Summary of my worst failures

[smitten with ocean life]

ok! story, please! that looks awful!!

 

[crazyfishmom]

I agree completely with this statement.

While there is a place for automation (travel), I feel that automation in general creates a disconnect between the tank and the reefer.

For many people who use automation, they feel they can walk away from their tank. Then they come back a week later and find that their dosing system dumped a gallon of calcium supplement into the tank. This usually leads to a new thread tagged as an emergency.

I knew there was a good reason to keep dosing everything by hand. Glad to hear others feel similarly.

 

[Patx]

Never trust an ATO (or any piece of gear) that has given you cause not to.

How, when, where, why ?

 

[Dom]

I knew there was a good reason to keep dosing everything by hand. Glad to hear others feel similarly.

Certainly, automation has a place in the hobby. As an example, I do automate my dosing for consistency in the amount and timing. And, by automating my dosing, I can see the tank has benefited.

Beyond that, I do not automate, unless leaving the house for several days.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Turned my return pump off instead of in feed mode, went to bed thinking it was in feed mode, woke up in the morning to a fishy smell. My heaters had made soup out of my refugium. Cooked a blenny and urchin alive while I slept. I still feel awful about it and it was years ago. This is an instance where automation (temp switch deactivating heaters) would have helped a lot.

Was calibrating a peristaltic pump (really, just seeing how many mL/min it put out so I could adjust my AFR dose. I use Wyze pumps which are typically fine, but instead of doing it when it was already dosing, I had manually turned it on. Forgot to turn it off or use a timer... dosed AFR for 24 hrs, about 2 months worth overnight. My tank went cloudy and my alk spiked to over 16 even after several water changes. STILL recovering from that. Lost some 4-5 inch sps chunks, which I know isn't nearly as rough as some of these disasters but as a newer reefer it was pretty gutting.

(Green slimer and CC Dark Knight Stag survived. So hardy acros can often be quite hardy!)

Most of my significant errors are probably partially attributed to my ADHD which I've been managing since childhood. But reminders and failsafes help a lot

 

[crazyfishmom]

Certainly, automation has a place in the hobby. As an example, I do automate my dosing for consistency in the amount and timing. And, by automating my dosing, I can see the tank has benefited.

Beyond that, I do not automate, unless leaving the house for several days.

I think there’s many talented reef keepers out there that are also great when it comes to technology and they make it work for their reefs. I have a doser that I have yet to feel comfortable using. I don’t trust myself to set it up appropriately so I’ll eventually have someone from my LFS come out and set it up appropriately. Dosing manually also makes me feel connected to my tanks and I find I catch issues easily because I’m so plugged in. Everyone’s style is different and I do not criticize how anyone goes about making this hobby work for them.

 

[Dom]

Everyone’s style is different and I do not criticize how anyone goes about making this hobby work for them.

My comment wasn't a criticism.

 

[drblank1]

Everyone has issues with their reefing efforts that they consider significant failures, and these are the ones that I consider worse than the usual loss of an organism...

1. For many years, I tried to steer the reefing community away from the utterly ridiculous unit of measure dKH for alkalinity. No scientist uses dKH. Almost no reefers can even tell you what it means. It's just a black box number to nearly everyone. But the continued lack of change by most of the hobby kit manufacturers to more reasonable units of measure (e.g., meq/L) defeated me, and I've largely given up.

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.

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

4. I tried several times to try to maintain a large school of green chromis. They were nearly always described as easy fish. Always lost them one by one until only one or two were left. Now I far more often read that keeping such schools is actually fairly difficult, and I'm a bit relieved.

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.

There are probably more that I'm just blocking out as a bad memory, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Perhaps others can follow up with what they consider their worst failures...

#5, I have tried both bumblebee snails and flameback angel for the past 3 months but I haven't seen any results yet. Trying to remain patient. Hopefully I do not have to go to the extreme of breaking down my tank and starting over.

 

[crazyfishmom]

My comment wasn't a criticism.

Didn’t take it as one. Was more commenting on my own personal challenges not being a being technically inclined individual .

 

[DanielJameS]

Currently losing the war to Vermatid tube worms….

Once the army of teeny tiny ones start coating the surface of your rock making it look like the rough top of an alligator, you’re in a whole different stratosphere of messed up!!

 

[Polymate3D]

My biggest mistake by far was using epoxy in a established nano reef and no skimmer...

Oxygen depletion. Loss of all fish. Been over a month now and still seem to be seeing seeing and dealing with the fallout. Ecosystem completely shot and only got myself and lack of research to blame for it.

Not doing anything else to it for a while. Just measure and observe

- Paul

 

[shrimplover]

- Not securing rock work with glue.

- Turbo snails. I have not yet been able to keep any alive. They fall over and before I get to the rescue they are dead. Never getting those again.

- Waist of money. I have spend hundreds and hundreds on gear that I will never use or just didn't work for me.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!! Realizing that I will never ever be able to enjoy a holiday again knowing that my underwater babies are home alone!! (Seriously, how do others deal with this?)

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!! Realizing that I will never ever be able to enjoy a holiday again knowing that my underwater babies are home alone!! (Seriously, how do others deal with this?)

it's easy you don't do anything or go anywhere ever, or get someone to help( which has its own issues ) when your away.

I can get about 7-10 days max without anyone checking on my tanks, but then again my one tank just got basically nuked in a long weekend and I didn't plan for there to be issues in such a quick trip.

it's a wild ride for sure!