Things not to do:

[mtfatwork]

How about a thread of mistakes we have made along the way? A "learn from my stupidity" thread.

I will get the ball rolling.

Yesterday (yes I knew better) I got up half asleep and heard the return pump on the frag tank gurgling for water. Dustin had forgot to fill the top off container. My top off is gravity fed into a kalkreactor which then goes to a float switch to enter the tank when needed. Well, not thinking I dumped the water into the top off container without closing the valve on the kalkreactor. Whoosh! The tank filled with kalk and turned milky white. So I right away did a 20 gallon water change to drop the ph spike, and then we monitored the tank for the rest of the day as the kalk cloud cleared. It was still not completely clear this morning, but all my levels tested ok so...

[Redwinger]

Do not pour salt directly in the tank to raise salinity as it will not dissolve before it lands on your lps at the bottom of the tank. Yes I did that when I first started.

[mtfatwork]

I also had a rio return pump blow up on me, and a hydor heater boil my tank. I will never use products from either brand ever again.

[deathmatch782]

Do not use the cheap test strips for testing... no where near accurate.

[Sizzlersonthebrain]

be carefull at LFS's and take what they say with a grain of salt, as most of them could sell fur coats to Arabs.

[christensonjes]

Do Not forget to shut your RO machine off before you go to bed!

[Frogbone]

Do Not forget to shut your RO machine off before you go to bed!


Yes, yes and yes. I have done that at least three times :(

[Frogbone]

If you have reason to distrust your ph probe, double check. Don't blindly try to adjust ph by adding stuff and hope the probe will follow.

I raised ph like a madman when my probe was defective. I think I topped out at 9.something before I realized it.

Lots of vinegar and water changes later everything turned out fine. I could have easily killed everything.

[mtfatwork]

dont treat ich with cupramine... I had a kid pm me a couple of months ago, who did this in tank without reading the label first, he thought it was copper free.....


Moral of the story??? read the label on EVERYTHING you put in your tank, and do it before you dump it in...please.

[mtfatwork]

ooh, I have another one. If you decide to start mixing kalk in your topoff you are only supposed to add enough for the water you are adding, not the total system volume....

[Sizzlersonthebrain]

just becuase most stores say 1 inch per inch of fish doesnt mean you can house an Emperator angel in a 10 gallon tank. I thought that advice like that went the way of the dino's but alass my LFS here is "THAT BAD!"

[Chad Vossen]

just becuase most stores say 1 inch per inch of fish doesnt mean you can house an Emperator angel in a 10 gallon tank. I thought that advice like that went the way of the dino's but alass my LFS here is "THAT BAD!"

so the powder blue tang in the 10 gallon wont work? 10 inch fish in 10 gal tank :), tang police!!!

when filling a bucket with water, dont walk away! you WILL forget. i have flooded my grandparents basement twice now.

and dont use 50% or more of the products sold at most fishstores, alot of them are snake oils and other products can be easily made yourself. seaclone, kalk, calcium additives, liverock (much cheaper online), and many more.

[Zekester]

just get out of the damn hobby while you still hve your sanity

[mtfatwork]

lol :)

[rihanssu]

don't ever put your tank in a room you never go into. i guarentee that 7 days is too long to leave a tank unattended

[wes]

ooh, I have another one. If you decide to start mixing kalk in your topoff you are only supposed to add enough for the water you are adding, not the total system volume....

lol

looks like someone upstairs made that mistake this weekend... hence all the precip.

[wes]

don't set stuff on the floor "for just a second"

don't grab your girlfriend's towel, even if it is an emergency. let the floor get wet, at least that is only one problem.

[REEFSTOCK]

Do Not forget to shut your RO machine off before you go to bed!

I have NEVER done that....:eek4:

[droinablunt]

don't grab your girlfriend's towel, even if it is an emergency. let the floor get wet


:laugh: :laugh: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

I use my girls towel all the time! She hates it!

[wes]

did you ever get the line "how come you don't towel me off?"

[TekCat]

Do Not forget to shut your RO machine off before you go to bed!

