worst experience

[gilraen]

I remember 5 yrs. ago when I decided to have a saltwater tank and just showed up at our local pet store and started buying stuff without even reading a book 8O The guy there tells me, "hmmm.....all you need is a couple of rocks and about 4 inches of sand for a 55 gal., let it run for about 2 weeks and then add fish..." HELLO!! Well, ya'll can imagine the rest. Not to mention they let me buy a $45 filter for it witout skimmer. After a lot of wasted $$$, I never been back there, I order my stuff from websites, and...yes....I've read tons of books by now including one recommended by this site. Much better now.

What's you all worst experiences?

I thought it would be interesting to know and learn more from each other!

 

[Scatcat]

Thank God for this site, even when my LFS tells me something I usually ask here to make sure it's good advise. I'm sick. I can't help it, I get obsessed with things. Right now I'm obsessed with trying to catch a crab. It's driving me nuts. Worst experiences right now are buying corals online, you don't know what you are getting and all of my new shipment is dead. I bought some zoo's from ebay and they lady sent them some were dead, and she didn't send as many as she said. She won't email be back within a reasonable time. It's driving me nuts. Oh the money I've spent!

Rachel

 

[lando]

I started much the same way. I put together my first FO (what the heck is LR, anyways?) as a 38gal in college. Did not read a book or research at all. But luckily I had a LFS that was willing to sell me anything I wanted. "Sure, that tang, butterfly and clown trigger will go fine in a 38gal." I wasted a lot of money and, unfortunatlly, I killed a lot of fish in the process. No big deal though, the LFS was there to sell me more. Terrible.

 

[gilraen]

I'm so sorry about your corals, that's just not right. Now I know for future coral purchases. I hope everything goes well as soon as you contact them.

 

[gilraen]

Oh yeah, also, after the fish store sold me everything they could, 1 month after that they told me that 2 sweetlips clows were easy maintenance and would be a good addition to my 1 month tank! Of course they lasted probably 3 days. I just wanted to grrrrrrrrr. Of course the fault was all mine for believing them without reading.

 

[SeriousDude5]

I had the same expierence almost except I thought I was being wise while saying money. So I went with the $30 protien skimmer, a sump what I used a mag 7 pump in which was as loud as heck, little live rock, 1 inch sand bed to few snails ext. So now I had to redo my whole set up. Now insead of a 30 dollar piece of crap I have a SeaClone which is working wonders, a hang on the back CPR fuge with cheto and pods, and 2 rio powerheads, along with 80lbs of live rock, and 3-4inch sandbed! Lets put it this way things are going a lot better in my closed aquarium then it did with the sump. I am going to add a fluval 404 eventullay I think though but things are fine right now so Im contimpating.

 

[RLG2182]

Hmmm... mine... mine... that would have to be when I was still in middle school! 8O Started with a 29 gal. Had no idea what the heck LR was. Lighting? What? NO lights from K-mart... the ones that are meant to go in a kitchen. The store told us that if we wanted to have LR, we would have to have TWICE the filtration as compared to freshwater. So, they advised us to buy double HOB filters like they're most expensive Emperors and Skilters. I had NO idea that LR actually helps filter your water... Berlin system? What's that?

So I went with nice looking gravel, fake rocks, fake plants. Started with three damsels. Thank goodness I didn't add in more fish due to $$$ constraints. But after that, we added (per the LFS consent) an O. clown, then a tomato clown, then a yellow tang, then a blue tang. (not all at once, but pretty dang close together). All with tap water with just some amquel junk to take out chlorine. IN A 29 GALLON TANK! 8O Needless to say the LFS kept selling me anything I wanted. HUGE waste of money, not to mention several lives.

Now... thank you LFS's (not all of them, just the few bad ones) but I'll do my own research and do what's right. Let's just make sure that we realize that not all stores out there are bad, and that it is our responsibility to do our own homework. But yes, I'm sure we've all been there.

 

[Brisc0]

My worst experience, a choking blanket of hair algae that came on out of no where around my reefs first birthday. Took about 6 corals and 3 fish before I got it under control a few months later. Luckily now im on the mend and things are looking well again.

