Another day, another noob mistake made

[Leaellynasaura]

Well, after accidentally gassing half my crabs with Bayer dip residue from not rinsing well enough, I made another mistake in my coral/invert quarantine tank. I noticed my salinity was half a point under what it should be so I decided to just dump a tiny bit of salt into the tank. Now I had read that I should not do that, but I had googled why it should not be done and could not find an explanation at the time.

As the salt fell I saw a few particles hit the hammer coral and slowly dissolve over about 10 seconds. That's when it hit me. I had just Dick Cheney'd my beautiful hammer. It was like grape shot through sails. There were holes in many tentacles and it quickly pulled into the skeleton and secreted white death slime.

Thankfully over the next two days it somehow magically healed to what I would say 85% health. I think I got lucky. The salt misses the other 9 frags and the hammer is going to be fine.

Don't add salt directly to the water!

 

[Brew12]

Well, after accidentally gassing half my crabs with Bayer dip residue from not rinsing well enough, I made another mistake in my coral/invert quarantine tank. I noticed my salinity was half a point under what it should be so I decided to just dump a tiny bit of salt into the tank. Now I had read that I should not do that, but I had googled why it should not be done and could not find an explanation at the time.

As the salt fell I saw a few particles hit the hammer coral and slowly dissolve over about 10 seconds. That's when it hit me. I had just Dick Cheney'd my beautiful hammer. It was like grape shot through sails. There were holes in many tentacles and it quickly pulled into the skeleton and secreted white death slime.

Thankfully over the next two days it somehow magically healed to what I would say 85% health. I think I got lucky. The salt misses the other 9 frags and the hammer is going to be fine.

Don't add salt directly to the water!

Your doing good if you are only making one mistake a day, this can be a challenging hobby!

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

I usually dump 1 cup in my sump if I'm trying to raise sg.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I have a jug of higher concentrated saltwater made up. Usually from making it too salty so I pump some out into a jug so I can add more rodi water to get the salinity proper. Then I can use the higher concentration if I need to raise. I'm wet skimming and I just did a wc and tested and my salinity was down. Just added more to sump until it measured where I like it

 

[Katrina71]

Thanks for posting a mistake. Sometimes it's easy to feel like the dumbest reefer in history. I'm brand new and this just explained why not to do this. I appreciate the opportunity to learn.

 

[Mr. Bill]

Another reason is because you are mixing many, many elements and compounds at once, and it can take several hours for them to completely blend together and stabilize the pH. Also, SG should be adjusted slowly to prevent salinity shock.

 

[Oliver d]

Imade the same mistake only thing is i killed my cleaner shrimps by pumping water directly into my tank after a water change instead of through the sump.My return pump did not want to switch on so I simply put the hose in the tank and I filled up a few hours latter i found my cleaners dead. This is the way you learn not to do things like that.

 

[Oliver d]

I made the same mistake only thing is i killed my cleaner shrimps by pumping water directly into my tank after a water change instead of through the sump.My return pump did not want to switch on so I simply put the hose in the tank and I filled up a few hours latter i found my cleaners dead. This is the way you learn not to do things like that.

 

[Susan Edwards]

My sump is in the back of the tank. I always add the water directly to the tank water and have never had an issue.

 

[Susan Edwards]

@Leaellynasaura if it makes you feel better, I just did a stupid newbie mistake. I was dosing peroxide 1 ml per gal a day and just read its 1 ml per 10. I dosed 30 and 40 ml for a 66 gal (53) this week for 3 days.... Noticed my anthias have some black smudges on them. Read they are caused by amonia burns but my amonia is 0. Googled peroxide as that is the only other thing I've done, and I think that is the problem. The black is scabs where the burns are healing. No more for a few days.... Feel real stupid... Everything else looks okay, even the algae....

 

[Nano101]

I usually dump 1 cup in my sump if I'm trying to raise sg.

I keep a 1g pale of high salinity water to add if my skimmer is taking too much out. I rarely have to use it, but at least I know it's mixed

 

[Ty Hamatake]

The list of mistakes I have made is far too long to put into one thread lol. My most recent one was accidentally running a heater dry during a water change. I have a python and was vacuuming my sand, when I got done I realised I didn't have anything to put the hose on and not wanting to get water all over the floor I just threw it in my sump, lol well we all know how siphons work... next thing I know I hear popping and cracking like crazy. I was lucky it didn't explode!

 

[Nano101]

I had a ****** tetra heater fail and nuke my pico months ago. What I get for getting a Walmart automatic heater. I use them to heat my water for water changes, but that's it. Was so bummed it nuked my tank. I tore it down and sat for 3 months. Just now getting it back together. Can be a discouraging process learning. Even after 10 years in the hobby

 

[Mr. Bill]

I have to confess, my tanks were mostly FO until 2006. When I started my first true reef tank, I trusted my LFS's recommendations, you know, where everything with claws were considered reef-safe scavengers and a necessary member of your CuC? Wrong. Lost nearly $2k in 6 months before I realized that they're in business to make sales, and there are no guarantees concerning livestock behavior or compatibility. Things I will never buy again, unless it's a species-specific tank, include hermit crabs, emerald crabs, sally lightfoot crabs, and any type of 'reef' lobster. Without frequent target-feedings, they all have turned into rogue killing machines for me. Definitely not a good addition to a smaller aquarium.