Yes, yes and yes. I have done that at least three times :(

Two times guilty, can you imagine the damage... I live on 3rd floor of an apartment building. :swear:

[droinablunt]

did you ever get the line "how come you don't towel me off?"

No cuz I do!

[REEFSTOCK]

Never use the outlet directly behind your tank (just tape it up). Clownnut ...cough...clownut...

[Soltaker]

don't use an external overflow. Do it right the 1st time and get your tank drilled!

[Energy]

Don't use the brand new towels in the house to absorb pvc glue. I guarantee the wifey won't like it. Now i have a large PILE of unusable towels in the fish tank room.

[TekCat]

If you need to clean rocks, dont use dishwasher.

[mtfatwork]

The expression "cooking rock" has nothing to do with a stove at all.

[TekCat]

The expression "cooking rock" has nothing to do with a stove at all.

Where have you been a year ago? :D

[JnS]

The expression "cooking rock" has nothing to do with a stove at all.

why not? :lol_hitting:

[gogregerson]

just get out of the damn hobby while you still hve your sanity

And Your Money!:rotflmao:

[Redwinger]

How about a thread of mistakes we have made along the way? A "learn from my stupidity" thread.

I will get the ball rolling.



I got one, Mock the Red wings.:wink: Nice avatar Matt:tongue::rotflmao:

[morty]

If you hook your RO unit up to a faucet using an adapter, always check to see that the compression fitting is tight where the high pressure water connects to the RO unit before you leave the house. When I came home, as the garage door was opening on the tuck under garage at my old townhouse, I was wondering why my garage ceiling was raining. Ran upstairs and the hose was flying around the bathroom like a headless chicken. :censor: !!! Who knows how many gallons went on the floor. (Tough one to publicly admit, but a lesson that sticks with you)

[Loralie]

Never put power stips and timer on stand under tank....not a pretty picture if you have an overflow.

[Loralie]

Never put your tanks in the same room as your husbands 62" TV. My hubby has no interest in my tank, but the reflection on his TV dosen't exactly make his day!

[SLPReefer]

If you get a used refractometer, don't assume it is more accurate than your current method. 4 months after having my 12 gal up I got a refractometer which read that my sg was low. So, of course, assuming that was right I added a bunch of salt to the system. Weeks later I discovered that my sg was actually 1.035+! Needless to say, I no longer have any of the corals from that tank :doh:

Also (last night): if you are running your RO unit and it sounds like your waste water is dripping on the floor, don't assume that it's not just because you had it running into the sink before. You may come down stairs 45 minutes later to wet floor :doh: Not that much of a mess, I just feel stupid because I heard it and thought about it, but didn't check before I went up stairs. :banana:

[wolmutt]

never trust the temp reading on your chiller, especially if it is a USA current prime chiller. The temp guages go bad in my experience. The other day I stuck a thermometer in my tank because the reading on the chiller kept going down and I kept turning up my heater. Well I used two different thermometers all in different parts of the tank and found out that my temp was not 75 as the chiller was reading, but instead it was 85 F. Now I have a little bit of bleaching on one of my red lobos.

[mtfatwork]

I think we should sticky this thread :)

[wes]

I think we should sticky this thread :)

agreed!

[dobbs]

Don't top off with salt water - just use RO/DI, or RO/DI kalk water.

[dobbs]

Don't buy the tank that you think will be big enough...always buy a bigger one. :wink:

[TekCat]

Dont adjust alkalinity with undissolved baking soda. In my previous sump, I had everything covered with calcium carbonate precip.

[IIOHAB]

Do not do anything with your tank when DRUNK :beerchug: :beerchug: It will only lead to very bad things.

But it is okay to drink while petting your fish :biggthumpup: That way it does not hurt quite so much when you get bit!!

[thegrimreefer]

Here's a tip...

NEVER put off buying a GFI outlet. You just never know when a splash of saltwater is going to go exactly the WRONG place. Ask me how I know.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c35/TCMASTheGrimReefer/DSC03335.jpg

Ron

[hypoxia]

Never forget to label your saltwater and your freshwater aging tanks. This will prevent you from topping off your freshwater tank with saltwater.

