Mistakes Forum

[preons]

I am looking for the right forum to post my latest tank problem. I think we should have a forum for mistakes or major tank crashes on reef frontiers. Its hard not to look at accidents on the freeway and think glad thats not me. It might help to offer support to the affected reefer and to also avoid the same things happening to someone else. I am 10 years into the hobby now. Ill offer up mine to start the thread.

I replaced my under performing chiller recently. The box the new chiller came in looked a little scuffed up on the delivery. I checked it out very carefully and tested it the night to be sure it was going to work. It pulled my tank down 3 degrees in 20 minutes. I thought cool this thing works great and its supposed to be hot tomorrow. I came home from work and the tank looked a little off. I went over to the chiller and it was running but didnt feel too hot. I looked at the temperature display and it said 94. I thought to myself. "The display or thermostat must be broken." So I looked at my old analog thermometer in the sump and it read 95. I cant really describe the panic and disgust I felt. Now I just feel guilty. No fish lossed but some acros are STN ing right now and two RTN 'd within hours.

Turns out the chiller worked great untill all that special fluid in it leaked out while I was at work. Plus I thought I could turn my canopy fan off since my chiller was 1/3 hp on a 75gallon.

Moral of the story, keep your old chiller hooked up as a back up. Be super suspicious of damage to the box. Dont turn off your fan right away, maybe ever. Maybe give it a few days before you trust your chiller.

peace
josh

 

[Snowboarda42]

Good Advice!

I think there's a thread about "whats the one thing you regret putting in your tank"

But I do like the Idea of a mistake thread, especially something so minute that can be directly related to the crashing of one's tank.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18186&highlight=biggest+mistake

 

[theJ]

preons, very sorry to hear about this

 

[Jan]

Ditto. what a nightmare :|

 

[burning2nd]

damn..... sorry to hear that but i think your idea is good... post your mistakes so hopefully others can learn....

a while back there was a Bryopsis thread... someone had decovered that adding mag would remove it..... (so i read) point of my story is.... if its not broke dont fix it.....

i had the algae on the run thur my own methods, but insted i thought it was worth the try to excellerate the removal thur this new method i read about....

WELL to make a long story. It took me about a month to recover from that...

it bleached the hell outta everything in my tank. and destroyed a small conlony of zoo's..... no big deal... but i learned right then and there. That if you have something that works for you and it gets the job done.... unless your looking for a new head ache leave it alone

 

[trc]

My biggest mistake was to under estimate the hobby after being gone for a long while, 30yrs. It seems when you read the threads, that all you have to do is follow a certain recipe and your gauranteed success, not so.

Next, thinking that even though you are a newbie, you can approach this in a conservative manner. Wait and spend the money once, get the best and read, read, read!!!

Go into this with the end in mind, figure out what type of tank you want, what you want to keep and realize that buying the hardware is the easy part.

Don't get excited and figure it will be easy to adjust later, it only adds to the effort to do so.

I've only been in this eight months and I'm getting ready to make the following changes;

1. Buy a drilled tank with an adequate sized sump, I didn't. Living on the second floor of an apartment I was worried about leaks. Get the right equipment and install it correctly, understand where the potential leaks could come from and do your best to eliminate them. Nothing is perfect, just do your best.

2. By doing the #1, you can buy a skimmer which has the capabilities to compensate for overstocking and can adequately keep the water clean.

3. Realize we can't reproduce nature, we'll always need to supplement our little environment somehow. In looking at the truly outstanding tanks in this thread, most have the high end equipment, skimmers, different reactors, chillers, etc....

My BB is doing fine, but I will be making the changes I should have done right the first time.

 

[NaH2O]

preons - sorry for what happened!

Next, thinking that even though you are a newbie, you can approach this in a conservative manner. Wait and spend the money once, get the best and read, read, read!!!

Good advice!