STUPID things people do in this hobby
 

Aloha!

I thought it would be amusing and educational for us to list the silly/dubious/asinine things that we have heard or of done ourselves during our stay in this great hobby.

Here's my quick roundup:

1. Scrubbing down the skimmer cup to the point of being new. Then wiping it dry with paper towels. Then throwing it back on top of the skimmer. Then watching it become soiled within minutes.

2. Doing water changes and mixing salt straight into the display tank.

3. Buying Coralife products.

4. Rescuing (paying for) sick animals from crappy establishments.

5. DSB's...

6. Taken lastlight seriously.

#6 is the biggy in that list!

No quarantine.

It's true. Probably accounts for 80%+ of all the evils and shortcomings of this message board.

Bought 2 Copperbands. They all seemed to get along in the LFS tank. But as soon as they entered my QT together, it was battle royale. Made my Yellow Tang look like an angel.

Luckily, I was able to intervene quickly and separate them with an eggcrate. But they never did make friends, and had to sell one later.

I think just starting this hobby in itself.

Please explain why DSB's are a bad idea. I was thinking of going with one. Thanks.

lol
how true

I'll agree with starting the hobby. Financially it was a bad move but having an overall effect on my level of sanity lol, it was a good move. My thing would be listening to big box LFS's. Most of the kids there dont have a clue on anything. Was told by someone the other day that a Unicorn Tang stayed as a smaller tang. Got home to read they get over 2 feet. Just confirmed what I already knew. Dont listen to them and do your research on anything you want to buy.

They're more trouble than they are worth, only effective with very light bioloads, produce h2s, can't have any sand dwelling pets, early old tank syndrome, difficult to remove and so on.

Whats wrong with cleaning the skimmer head completely? Ive been doing that since I started in the hobby, 3 years ago. Lol

Working on my tank after smoking a fatty.
I no longer do that as I'm clean now, but did a lot of silly things under a green haze. What I notice now is newbies taking advice from newbies. Some of it's quite comical.

Many mistakes, and still making 'em. Teaching me a lot about myself and patience. One in particular- a few months ago, after finally achieving some success with a mixed reef, I introduced a queen angel.
Big %#£¥ mistake!!!

It's a colossal waste of time. A quick rinse and wipe with a scrub pad is all you need. I can't count the number of times I've had someone go over their maintenance routine with me where cleaning the skimmer cup spotless was somehow paramount to their continued success. Hint - It's not.

If you're spending more than 2 minutes cleaning your skimmer cup, you're probably wasting time. If you need to pull out a disposable wiping agent to clean it, you're wasting trees. That is unless you plan to drink coffee out of it at some point or something... Then I have no argument against this.

Going on vacation

Mangroves

Discussing LEDs

Accepting friendship request from lastlight

Doing a tank transfer, including the sand, and then wondering why my fish were swimming in circles and smashing into the glass. Doh. Danielledas' motto personified.

Thinking that hanging ballasts were a good idea.

Vacation aka being gone from the house for a weekend.

NOT investing in a RO/DI after paying for it 2x over in weekly water changes.

Fragalot.

haha fragalot. Nice

Haha.

I have a tendancy to buy browned sps out and colonies that are stn.

I get them at a fraction of the cost and usually they pull through.

Most stupidest thing hmm...I would say:

Letting me start a debate :redface:

Lemme stop now. I have lots in my mind but those are better to be in there :lol:

Who would have thought that Mad "reefer" had a dual meaning. Lol. :wink:

Dude, we're in BC, it would be a stretch to think it wasn't a double entrendre.

- Thinking that only certain fish are prone to 'jumping' and carpet surfing (not taking into consideration that fish get startled or can become aggressive and chase one another. :frusty: This of course; coming from a person that did not have any type of cover over his display for the longest time. I caved and put plastic mesh over the display. VERY glad I did.

Trying to eradicate and scrub off every tiny trace of algae in your "reef" tank. Reefs in nature have algae. If your tank is in balance it will always have some algae but will not over run the tank. If you want ZERO algae, don't call it a reef tank. Call it a coral garden, because it's not natural.

Haha well when I joined the site it was when I got my calcium reactor. I kept adjusting and testing and it was driving me nuts. So mad scientist did'nt really fit. So thats how I chose Madreefer. So kinda 3 meanings in a way. No more ganga for me:sad:

Spending too much money.

Also, for Vancouver hobbyists, I think using DI is a waste of time.

