What are your 'Live and Learn' examples and experiences?

[Narideth]

I'd love to hear what you guys have learned from mistakes in the hobby. I know I've made several and will likely make more. Instances where you learn from them and move on, hopefully without catastrophic failure following behind - the best instances of Live and Learn are those that are a passing thing without too much consequence. Personally, I've learned a big one recently - don't rely wholly on a single piece of equipment.

Other things I've learned:
Seller images can often be misleading.
If a coral is showing bright blue in a picture, it's most likely reflecting the blue lighting.
Some situations don't require an immediate resolution. (Most situations!)

Share your Live and Learn experiences!

 

[Dburr1014]

Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.

Live and learn.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Follow instructions when building something, and you won't end up like me building a tank stand upside down and then having to rebuild it again.

 

[Dom]

Never mix Calcium and ALK supplements together. Dose separately.

 

[SauceyReef]

I rarely wore goggles when cutting zoanthids as over 13 years I never saw them squirt toxins. This year I grabbed a polyp a little to hard and it shot some poison out like a little squirt gun. Luckily it was the opposite direction of me. I will now ALWAYS wear goggles when handling them.

 

[Narideth]

Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.

Live and learn.

Oof, I learned this one on the freshwater side. An entire tank nuked.

 

[1112-425XL]

"Reef Safe with Caution" Means absolutely not reef safe!!

 

[crannon]

Most recently... don't treat a sick fish in the dt. And use the recommended meds. Might have saved my blenny

 

[WallaceGrover]

Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.

Live and learn.

Is there any point in quarantining if you can't keep the tank 10 feet from the display? (Within erosol transmission range apparently)

 

[EugeneVan]

Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.

Live and learn.

You bank account will love you too

 

[Dburr1014]

Is there any point in quarantining if you can't keep the tank 10 feet from the display? (Within erosol transmission range apparently)

Actually my quarantine is less than 10 ft away, more like 5 ft. But I do have plywood doors in between them. I'm sure that helps a lot.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Quarantine is your friend. Even an initially healthy looking fish can carry velvet into your tank and wipe it out completely.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Trust science.
Never skimp on lighting.
Chicks dig softies.

 

[tee89]

Amino acids in a newly setup system is a disaster waiting to happen. You will end up with some cyano or dinos.

 

[paragrouper]

Trust science.
Never skimp on lighting.
Chicks dig softies.

Yeah baby!

 

[Nate Chalk]

Don't watch old brs videos, or any media for advice on reefing.

Zero N, Zero P = dinos

And dinos = tank crash basically

 

[Peter Houde]

Follow instructions when building something, and you won't end up like me building a tank stand upside down and then having to rebuild it again.

Ha, ha, when I was a kid I used to build plastic model airplanes. I remember ending up with the little man that that was supposed to go into his seat before the two halves of the plane were glued together.

 

[Roatan Reef]

I watched 1000,s of videos, read 1000,s of Articles.. thought I would have an overnight success story of Reef Tank!

Wrong!

Went through months of issues. If I had done it right way...set it all up, let run for 4 months then added fish/Corals, would have saved $1500

 

[Joe.D]

No matter how watchful you are during cleaning - fish will jump and you won’t see them. Anytime your hands are in the tank and the lid is off - do regular roll calls to ensure nobody left the tank.

It’s happened to me a few times in my 1 year of reefing. I got a piece of plexiglass to put over the half of the tank I’m not working in and it seems to help.

Some may ask, why my hands are in the tank so much. Typical weekly cleaning of algae on the seams of the tank, scraping bubble algae, etc. Hopefully I have the bubble algae under control and won’t be in there as much.

Oh, and when I recently added a Diamond Goby, I added him through the little feeding area of the lid. Forgot to put that small piece back, a 2.5” x 4.5” opening, he jumped. Found him all dried up on top of the lid a few hours later. Never leave them an opening - they’ll find it!

 

[SauceyReef]

No matter how watchful you are during cleaning - fish will jump and you won’t see them. Anytime your hands are in the tank and the lid is off - do regular roll calls to ensure nobody left the tank.

It’s happened to me a few times in my 1 year of reefing. I got a piece of plexiglass to put over the half of the tank I’m not working in and it seems to help.

Some may ask, why my hands are in the tank so much. Typical weekly cleaning of algae on the seams of the tank, scraping bubble algae, etc. Hopefully I have the bubble algae under control and won’t be in there as much.

Oh, and when I recently added a Diamond Goby, I added him through the little feeding area of the lid. Forgot to put that small piece back, a 2.5” x 4.5” opening, he jumped. Found him all dried up on top of the lid a few hours later. Never leave them an opening - they’ll find it!

Good advice here. I always cover the back part of my tank when my hands are in.