I finally removed my 3 mistakes... How many do you have?

[hypermikie]

I have just spent the past 3 hours removing and replacing the 30lbs of live rock and all corals from my 24g aquapod.

WHY?
To get 3 animals out!

Six Line Wrasse - added first and would not tolerate any other fish added after him except my true perc added the next day.

Sally Lightfoot Crab - Mostly a model citizen never seen him do anything bad, but I was in there and I have heard they get aggressive when bigger. He did act very aggressive at feeding time...thought he better go!

Pistol Shrimp - Species unknown (orange & white). I really did not mind his constant digging, I knew about this going in. He never caused any cave-ins or the like. He was however destructive in other ways. Took chunks out of my sand sifting star, assumed dead. Prime suspect in demise of Firefish. New Red Serpent Star missing tips on 3 legs, I KNOW he did it! Stole new feather duster and ate most of him in his underwater lair. Stole Kenya tree frags on 2 seperate occasions.

For know all 3 have been banished to a 2.5 gallon. Plenty of Live sand and Live rock for them to hide in. We will see who survives until morning!

[nathan_unsane]

oh god....

undulated trigger... the biggest mistake...

a huge hermit crab... killed my horseshoe crab and started attacking my stars..

and last but not least... starting out with a little 37 gal..

all problems have been resolved as of now...

and waiting to make more mistakes!!

[hypermikie]

It's funny... I actually even like my aquascaping better now!

I thought that it would be impossible to get it back to a pleasing manner...

[Red Serpent]

Mine was the adding a sally light foot that started eat my serpent star. The other was adding hermit crabs that finnished off the star after I killed the sally when removeal totaly failed.

[NCreefwannabe]

so far my only one is buying live goods from my local store.

[Laakmann]

I bought a yellow tank from PetCo,

I know, I know, but only $10 compared to $50 at the goods shops was irrisistable.

I put him in the quarrentine 30 gal for a week, no bad signs, 3 days after I put him in the main tank 50% of my fish have ich.

Currently treating with 84 degree temp and garlic food and its working so far.

[Danfish]

Getting a TINY off brand Wet/Dry filter made of cheap plastic and a skimmer to match.
Have moved away from bioballs and filter pads but still using tiny plastic things, I think its starting to crack too.

Added a Sally Lightfoot, so far he's been friendly and even passive with feeding time. My Chromis are more agressive.

Old Mistake: cycling with damsels and using tap water. Took me 6 months before giving up on the tank and tearing it down.
Newest reincarnation is running MUCH better.

[reefshadow]

i removed a diadema urchin last year that was almost the size of a bball... it was also eating some of my corals; oxypora, montipora. it barely fit in the 5 gallon bucket.

early on in my reefing career i added a lunare wrasse. it grew huge, fast. it could have devoured small children but instead ate every pod, fanworm, bristle worm ect... the funny thing was that when i took it to the lfs, they gave me 40 bucks credit for it. they marked it up to over 100.

buying a red sea hob berlin skimmer and not modding it till last year.

[JR719]

Only 3? I know we all have so many more than 3.
domino damsel
Blue damsel
brittle star
AND so many more!
Btw, the domino was a real pain to get out of the tank. Had to break down and drain most of the water.

[whatevva]

1. Bought all of my base equipment from a high priced LFS

2. Picked the wrong spot for the tank

3. Bought a Blue Spotted JawFish

[FishNutzBoi]

Oh god, so many mistakes when i first started with a 20G

1. Yellow Tang in a 20G

2. First day "after cycle" (supposingly): 1 perc clown, YT, coral beauty, dottyback, domino damsel

3. 2nd day, i added: 1 perc clown, firefish

4. Bought a skilter 250 skimmer... WORSE purchase ever

5. 65+ pounds of LR in a 20G...

6. Feeding flakes 4+ times per day. NO3 was thru the roof. There was even some NO2.

7. No PHs = No water movement

8. No clean up crew

9. MANY MORE!!!

Tank and most fish are gone now. Some fish ended up dieing but some made it back to the LFS

Some mistakes i've done in my current 29G

1. Mandarin in a 29G. Fish is returned

2. Blue linkia in a 3 months after cycle tank. Returned

3. Left royal gramma untreated of ich -> RIP

4. Feeding daily. Now feeding once per 2 days

I have many more mistakes. If i have more time, i'll list them lol

[tgcreef]

my biggest mistake is trying to take stuff that is half dead and bring it back and sometimes that will backfire and fowl my tank

the other is always fittlig with my tank like fixin somthin all the time which i know is bad(puttin hand in tank all the time)

[sloshesv]

My worst has been a coral beauty angelfish. It took all my will power not to kill it. Sally lightfoot is probably the only other livestock mistake. I don't wish to discuss all the non-livestock mistakes.

