.

 

LOL you assume I'm not LOL ..

Oh I have had many things to bite me thats why I'd never use a power head in a sump again ever! the same thing just happened to a friend of hers . His power head on his skimmer shorted out I just passed that very same info to someone in a P/M I'd never use a submersible pump again for a main pump. Have had a few DSB's to run along just fine and boom as thats when I found out the mortality rate of the sand fauna was high and needed to have them replenished about every 9 months or so..
I found that out in the early 70's and it seems to just be getting noticed in the last 4 yrs or so.. Had a few Plenum's to bite me also But I found out their short comings and the way many had written about their construction methods and materials . I and a few other old timers found out a better way .. But I will never pass on any information about these animals again who listens ? LOL I have found out that I/O salts can't be beat I played with a few other brands that did not perform as advertised and I stayed with I/O until last spring when I went with the custom blended salt we use at the shop..

 

The only two things i can share (only two, because im only about a year into the hobby, not cuz im a brilliant aquarist) are these:

Research, Research times 100!! example, i bought an arrowhead crab that grew to biblical proportions in a short time. had to return to LFS. Bought 2 bali stars who both died within three months (general consensus was "nobody really knows what they eat). etc... point is, LFS people will tell you ANYTHING to sell off their stock. Example, the other day i was in the LFS and some guy saw a sea apple. said "wow, thats cool!! are they hard to take care of?" LFS dude, says "naw man, just plop it in there and it'll be allright".. I turned around and said "yeah untill it gets pissed and pukes its inerts all over your tank".. thankfully i dont shop much there anymore.

And secondly, for you starters. If you're buying fish to cycle your tank (ala damsels, etc) and dont plan on keeping them, wait for the cycle to finish before stocking your tank with all kinds of goodies. I had to spend an hour pulling all my hiding spots, and liverock just to get the little bugger out. yet another reason to make sure what you put in, youll not be wanting to take out (see suggestion number one)

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/water-c...ace-have-common-trouble-43959.html#post397924
Recent problem with CO2 from gas fireplace.

 

Wang or Won? If you meant Won, I had more than my fair share of those things go bad on me. I'd never buy one again.

 

Been using a single ( Just one! yellow tailed damsel to cycle tanks with for more yrs then I care to remember if I could even remember and today I have never had it to get large or mean or cause any problems so I never pull them And all who have used them never had a problem. But only ONE and only a Y/tailed blue damsel none other will do

 

One of the mistakes that I did when I just started this hobby many, many yrs ago was, I would use windex to clean the outside glass. I dont have to tell you What a big mistake this was. I would consistently lose all of my live stock. Couldnt figure it out until LFS ask me what was my tank practices and when I said windex, his eyes looked like they where going to come out of his head. Good thread guru, krama for this one.