Breaking Own Cardinal Rule

[Mickeyt1reef]

I have one major cardinal rule. How many do you have?

This is my first post, other than my build, because I broke my cardinal rule. I recently added another Noopsyche light to my tank for better coverage. My cardinal rule is NEVER MAKE A CHANGE IN A HURRY AND LEAVE! You must monitor your change!

I added the new light, set a program and left to work. I came home to the tank baking in not one 90 wt light but 2 90 wt lights at what seemed to be 100% all channels! I don't no how long but things were not happy. So, I am sure, many will say, "that's what you get for buying cheap stuff from China", but it was totally my fault! I love the Noopsyche lights. Inexpensive great color nice blending of the colors with a shimmer similar to Kessel, no color static as Ryan, from BRS, says. The trade off is the interface. The remote is a little clunky. Once you get use to it, not so bad, but it does take some getting use to. I now have them both synched at my modified AB spectrum and hopefully things will come back. At this point it seems like my green slimer is most unhappy. It bleached, as well as my praised GARF Bonsai. A coral i have wanted since the GARF days, making my own rock. Every thing else seems ok. Hopefully they will recover. I will not blame the lights as it was totally my fault! I cannot wait to see how the tank will progress with these lights, provided any bad mistakes from me.

What is your cardinal rule/rules? Please share.

Wishing all the reefers Cali good luck with the power outages and fires. We have hurricanes, so I feel for you guys. Hope you took precaustions i.e. back up power. Good luck!

 

[mta_morrow]

Mine is “don’t chase numbers”.

 

[Mical]

In this hobby there are many cardinal rules: (Including the above)

Don't rush cycling a tank
Don't buy fish, inverts or coral without researching compatibility (avoid impulse buys)
Don't over-react to abnormalities and rush to fix (IE: GHA, bubble algae, aiptasia)

And a BIG one - don't post on R2R your tank issues without your parameters!

 

[Auquanut]

Cardinal rule: If I'm going to make a change in the tank, MAKE ONE CHANGE and allow the tank to respond before doing anything else.

 

[melanotaenia]

Make changes slowly, and never before a trip or before leaving the tank for any amount of time. Always monitor reactions to changes and be prepared to revert if the change does not turn out to be an improvement for your ecosystem.

 

[X-37B]

Mine is always go slow. You test alk and lets say and it says its 6.5 and you run 8.0. Then you make adds and find out your test was off and now you have 11.0 alk.
Always retest if it seems off and or use 2 testing methods to verify.

 

[smartwater101]

Letting a tank cycle for 3-5 weeks is something i can handle.

One change a time.... iiii could probably do better with that...

 

[ca1ore]

I have a number of principles that govern my reef tank .... but since I’ve broken all of them at one point or another, I guess they’re not ‘cardinal’.

1. Don’t make material changes to your system right before going on vacation.
2. Trust ..... but verify!
3. All mechanical/electrical devices will and do fail - plan accordingly.
4. Before taking somebody’s advice, see their tank (first postulated by David Saxby)
5. Don’t overreact .... nether to the good nor to the bad (unless your tank ruptures ...:then panic indeed).