Theoretically.

[storrisch]

Never forget to label your saltwater and your freshwater aging tanks. This will prevent you from topping off your freshwater tank with saltwater.

Theoretically.

Or you will accidently top off with salt and then do your water change with RO.....

then test sg and realize you just made a big F up and you now need to mix some strong salt and get it in the tank asap. 2 days ago

[kjdeut]

Dont forget to tighten the clamp on the input to your skimmer before you plug the pump in. I got a nice face full of saltwater with this one.

[TekCat]

1) Turn off heater when you siphoning water out of sump (water change).
2) Don't forget to turn it back on AFTER you replaced water.

[storrisch]

When siphoning water out of the vat in the basement at WOF because the Head-Pump is broken dont underestimate how fast water will flow through 1" ID tubing...... unless you wanted to remember the days of drinking beer bongs...only this time the beer tastes really really bad.

[Angel~Eyes]

just get out of the damn hobby while you still hve your sanity



:crap:

:lol_hitting: :lol_hitting: :lol_hitting:

[Zivman]

I have had my tank going for over 3 yrs now and I am still a HUGE newb.

Some of the stuff I can think of:

1.) Don't underestimate how bad 250 # of live rock can smell while curing
2.) Don't top off your tank with mixed water - always top off with fresh
3.)ALWAYS make sure the fish are you thinking about buying are eating before you decide you have to have them and bring them home
4.)Replace your bulbs every yr - MARK the date - hair algae is a b1tch
5.)COVER your tank if you have fish that have been known to jump - RIP 2 kole tangs, at least 4 false percs, 2 lawnmowers, a couple sandsifter gobies, a firefish, ..... heck, I even lost a powder blue due to carpet surfing
6.)Get a decent RODI unit - hair algae is a b1tch
7.)Test TDS on your RODI - hair algae is b1tch

and most importantly don't forget when you are making water... I saw someone layed claim to forgetting about it 3 times, heck, I have forgotten about it 3 times in a month!

[coralreefer]

This may be a given to some, but....

don't ever install new equipment the night before leaving for vacation. Two years ago hooked up my Remora Pro (I even thought to myself that it may be a bad idea). Day one of the vacation I had ten gallons on the floor, almost enough to make my pumps run dry. Even worse, the person who was looking after the tank had no experience and could barely describe the problem over the phone. Thankfully, everything survived.

[latazyo]

don't: drill anti-siphon hole in your return line above the water line, it worked like a venturi for me and sucked bubbles into the tank

[kpete4]

1. Just because a skimmer says it's good for a 150 gallon tank doesn't make it a good skimmer

2. Don't put really cold water into a tank with a heater that is really hot unless you are trying to make fireworks (luckily it was an empty tank I was using for water changes, but I did have to buy a new heater)

3. Talk to people on this forum before you spend a bunch of money on stuff that is crap

[Flounder]

I know I have done some newbie things when others use me as examples...fun huh? Well today I again for what...the 30th time overflowed the RO water. Oh last weekend with the storms we lost power for 6 hours, but it only took 2 minutes for the tank to drop 18 gallons on the carpet. Have your return above the water as not to create a siphon if the power does go out. Or be extra smart and plan the extra water to fit nicely into the sump underneath.

I have done my fair share. I dont like to admit most of it, but as long as ya learn something mistakes can be helpful. I am yet to overflow the skimmer, but that would be right up my alley.

[Flounder]

If you are doing a water change and your heater is then exposed to air, turn it off! The sizzle that it makes when water is placed back into the tank is scary. Hot glass + cool water = unhappy experience.

[mtfatwork]

I know I have done some newbie things when others use me as examples...fun huh?


It is all part of the learning process. The purpose of this thread is to stop others from making the same mistakes that we have made. Obviously the mistake you are refering to was a good one that others might make, and well worth putting up here to save someone else the disaster.




BTW, here is another one for you...

