Summary of my worst failures

[GlassMunky]

I have also failed to get the truly excellent hobbyists to engage again to help others. This is my largest failure in my mind. I know a lot of them and they are so smart and experienced and happy to chat, text or email, but they cannot tolerate the stupidity from noobies full of bravado hidden behind computer screens enough to help.

can you really blame them though?

 

[Troylee]

I would love to know the secret???

I can get them SPS frags to nice size and wham they wither away…. Rinse and repeat…

Flow is one of the major factors! As the colonies increase the flows gotta increase or they just start peeling from the inside out.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Biggest failure hmmmm… great question… I’m not sure what my biggest failure was.. I remember chasing down my sps tank years ago after a crash and watching my sticks just melt in front of me! I never figured it out, till one day I went to clean my mixing containers and found my kids threw some change in one of them! Guess they were making a wish! Haha! That was the cause I believe till this day… we didn’t have icp or anything back then. I have had plenty of failures like kalk top off over dose and little things like that but nothing catastrophic that I can remember.

Sorry man but I feel this one, I had a tank crash that for the life of me I couldn't figure out what was going on - testing came back normal even decided to try an ICP and it came back fine.

One day I turned off the skimmer and it turns out my son (who was ~3 at the time) had dropped one of his hotwheels into the body of the skimmer but I could never see it because of the foam head.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
I may just be blind or not searching correctly as I figured you would have an article on it.

Why do you prefer meq/l over dKH?

To me a number is a number, doesn't matter whether it's in meq/l or dKH but like you mentioned, most kits provide results in dKH so that's what I've used.

 

[jda]

can you really blame them though?

I kinda do. Most of them are disgusted with the state of the hobby in some form or another. They are like old folks sitting around complaining about the good old days who won't mentor somebody or show up to vote. Some of them help on a local level and they really like it. I tell the rest of them to get involved or stop complaining.

 

[Troylee]

I kinda do. Most of them are disgusted with the state of the hobby in some form or another. They are like old folks sitting around complaining about the good old days who won't mentor somebody or show up to vote. Some of them help on a local level and they really like it. I tell the rest of them to get involved or stop complaining.

The turn over rate in this hobby is disheartening so I get it… it’s a broken record for sure but that never bothered me personally.. I could see some of them guys getting upset but that’s not a logical reason lol.. I’m not even sure who still has a tank from the good ole days since most of them don’t post lol..

 

[boacvh]

Totally relate with #4. My last remaning Chromis was named Duncan Macleod. There can only be one.
(now I am trying again and I am down to 5 from 9 initial)

 

[Dan_P]

Totally relate with #4. My last remaning Chromis was named Duncan Macleod. There can only be one.
(now I am trying again and I am down to 5 from 9 initial)

Interesting about the Chromis. I’ve had seven for over two years in a 75 gallon aquarium. No other fish and they are well fed. Maybe they can’t fight on a full stomach

 

[Slocke]

2. For many years, I tried to steer the english speaking reefing community away from using german words for things that have perfectly good english words. Limewater (kalkwasser in german) is the prime example. Still trying, but failing.

But… Kalk in german only means the mineral lime. As they have a different word “Limette” for the fruit. Limewater could refer to kalkwasser or the water with bits of lime in it they serve in hotels. So I’d say limewater is a not a well enough defined word to use and could lead to confusion.

Also Germans happily use English words if they are better and in this case kalkwasser is a better defined word then limewater though personally I call it Calcium Hydroxide.

As someone who had to learn German it is a stupily complex language and gosh darn it if I had to spend 14 years of my life learning it I may as well use it when it’s better then English.

 

[Slocke]

My biggest failure was probably adding an unquarintined tang and not monitoring the temperature of my tank. I believe those two things together is what caused my small disease crash.

Though if failing to get the hobby to stop doing something is a failure then I have badly failed my campaign:

Not Coris wrasse! This is becoming my biggest pet peeve...

This is Halichoeres chrysus. A small, reef safe, and very peaceful wrasse known for being beautiful, eating pests, and as a good community member. Credit @JoJosReef This is Halichoeres chloropterus. A larger and more aggressive wrasse but still fairly reef safe and good for bigger tanks and...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Koty]

" I never had long-term success with open brain (Trachyphyllia) corals. Not sure why."

I remember you mentioned you had a CBB. They occasionally sample it. I have two species. One is amazing bottom right), and the "CBB favorite" (top left) is struggling:

5. "I lost the battle with vermetid tube worms. They were a significant reason for ultimately taking my tank down. Sounds like there are fish that might have done the trick, but I never tried them."

Canary wrasse slowly eliminated them from my tank. At some point, I had thousands all over my tank.

 

[DrZoidburg]

My worst failure was letting a setback make me doubt myself. The truth is, bad things are going to happen to everyone. No matter how many years you have in, you will lose livestock, equipment, and money! Lol. The important thing to remember is to learn from those setbacks and apply them.

