Single biggest start up mistakes. What was yours?

[GaryG]

I'm still relatively new to reef keeping (about two years) and have learned much from books, trial and error, and other hobbists (including you guys). Although I still consider myself a rookie , I know 1,000% more than when I started.

I thought it might be interesting for each of us to list the #1 single biggest start up mistake we made. For fun and entertainment, and to maybe keep someone else from making the same mistake.

Here is mine:
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I used tap water to do the initial fill on my 150 gal tank. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.

I had a long and frustrating fight with algae, phosphate, and nitrate as a result.

When I realized my mistake (about a month later - after the tank had cycled) I bought a tap water dionization unit and did daily 10 to 15 gal water changes for a couple of weeks, then every other day for a while, then weekly and finally got to bi-monthly.

I wasted a lot of time, energy, stress on my livestock (and a couple of fish and coral deaths), and money on filter cartridges and salt(doing so many partial changes).

If I had a time machine I would go back and use the tap water purifier from day one.

Live and learn

[ 06-29-2001: Message edited by: GaryG ]

[ 06-29-2001: Message edited by: GaryG ]

[Doug1]

Hmmmm I had a traditional FO tank, you know UGF and all that. Got an orange spot file fish my wife was in love with. Bought a couple live rocks to try and keep it alive. HAd to increase the lighting to keep the stuff on the rocks alive, algae monster reared its head. Before long I was up to my neck in a reefers nightmare, hence the name of my reef and website such as it is, 3 tanks and 4 yrs later things have gotten better some

[Spanky]

Feeling sorry for Helen and bringing her home.

[Drew]

Hmm, I would have to say not staring with a sump.

[Peter_]

My biggest mistake was unwrapping a five gallon tank that I received as a christmas present back in the mid-seventies.

Ever since then, I've been haunted by the ghost of christmas past that periodically visits me at night to remind me to perform water changes.

[volk23]

Mine was thinking that i knew everything

[toms]

My first of many mistakes was trusting the lfs without really checking out others when setting up my first saltwater tank. Not that I had a large selection of lfs' to choose from. Ahhh.... if I only knew then what I know now. Not that I know a whole lot now but some of the stuff she told me! And what's worse is I believed her! She has since gone out of business... gee I wonder why?
toms

[MontanaRocknReefer]

using tap water in my first tank!
buying a seaclone skimmer on my first tank!
buying 5 yellow tangs and 2 blue tangs for my first tank(72 bow front). OUCH THAT ONE HURTS! $260 WORTH. Johnny

[ 06-29-2001: Message edited by: MontanaRocknReefer ]

[Doug1]

Dont feel bad we all have ghosts from the past, christmas or otherwise

[Drew]

Ah Oh yes, I started with tap water too. I had some algae problems, but nothing too bad. I now have an AquaFX Barracuda 50gpd with less algae. A little off topic, but this doesn't deserve its own thread so here goes: Can somebody tell me how to replace the carbon filter on my RO/DI unit? Do I just refill it with new carbon? Thanks.

Drew

My single biggest mistake was listening to a local fish store when setting up my first reef. BIGGGGGG mistake!!!I had the best hair algea growth on the east coast.They tried telling me it was a new form patch of caulpra ahhahahaha. They also went out of business a few years back.

[Blake]

Hmm, buying a 46bow. I should have bought the **** 75 that I was looking at.

[AquaFx]

Drew,

The carbon filters we use are called "Chlorine Guzzlers". They are rated for 25,000 gallons at approx. 0.5 ppm chlorine (we DO NOT suggest letting them go 25,000 gallons). They are a solid carbon blocks, although a good argument can be made for block VS GAC (granulated Activated Carbon).

This fliter has to be replaced. Rovert as made a wonderful suggestion about making filter housing that can be refilled.

Need any more info?

Hope that helped!

Marianne

[Rick O]

Great answers. My biggest mistake was not buying the best equipment from the beginning. Almost everything I bought has been upgraded and is sitting in the garage or has been given away. I'm very happy with the quality of the equipment I have now. Although it isn't a mistake my first reef was a 55 gal. The narrow depth of this tank make aquascaping very difficult.

[JennM]

Wow where to begin?

I'll say first of all that when we first got into this, we did a bunch of things WRONG, but we didn't have disasterous results. We were extremely LUCKY. Also, we had money in those days (double income, no kids!) so we were able to do some fast corrections without breaking the bank.

Our first tank was a 30 g FO (there were no reefs/LR in my neck of the woods then....you can see an embarrassing history here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~grashoppr/oldtank.html

The pix are about the only ones I have, and I'd had the tank about 1 year to 18 months when this was taken. We bought this from another hobbyist, complete with UGF, plastic plants and several fish, including 2 species of clown (oops!).

First thing I added was a seahorse (visible in that pic). After a day or two when it wasn't eating flakes or frozen brine, I called the LFS and asked what to do. They told me it only eats LIVE foods.....no problem, rushed out bought a 10 gallon tank and stand and a couple dozen feeder guppies, who provided lots of food (albeit not ideal food, now I know better!). It was nothing then to spend $200 to keep the $20 fish alive!

Next mistake, although I loved this fish, was buying an P. annularis (also pictured) for $70. Great fish, bought him as a juvenile we had him about 3 years. The mistake is that this species gets HUGE. I'd never buy a fish like that now, unless I had a 200 G+ FO/FOWLR.... In the pic he's between juvenile and adult colouration. We lost him in a heat wave, when the tank temp went to 93. In Canada, air conditioning is something that rich people have...

Luckily, we found a WONDERFUL LFS, family business owned by a serious hobbyist, who sold us Martin Moe's Marine Aquarium Reference, and we've never looked back. Sure we've had a few lumps along the way, but we haven't had any major catastrophies (knock on wood). Mike and Mary gave us wonderful guidance, and the initiative to learn more, which we do every day.

My biggest mistake since then was buying a Visi-Jet protein skimmer!!! It's in the salvage box in the attic

Jenn