2 days ago, I heard the sound of water spraying coming from the basement. Went down there to find that the drain for the washer was clogged, and spraying water all over the basement, including into the r/o containers. Now, I have a small hole drilled into the top of the containers for the hose to fit in, so there was probably not much if any wash water in there... but I dumped all the water and started over anyway. Make sure your r/o containers are tightly covered, and nowhere near your washing machine:doh: I am just lucky I was home when it happened so I knew not to take the chance with the water.






Oh, and every time I make r/o water the ratio is something like 40 gallons in the container, to 5 on the floor, lol. Thank god for floor drains.:biggrin:

[mtfatwork]

fun bump for an old thread :)

[RaysReef]

lol...I can see you are bored Mary

[kpete4]

I can't believe that this thread was a year ago

[mtfatwork]

lol...I can see you are bored Mary



yes, extremely, but this is still a good thread :)

[HermitSolo]

Never underestimate how much growing coral can change your parameters. I've been doing essentially the same water changes % wise for the last couple years. Over the years I have added a ton of corals and of course everything at least doubles in size every year if not faster. I was rarely checking the basic parameters for a good portion of that time and thought my low Ca, Mg and alk readings must be wrong. My Ph was fine, everything else was fine. I had heard the Salifert tests were fairly innacurate so I disregarded it as a result of tests going out of date or just poor testing on my part. (The tests had been flat for well over two years.. testing was more of a habit than necessity.) Anyway, after a series of three 'weird' readings I got new kits and tested again..same readings..yep, all that coral is sucking up a lot more Ca. Bigger water changes or additives needed where none were needed before.

That's my rambling for today.

[PLNelson]

Good pointer. Thanks for the pointer.

[gruntmon]

Ok, here's a newbie one, buy a refractometer right away. Don't just get the cheap one from your LFS, we couldn't figure out why we had lost 3 tangs, one sebae and snails and crabs and one tang had ich horrible and but good appetite. We had just found an awesome deal on a naso tang we got home with new tangs, clowns and a refractometer, tested our water and freaked, the sg was at 1.32. We started with a water change, replacing with fresh RO, and over the next two days got the sg to normal. We are still trying to get our trumpet corals back to normal, and they were looking so awesome, about 20 heads on each. Only casualty was an emerald crab that we know of. Just suck it up and buy the refractometer, it's going to save you money in the end.

[mtfatwork]

great advice gruntmon. Keep em coming folks!

[morty]

Was it 1.32 :eek: or did you mean 1.032? (Either way, no bueno! :))

[wes]

Ok, here's a newbie one, buy a refractometer right away. Don't just get the cheap one from your LFS, we couldn't figure out why we had lost 3 tangs, one sebae and snails and crabs and one tang had ich horrible and but good appetite. We had just found an awesome deal on a naso tang we got home with new tangs, clowns and a refractometer, tested our water and freaked, the sg was at 1.32. We started with a water change, replacing with fresh RO, and over the next two days got the sg to normal. We are still trying to get our trumpet corals back to normal, and they were looking so awesome, about 20 heads on each. Only casualty was an emerald crab that we know of. Just suck it up and buy the refractometer, it's going to save you money in the end.

or, at the VERY least, check yours against someone's nice refractometer regularly and never do anything drastic...

[smeese]

When selling used stuff do not hold it for one person until they get cash if another has cash and wants to buy it ;)

[mtfatwork]

When selling used stuff do not hold it for one person until they get cash if another has cash and wants to buy it ;)

Very good one Steve.




Best piece of advice I can give... Listen to the people on the forum. Especially when you are new. I dont care if you think you know everything.... You dont. No one does, that is why this place exists. If everyone gives you the same advice, take it. You will be better off. Have faith in the wealth of knowledge that is TCMAS.

[FastFish720]

1) Do not glue PVC near the carpet. You will spill the whole container on the floor and ruin the carpet.
2) Always use PVC primer, you can use the clear cleaner and it is pretty much the same as the purple primer. The purple stuff is only used to mark the primer in commercial settings.
3) Get an auto shut off valve for your ro/di unit and do not connect it directly to your tank.
4) Always have a spare powerhead, you never know when it will come in handy.
5) Get a controller! to prevent that heater from cooking your tank.
6) Get water on the floor sensors. Amazing how much piece of mind they will give you.