Like the other day I caught it in time. I forgot to turn my freshwater top off back on. It was really a long day that's why it happened. I was missing about 10 gallons of fresh water the next. Had to stay awake a lot longer than I wanted to to get it safely back on target. Not the only time really. Not the only issue either. For the most part smooth sailing, I guess I'm just lucky. As for the chromis, I still have a few. 7 out of the initial 9 the biggest thing I noticed with them. Is to feed them on time, or close to. If not they start to pick on each other.

 

[Big E]

1. Currently failing to convince people that terms matter. Bind/unbind vs soak up/leech. Melt vs dissolve. Phosphate vs Phosphorous. Nitrate vs Nitrogen.
2. That getting a frag to grow a bit is a different animal than keeping a colony.
3. That light beyond what human eyes can see is beneficial for most of the rest of life on earth.
4. New things are not always upgrades.
5. The more that you automate, the less chance of success that you have. Humans and tank contact > automation. I am speaking beyond basic dosing which is very reliable. I learned this the hard way and try and warn others.
6. Chromis and anthias always waste away for me too. No idea why since I feed a lot and they all eat.
7. Currently that ocean level parameters were not called Ultra Low when ULNS actually was a thing. This definition has shifted now from natural to Ultra Low. Failing. This changes the inferences, meaning and suggestions of older posts and articles.

5. The more that you automate, the less chance of success that you have. Humans and tank contact > automation. I am speaking beyond basic dosing which is very reliable. I learned this the hard way and try and warn others.

So true, if you don't have automation and an app to go with it the product is considered inferior.

Biggest failure was not having a backup generator...............lost my whole tank. I was naive as we had never had a power failure last more than an hour or so my whole life.
This was back in 1989 so no internet or warnings from others.

It kills me how people will waste cash on meaningless equipment or expensive livestock but won't spend $500- 1000 on a solid back up electrical plan. I have no compassion when they lament their tank crashed due to electrical blackout............it's their fault.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

But… Kalk in german only means the mineral lime. As they have a different word “Limette” for the fruit. Limewater could refer to kalkwasser or the water with bits of lime in it they serve in hotels. So I’d say limewater is a not a well enough defined word to use and could lead to confusion.

Also Germans happily use English words if they are better and in this case kalkwasser is a better defined word then limewater though personally I call it Calcium Hydroxide.

As someone who had to learn German it is a stupily complex language and gosh darn it if I had to spend 14 years of my life learning it I may as well use it when it’s better then English.

Limewater has an exact literal definition that is clear if you google it.

I took reading German as part of a two language requirement for my graduate chemistry degree. In retrospect it was the biggest waste of my time in those 4 years. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Interesting about the Chromis. I’ve had seven for over two years in a 75 gallon aquarium. No other fish and they are well fed. Maybe they can’t fight on a full stomach

Interesting. Do they school together?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
I may just be blind or not searching correctly as I figured you would have an article on it.

Why do you prefer meq/l over dKH?

To me a number is a number, doesn't matter whether it's in meq/l or dKH but like you mentioned, most kits provide results in dKH so that's what I've used.

I’ll come back to this in more detail later when I’m in my computer, but in short, meq/L is just the molar concentrations added together, while dKH is some old unit relating mostly to fresh water that is literally used incorrectly in seawater and relates to a weird measure of carbonate hardness as if all the alk was from carbonate.

 

[Slocke]

Limewater has an exact literal definition that is clear if you google it.

Yes in written form but verbally it is indistinguishable from lime water. And googling lime water brings you this:

I would argue that we should just call the mineral Kalk and rename limewater to kalkwater.

I took reading German as part of a two language requirement for my graduate chemistry degree. In retrospect it was the biggest waste of my time in those 4 years. lol

It is a useless language
Nothing like spending 14 years learning it just to find there isn’t a German who can’t speak fluent English.

 

[jda]

It is nearly impossible to change terms. When real live rock was a thing, you could cure and cook it. Cure did not mean to treat nor to preserve...and certainly not a process where Robert Smith sings lead vocal. Cook never meant heat. At some point, probably some idiot did put some live rock in the oven or boiled it and everybody wanted to rename the process... only you cannot search the web or a site for the new terms. I always thought that it was stupid anyway... if people are dumb enough to boil or put live rock in the oven, then why won't they throw a basket of baseballs in their tanks when using the Balling method?

 

[Patx]

Dino! Always be dino...
0ppm no3/po4 or 20ppm no3/ 0.1 po4... whatever ppm.
40hrs of reading and still... We don't know a **** how to control them...

Roll the dice!

 

[blecki]

I currently have three chromis and have had the same three for over a year. Two have gotten very large. They key seems to be getting them past the juvenile delinquent stage and to the breeding adult stage, where the larger males stop seeing the smaller fish as competition and start seeing them as potential mates instead. Personally I think we lose as many to uronema as we do to fighting.