I have a DSB in my tank, but then again it needs it for the seagrass. I wouldn't use one in an SPS tank.

I also clean my skimmer cup pretty thoroughly. I don't think it is a waste of time as it still looks brand new :)

Empty wallet syndrome

Letting my friend convince me to get into the hobby

What I find is procrastinating anything with your system.
The I'll do it tomorrow.
We all do it.
Leads to all kinds of problems!

Doing stuff (like adjusting skimmer or plumbing) to your tanks:

1) after midnight & just before you go to bed
2) just before you leave the house on a trip
3) keeping ick-magnet fish with potentially aggressive tank mates
4) keeping more than one ick-magnet fish in the same tank

and yes

5) starting your first reef tank knowing you are certified as OCD by a doctor friend:microwav: (most expensive "mistake" ever):wink:

Stupidest thing I ever did was thinking I didn't need a quarantine tank.

One nasty case of Marine Velvet, a complete 120 gal mixed reef breakdown, 12 dead fish and 4 destroyed sps colonies later I learned the error of my ways.

+1 to the doing stuff after midnight. Woke up this morning to my newly installed (1:30 am) UV sterilizer with a slow drip on the carpet. 1/2 hr of re-tightening all the seals and it's good to go but next time I'll wait til morning to install.

Why are mangroves a mistake???

I didn't have a chance to read any of these but great idea OP :)

I overflow vessels with water all the time! Just this weekend I narrowly escaped disaster twice. I have a small powerhead in my topoff reservoir which I use to fill my mixing tank from. It's a slow fill and I've forgotten about it several times. This time the 90g reservoir ran dry with the 20g mixing tank filled right to the brim!

Then later that day I forgot to reset my rodi timer for a few more hours and was downtairs for some other random task when I remembered to shut the unit off with half an inch to spare.

I'm not to be trusted with water.

Eating a powdered jelly donut while reaching over your display to scrape coraline from the back of your tank.....

No but seriously, I find myself waking up at 5am with a flash light to feed my corals, this was a new routine for me. Because my atinics come on from 3pm till 3am I find myself tinkering with the tank at all hours of the early morning. It's a lot easier to do maintenance and enjoy the peace later in the am since most people are fast asleep.

Here are some silly/dubious/asinine things that I have done over the years..

1. Scrubbing down the skimmer cup to the point of being new. Then wiping it dry with paper towels. Then throwing it back on top of the skimmer. Then watching it become soiled within minutes.

2. Doing water changes and mixing salt straight into the display tank.

3. Buying Coralife products.

4. Rescuing (paying for) sick animals from crappy establishments.

5. DSB's...

6. Taking lastlight seriously.

Cause you need a forest of them to have any beneficial effect on your tank. You also have to mist them often. I said a PIA and not a mistake

+1

I'm STILL guilty of this one with regards to fish AND corals. Don't get me wrong; I've had successes. However; it's generally just easier to burn your hard earned $ and call it day. I'm an idiot. ;)

lol @ Fragalot. Couldn't agree more, damn scammer

1. Hermit Crabs ( I always put them in, but they just kill my snails, knock my corals over, and clean up half as good as my shrimp lol )

2. Definitely tinkering with equipment before a holiday ... foolish decision lol

3. LED's ... glad I'm back to T-5 now

4. Trying to explain to a newbie that they can't have that tang in that small tank, and they just keep telling you its fine its fine, no aggression yet. Then, you have other newbies chime in saying don't worry ... you can do it, I keep 5 tangs in my 55 gallon no problem at all. Well kid, I know a lot of people who have driven drunk and lived to tell about it ... doesn't make it good advice to pass on just because you've done it once without consequence! ugh, damn stubborn newbies lol

It's not often that I actually laugh out loud when reading a thread but this point was too funny because it's too true.

I'd also like to add Jebo and Odyssea products to the list. In this hobby you usually get what you pay for...

The stupidest thing I ever did was around 1995 when I put a Tiger Cowrie in a 20-gallon tank with about 1 lb of live rock and of course the must-have undergravel filter system. It only lasted a week if I remember correctly. :(

Hmmm
 

A lot of people are doing stupid stuff right now with all the wp25 and wp40 and wp60's then.

I had a nice calm yellow tang that never chased anyone, then I added a Copperband to the tank one day. Within 30 seconds the copperband was fatally stabbed numerous times and dead within a few minutes. Sold the tang the next day and have not owned a yellow tang since.

Dude, Jebo and Jebao are 2 different companies...