[gruntmon]

Oops, my bad, 1.032, was bad enough, amazing how fast our tang got over ich once the parameters were back to normal salinity. I think our BTA is going to be a casualty though, it isn't recovering.

[wes]

don't rely on cheap crap.
don't put off buying a controller... grr...

[Chad Vossen]

NEVER use Reef Calcium, by seachem. it has side effects that are not listed on the bottle.

[flyingclay]

Only put fish you know you want into your display. I bought a wrasse that I was a little aggressive and would bury himself in the sand at night. When trying to remove him I had to remove almost all my rock and have my wife look for him when he would bury himself so I would know where to go to get him to come out. I was exhausted after removal of the rock then fish then returning rock to the display. Thats my story, Les

[Jim E.]

Neptune AC Jr. Programming Laziness; not disabling Kalkwasser/ATO during water changes. In my case, I used to disable all my pumps & skimmer during Weekly Water Change simply by activating my usual 20-minute Feed Cycle. 5 gallon water changes in a 30 gallon nano take take 5 minutes, max. I would then carefully unplug my Osmolator, telling myself I should add an ATO statement to my Feed cycle, because someday I might forget. Which I would promptly forget, until the next water change, and then the next, etc.

Guess what?

I forgot to unplug the ATO during water change.

It silently and very efficiently pumped God knows how much saturated limewater into the rear sump area of my Finnex 30M. The rear sump is invisible from the display, so I could not see the rapidly expanding mushroom cloud of concentrated kalk. My pH probe, which is programmed via AC Jr. to shut off the ATO if pH is >8.6, is upstream from my kalk. Otherwise, that safety feature could be enabled prematurely during the normal course of events. But when the pumps are off, like during water change, there is no way for kalk to circulate & dilute throughout the tank. Accurate pH results require circulation.

I saw the cloud after my pumps were enabled.

I sat in stunned disbelief and watched my pH top out at 8.92. The AC Jr., I noted in wry satisfaction, did cut power to the Tunze controller promptly at 8.61. Which was nice. But ineffective.

I didn't do anything nuts like add vinegar, but I did do another 5 gallon water change. (I always keep extra premixed salt on hand; now I know why.) That 5 gallon exchange diluted the water column enough to bring the pH down to 8.46, and that was good enough. Currently it's 8.29, roughly an hour after the event.

I dose kalkwasser (mixed with vinegar by following the recipe of Randy Farley-Holmes via RC) in my top-off RODI via Tunze Osmolator. I mix about 18 gallons at a time in an ugly 20g RubberMaid with a tight lid. This lasts a little less than a month, as my evap is roughly a gallon per day give or take.

The Rubbermaid is plumbed into my RODI using a Kent float valve for mixing new batches of kalkwasser, but I have to physically connect and disconnect after filling with RODI (a) for safety and (b) so as not to dilute the kalkwasser (duh).

I also know that using a Tunze Osmolator pump in saturated limewater voids the pump warranty, & that the pump will only last about 8 months -- but I keep a spare handy, they're only $20, and so far (knock on wood) that aspect of my methodology seems to be working...

My pH is a little low but very stable, and runs 8.0 at night to 8.25 or so during the day.

The in-line fuge with Chaeto is on a reverse photo period, for what that's worth in a system as small as mine. And yet I do it.

My skimmer is plumbed to outside air year-round.

If anyone sees any other madness to my methods, don't be shy! I almost nuked my tank. Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.

Jim

[Ocean Devotion]

Good funny stuff.

[nics1152]

Just my .02cents. I'm sure I could think of more but this should suffice for now

-Always wash your hands inbetween working on tanks. Rinsing them with freshwater does wonders
-When plumbing in a tank, new hardware, what have you, if you think you can put a union there or a valve in line, do it. You never know when you may have to immiedatley shut off water to a given spot or take something out that is hardlined into the plumbing.
-If you can, buy your syphon hose clear. This way when you are syphoning, you know where the water in the hose is so you won't have to worry about bringing any water into your mouth.
-Power strip into another power strip is not a good idea
-When cleaning your saltcreep on plumbing or underneath your tank, be careful what saltcreep you knock off/clean off. You may end up having a small leak that you didn't realize was there.
-When wiping your acrylic/glass on the inside of the tank, start at the top. I find that starting at the bottom gives you a greater chance/risk to bring rocks/substrate up stuck in between the tank and the algae pad.
-And probably my favorite/most important. If you think something is wrong with an animal/piece of equiptment/anything chances are there probably is something wrong.