 

[Salttanker]

I can remember my first SW experience about 13 years ago when I bought a 75G tank (can you say cha-ching$$$), cheap stand (wobbled, uneven floor), and no top. In addition to that, I also bought CC, decorative plants, 4 fish (yes! fish). Damsels at the time. I got it all home filled it with tap water (fortunately the only decent thing the lfs recommended was dechlorinator). For filtration and water movement you ask? 1 150gph powerhead. Needless to say, by the time I got the tank setup and dropped the fish in (thats right..acclimation? what the..) they died in 5 minutes. Of course without cleaning the CC..I know..it was too cloudy to even see the fish I dropped in there. I was so angry that the tank ended up in the garage for 3 years after that experience. I just had no idea on how to care for these specimens, and the resources today didn't exist back then. Thank goodness people today are willing to share this information with others so we can stop killing our ocean friends, and start treating them with respect. 8)

Mike

 

[fishyrican]

When I started fishkeeping about 15 years ago, I had a community tank with small tetras. I saw an eel (don't remember which kind) at the LFS. The clerk told me it would do great with my little fish. Oh, it did great alright. I never saw the eel because it would come out a night. Apparently, my tetras never saw it coming either, because he treated them like the local swim-thru buffet at the sushi bar. 8O After three days of this I took the eel back for 1/2 credit to the same clerk, who swore he never told me that.

 

[adacaro]

since this hobby is so expensive I did alot of reading bought a lot of books, went in the internet and did a reserch on everthing I needed, I bought everting of good quality since it is for long use. Today its been a year no problems with fish since I new which went together,all my corals are very nice and everthing is going fine, when I have any problem I just get advice here with my friends. And my 72 gal. tank always looks great

 

[morgan24]

i thank u guys here at AA because if ir wasn't for all the advise here i wouldn't know a thing. I looked at post here for about two months then i decided to start my 20 gl. i have had it up and running for months now and nothing gone bad yet,but my luck everthing will all go wrong at once. i think the only mistake i made was i went with cc because the lfs didn't have any ls. So i guess i just want to say thanks to all here at AA.com u guys aand gals are great..

 

[Salttanker]

This is a hobby one can grow and learn continuously. Even with years of SW experience I still reach out for information as things change over time, and someone always has a better idea. Everyone here is polite and courteous and willing to help anyone regardless of circumstances.
If it wasn't for a site like AA, many people would end up leaving the hobby due to frustration and sorrow.

Mike

 

[ellisz]

I had a 29 gal with a porcupine puffer and an anemone with basic NO lighting!! This was in college as well. I have learned the error in those ways

I will say that it is not as complicated as some make it. After getting everything straightened out, I ran a 38 gal with 2 fish, undergravel filter, Emperor 280 and NO skimmer for 7+ years. I did water changes every month or so. My bioload was light though. Really depends on what you are doing.

 

[aquafreak]

I'm still hosed by starting my system with tap water.

If I only was just 1 day more patient

BUT, things are coming around great

 

[schoeplein]

Watching someone fail and cause the death of several fish before taking care of my own would definitely fall as my only worst experience.

I've got a heavy bioload; just added my first (three pieces) of coral, and a large green carpet anemone. My stuff is doing great. Coming up on 5 months.

My fuge, filtration, liverock, uv sterilizer.. my protien skimmer hasn't picked up much with all the filtration. I also knew well enough to pickup 7-cycle purified water.

Woot.

 

[Scatcat]

Everyone here is polite and courteous and willing to help anyone regardless of circumstances.

Mike,

I agree that is one of the things I love the most about this web site. There was another site that I found before this one. I was pretty discouraged. If you didn't have 5 or watts per gallon you got spamed pretty hard. They were so rude. I was beginning to think I was doomed. I only asked questions when I was desperate. Most the responses were pretty rude. I love the fact that everyone here is so considerate. I love this site. I don't know where I'd be without it. I really don't.

 

[ellisz]

I'm still hosed by starting my system with tap water

Is your tap water really bad or something? Some tap water wis just fine. I ran my FO tank with tap water for years. When I started my reef tank I got cyano real bad so I switched to RO/DI water. I have used tap in a pinch though.

 

[Mrbill]

My worst experience would have to be last Christmas morning when we came doen the stairs excited to see what Santa had brought, only to see that about 5 gallons of water had leaked out of the canister filter onto the carpeted floor and into the basement.

Man did that suck.

Next worst experience is the ongoing battle with hair algae that is driving me bananas and making me want to quit altogether.

 

[Phyl]

My single worst experience was dumping 1/2 a can of sinking pellet into a running system that quickly distributed all of the pellet in, under and between rocks. My ammo hit the roof (and then some). A series of 50-80% water changes was necessary in order to bring our system back into line with reality! It was a tough couple of weeks getting our water quality back under control. Thankfully I haven't been so stupid since then!