[stewie24]

Buying a lunare wrasse and putting it in my 55 gallon tank.
Its a beautiful fish and gets along well with my yellow tang, clown, and lmb, however it decided to get greedy and eat all my snails and crabs but two.
It does eat seaweed from the veggie clip right beside the tang...
however i need a cleaning crew, and taking out 120+ lbs of rock isn't going to be fun to remove just one fish.
Stewie

[dc_909]

Removed my camel shrimp that ate my mushrooms.
Removed a brittle star that was 12 inches across, he was eating my orange dot gobies.

[Sk8r]

installing my sump facing the wrong way.

[Medaka]

Biggest mistake was adding mushroom corals...
They overtake everything. You can't just cut/trim them either, as they float aound and attach on everything :P

[OnTheReef]

Damsels, only fish I have had that killed other fish.

I should have followed the advice of my LFS and gone with RO/DI, a refractometer and a live refugium at the start.

Going cheap on my first few protein skimmers. I should have invested in a really good protein skimmer up front.

I am going to drill every tank I ever own from now on, I have truly had it with siphons.

Not really a mistake as such, but my auto top-off reservoirs are now keeping my salinity spot on, everything is much happier.

[beckj2000]

Originally posted by JR719
Only 3? I know we all have so many more than 3.
domino damsel
Blue damsel
brittle star
AND so many more!
Btw, the domino was a real pain to get out of the tank. Had to break down and drain most of the water.

I feel your pain with the domino. I also removed one domino and two blue damsels... Devil fish. Those three killed two coral beauties. I actually had to catch the domino on a very small fish hook. It was a last resort oposed to tearing apart the reef.

[ShellBell]

1. Getting PC's instead of MH's
2. Flame angel - coral nipper
3. Flame scallop - should have known better
4. Buying a cheap protein skimmer
5. Putting the back of the tank too close to the wall, I would like to have some working room back there.

I could go on and on

[zuzecawi]

1. Not using RO/DI
2. Going on a field problem (Army stuff) without LOCKING up the chemicals where the fish sitter wouldn't find them ("I ran out of that water you mixed up so I mixed some of my own but I think I added the wrong chemical" IODINE OVERDOSE)
3. Not quarantining incoming kole tang and losing over half the fish to ich
4. Hairy mushrooms... darndest things to kill and they are death to anything near them
5. zooanthids... turns out I'm terribly allergic, and when removing a hairy mushroom from a montipora I accidentally cut a zooanthid beneath it, wiped my face/mouth when I got squirted with water from some angry polyp or clam, and ended up getting a serious allergic reaction that swelled my tongue up for a week, and caused all the skin inside my mouth to turn yellow and slough off in big chunks, and also made it impossible to swallow anything except horchata and beer for two days (NOT my choice on dieting methods).
6. buying a juvenile sailfin tang which sparked my latest project, building a 135 gal reef to hold him in when he outgrows the 58. If I hadn't got that darn fish I could have been happy indefinitely with the smaller tank!!! (How's that for passin the buck?!)

[ulua56]

1st. married psycho hose beast, who hated fish, they are so slimey
2nd. bought cheap *** skimmer
3th. Ocean Runner 6500...........bushing suck, impeller vibrates

[Gluestick]

I removed my Domino today, actually. After 4 weeks of trying to get it out with a net, I had to drain half the water and remove ALL the LR. I also have a yellowtail blue that is very well behaved, however now that the domino is gone, I am wondering if it will dominate the tank. Maybe I should have taken him out while I had all the rock out.

[steve the plumb]

where do I start ? Hmm 90 gal(old tank) strted a tank with undergravel filter,then bought live rock,turned it into a reef with undergravel filter.
1.Then bought mh light 4500 kelvin bulb
2. used tap water only
3.had a crappy sea clone skimmer
4.never tested had tons of overgrowing hair algea
5.bought to many corals mostly sps and had no clue how to take care of them
6.bought more corals to replace dying corals
7.bought even more corals
8.no clean up crew
9.bought anemones(boy did they mess up the tank when they died)
10. had way to many fish for a 90 gal
11.gave up on the hobby and got back into it 2 1/2 years ago
12.Bought a 150 and have been broke ever since I am a reef junkie that requries a coral fix,always spending whatever money I have on my tank(I leave some for the wife)
13.Planning to save up for a 220 but keep spending all my money on the 150
14. Trying to somehow con my wife into letting me get the 220.
I have come along way.I had many fish die on me in the last 2 years.Some due to fish fighting others due to I have no clue.My tank has been running great.Since I started this tank I have never had algea problems(good clean up creww) no phosphates(never used rowaphos until 2 weeks ago but I used it just to try it)I have no nitrates.I have had cyno in my sump.I did have trouble keeping calerpa in the first few tries it would always die.I have grape in my tank and it grows out of control.This web site has been a major plus for me.I wish I had this 11 years ago I would have done better at it.

[Manderin]

my biggest mistake was not getting a sump from the start, all problems sprout from the basics.