Share your NOOB experience and WIN a TUNZE Reefpack 250!

[jdl513]

Most memorable for me was finding out why they call tangs surgeonfish!
Accidentally spooked a large sailfin tang during my first year keeping saltwater.
Slashed my thumb wide open lengthwise!

Had no idea that thing could cut that deep, and had a scar for almost a year.

 

[NVTE]

When I was a kid, no internet or userful information beside guy from local fish store. I took countless round trips on bicycle (10 miles round trip) to set up 10 gallon Saltwater Tank. 2 trips to fill water, 5-7 to buy rock (only afford to buy 1-2 lbs at a time) ,3 trips to get normal output T12, a blue damsel, and a clownfish, and Sea Apple. I enjoyed it for 3 months before getting home with cloudy, funky smell tank and sad heart.

 

[jbb_00]

NOOB mistake #1

Black Volitan Lionfish in a Viaqua 16g , but it was ok because they sold the fish with the tank & a cpr bak pak .

cant believe I said that in public. :tsk:

 

[vasinvictor]

I used city water with Prime for 1 1/2 years, (recommended by LFS) and wondered why my zoa would not grow. I've now found RO/DI, haha.

 

[papa.250]

Noob experience

I got my tank setup the way I wanted and tank was cycled and ready for corals. Had $ 250 dollars worth of certificates for LFS, that I got from birthday. So went out and bought everything I wanted brought them home and put them in the tank. Well here is were things took a turn for the worse. My new house had a quadruple the level of copper in the plumbing. Needless to say all of my corals melted away to there skeletons. It was a horrible week for me and it was a rough start to the hobbie. So my LFS owner trouble shot the problem for me and ended up putting quadruple the amount of copper remover in to bring Levels down. Lets say I own a ro unit now. Rough start for sure. LFS owner gave me some corals to help me out.

 

[raleigh19]

My first tank was JBJ nano cube 24 gallon. I was so cheap and want to cut all the corners. My biggest mistake is to used tap water and dechlorinator to cycle my tank and ended up kill my damsels...

 

[BuzzWrasse]

We bought a $50 clam and a $60 anemone before our tank was 3 months old..... our first tank... clam is gone to that big ocean in the sky and the anemone is clinging to life in its own 30 gallon tank.... not a smart idea....

 

[Blue face angel]

Let me state that I have been in this hobby for over 20 years so there are lots of Noob mistakes. Just hope I learned from them. One that always stands out to me is after a year or two of having a Cortez Angel , A Magestic Angel , Blue Tang , Yellow tang , and some damsels in a fish only tank I wanted the decorations to look new again. So I removed all the rock and fake coral to soak in bleach water overnight. Next day I removed everything from bleach water then rinsed it all off and placed back in tank. After about an hour all the fish where gasping at top of tank so went to check water parameters. Opened up bottom of tank , where sump was at and smelled like pure bleach. I had a small 20 gallon tank that was set up for reef that put all fish in as fast as I could catch them . Only fish to survive was the blue tang which I ended up having for another 15 years before it died. So lesson learned nothing goes in any of my tanks until it has soaked in pure Ro water for couple days , and I have never used bleach again.

 

[Saltyg]

Have been reefing for about 6 years. have had plenty of mistakes. But when i first got into reefing my biggest mistake was putting a lion fish and a yellow tang along with a long spine urchin into a 30 gallon. The urchin grew to bout the size of a vollyball and the lion grew huge as well could not put hands in tank without risk or getting stung by either and well the tang poor guy..... Also first reef tank got bunch of ricordia and some soft corals. LFS told me no need to water change cause evaporation would do it for me. So dumb me didnt change water in 3 years and wondered why my corals looked soo bad. lol. Then came the day when i found all the great forums like reef2reef and others.=)

 

[Texasnano]

I added saltwater to top off water in tank so about $200 worth of fish died then I realized salinity was super high

 

[Johnthebaptist]

I set up a 150 long in my church and found out it had a leak just after it was full! Was not too bad as the leak was at the top. Had to drop the water level and was able to reseal it. It held for the 4 years the tank was up thankfully.

 

[seamonkey84]

I changed salts without testing Alk and cal, and didn't change how much I was dosing, lost 8 acros.

 

[LVE]

Like many others, took the advice of the LFS when starting and bought pc lighting

 

[11f150]

About 10 years ago when I got my first aquarium I didnt know anything at all. I filled my first tank ever with water, put a light on it, hooked up the filter and then went out and bought about 10 fairly rare fish. Of course I dumped them all in because I wanted a nice looking tank. Well, fast forward 2 weeks later....it was an expensive cycle for my tank

 

[LILBUDDHA]

On a visit to a LFS .
I bought a 38 gallon tank saltwater set up with undergravel filter and a Skilter Protein Skimmer .
He had these rocks with life on them on all the tanks with fish in them . I asked about the rock and the lfs stated " u can't add them until your aquarium is a year old ".
As a result, I kept killing fish and going back to get more fish . I picked up a FAMA magazine and read "reef notes" . The topic referred to using live rock in a saltwater aquarium .
I had my HMMM moment and thought "that's why the fish were doing so well in his tanks and here I am killing them left and right ". I found another store and started buying live rock .
I was able to keep fish longer and even learned that the skilter skimmer was junk but would work okay if you put an airstone in it.
All thanks to a magazine called FAMA and "reef notes" by Julian Sprung .