[HermitSolo]

Really think about how your electric is setup considering proximity ot water. Everything should be on a GFI circuit.

These guys are truly idiots, don't be this dumb just to get electricity to your tank LOL!

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=6&pictureid=19

They're running power to an electric grill on the table in the middle of the pool.

[mattb]

Neptune AC Jr. Programming Laziness; not disabling Kalkwasser/ATO during water changes. In my case, I used to disable all my pumps & skimmer during Weekly Water Change simply by activating my usual 20-minute Feed Cycle. 5 gallon water changes in a 30 gallon nano take take 5 minutes, max. I would then carefully unplug my Osmolator, telling myself I should add an ATO statement to my Feed cycle, because someday I might forget. Which I would promptly forget, until the next water change, and then the next, etc.

Guess what?

I forgot to unplug the ATO during water change.

It silently and very efficiently pumped God knows how much saturated limewater into the rear sump area of my Finnex 30M. The rear sump is invisible from the display, so I could not see the rapidly expanding mushroom cloud of concentrated kalk. My pH probe, which is programmed via AC Jr. to shut off the ATO if pH is >8.6, is upstream from my kalk. Otherwise, that safety feature could be enabled prematurely during the normal course of events. But when the pumps are off, like during water change, there is no way for kalk to circulate & dilute throughout the tank. Accurate pH results require circulation.

I saw the cloud after my pumps were enabled.

I sat in stunned disbelief and watched my pH top out at 8.92. The AC Jr., I noted in wry satisfaction, did cut power to the Tunze controller promptly at 8.61. Which was nice. But ineffective.

I didn't do anything nuts like add vinegar, but I did do another 5 gallon water change. (I always keep extra premixed salt on hand; now I know why.) That 5 gallon exchange diluted the water column enough to bring the pH down to 8.46, and that was good enough. Currently it's 8.29, roughly an hour after the event.

I dose kalkwasser (mixed with vinegar by following the recipe of Randy Farley-Holmes via RC) in my top-off RODI via Tunze Osmolator. I mix about 18 gallons at a time in an ugly 20g RubberMaid with a tight lid. This lasts a little less than a month, as my evap is roughly a gallon per day give or take.

The Rubbermaid is plumbed into my RODI using a Kent float valve for mixing new batches of kalkwasser, but I have to physically connect and disconnect after filling with RODI (a) for safety and (b) so as not to dilute the kalkwasser (duh).

I also know that using a Tunze Osmolator pump in saturated limewater voids the pump warranty, & that the pump will only last about 8 months -- but I keep a spare handy, they're only $20, and so far (knock on wood) that aspect of my methodology seems to be working...

My pH is a little low but very stable, and runs 8.0 at night to 8.25 or so during the day.

The in-line fuge with Chaeto is on a reverse photo period, for what that's worth in a system as small as mine. And yet I do it.

My skimmer is plumbed to outside air year-round.

If anyone sees any other madness to my methods, don't be shy! I almost nuked my tank. Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.

Jim
I have the same pump on my osmolator and have been running kalk through it for a looooong time, no issues. I bought a spare too just in case. Tunze build such high quality products! I'd also like to vent my skimmer outside, that's such a good one.... I run the fuge 24/7....

[kcooley]

i guess i searched a little too far back...

found this entertaining. a little something to distract the masses

[drkris]

New add. Never put your sinking pellet fish food on the top of your tank when feeding. It is very hard to remove.

[SuperDave]

don't be in a hurry and just add cal alk to your tank with out measuring then go to bed .your tank is really bright in the morning .

[Orange Bam Bams]

NEVER use Reef Calcium, by seachem. it has side effects that are not listed on the bottle.

What do you mean please clarify for me !