 

[Tank2379]

My first noob experience is when I bought most of my reef equipment off of Ebay. I knew nothing about having a sump or did I know any about buying a skimmer I just saw skimmer and bought it. I also bought a Canister Filter not knowing in the long run I would not need it... Any how come to find out that my skimmer was internal and I have to place it inside my tank it looks so cheesy.... LOL... I also was using a 40Watt single strip light not knowing I needed T-5 and more wattage than that to house corals and fish properly... OMG... LOL.. Just thinking about it is funny

 

[aklee987]

This happened when I first started reefing. I needed an RODI unit.

I bought a RODI unit from airwaterice.com, it has a DI bypass and a little faucet to attach to your kitchen sink for drinking RO water. Here is the link:
Aquarium Water | Reverse Osmosis | RODI Water | ReefKeeper Water | Dual Home Reef New Style OUT OF STOCK

I printed out the instructions, read them about 5 times, I was fairly confident in how to install it. I recieved the unit on a Tuesday. Opened it and went to the local hardware store. Bought a drill bit for drilling my sink and some teflon tape they said I needed (trips to store = 1).

Got home, found out that the drill bit does not fit in my drill. Went to Walmart and found a bit that would fit (trips to store = 2).

Drilled my sink, Walmart bit worked great! Got all the tubing hooked up, drain line hooked up easy. Supply line was a piercing contraption that pierces the cold water supply to my sink. Hooked it up, it leaked. Bad. Could not get it to stop. Took the piercing contraption to Home Depot, they told me my chrome line would not work and gave me a plastic one (trips to store = 3).

Got home, realized the plastic one is not long enough. Went to bed. Wife was not happy with no sink.

Next day, went back to Home Depot and got the longer plastic supply line (trips to store = 4).

Tried to install the plastic supply line for about 2 hours. Then, I noticed that when I was tightening it to my faucet, somehow, the nut stopped turning and I was turning the copper lines inside the faucet ruining it. Nice. Need new faucet. By this time it was too late to go to Home Depot. Wife was even more unhappy being without a sink.

At lunch the next day, went to the local hardware store and got a new faucet, but they did not have the supply lines that I wanted (trips to store = 5).

After work, went to Lowes and found the hookups that I wanted. Used braided hose with a "T" adapter that I could run my water line to from my RODI (trips to store = 6).

Got home and installed everyhing in under 1 hour!! Went great! Was easier than messing with the old one! No leaks or anything. Went to the local hardware store to get a trash can and more 1/4 inch tubing to run water to the trash can. Didn't get a trash can because I thought I would find it cheaper at Walmart (trips to store = 7)

Went to Walmart, bought a trash can (trips to store = 8)

Got home and realized that the trash can from Walmart was on wheels and that it might not be the best option.

Returned trash can to Walmart (trips to store = 9)

Bought original trash can from the local hardware store (trips to store = 10).

Thats all. Everything is done, trash can is full of 35 gallons of RODI water, TDS 0. Learned how to install new faucet, and almost got divorced. Good times.

 

[afamousjohnson]

Is there a deadline date on this contest? when will the luckiest noob be picked.lol

 

[Der ABT]

bought an auto feder when i was going away for a week, did the smart thing and tested it first......went to pick up dinner ate and came back....looked at the tank and though sweet everyone is out : brittle stars, hermits, snails, EVERYTHING was out squirming in pain...corals oozing slime...hmm that looks funny
looked around after realizing it was not because of the food the feeder just dropped in
it was the AA BATTERY THE FEEDER JUST DROPPED IN....it was one of the cheap AA's with the solid core...solid core backed out and leaked all the acid into the tank....

i kept the skeletons as proof.....and the worst part is it had me consider getting out of the hobby..luckily the wife said no to that idea....but she wishes she could change that.

 

[Coolaid]

Ok.. So, I've been doing fresh water since I was a young pre/teen. I've always helped my parents and grandparents with their tanks since I can remember.. even when helping meant rubbing stick hands on the glass, and knocking to get "fishies" attention.. (first noob act?) So, I made the move to salt in 2011.. I was so excited.. I picked up a nano cube 12 at a steal of a price.. LED conversion, sand rock, and a mean as can be blue damsel included. The damsel met his demise as food for a hungry turtle.. I scooped him out and hand fed him to Fedor the mississippi map turtle..

So, the tank was taking hold, doing well.. I added a few corals, a paid or clowns and a green chromis.. Early one morning I hear CRRRAAASHHHH.. In a panic I jump up, and run into the living room to investigate what the cats managed to knock over.. expecting it to me a chair fallen over, or a vase, or many other things before what I did see.. My tank.. laying on it's side.. hermets skittering undder my couch, down my call, fish flopping on the ground.. SAND AND WATER EVERYWHERE!! We quickly acted, pulled a 20 long out of the garage and filled it with as much water as we had ready.. Then my wife ran to petco since it was only 9am and no other stores where open, and got a bunch of their boxed water.. WE managed to save almost everything. but we learned a valuable lesson.. Don't set up a tank next to a cat tree.. They can, and WILL use the tank as an extension of their area..

Here's a little pic to share in my sadness.

On the up side.. This tragedy led me to getting a 28 gallon nano cube LED pro and my tank is my pride and joy.