I Want To Know If There Is Anyone Out There That Has Never Had Anythin

[Shedeivl]

I want to know if there is anyone out there that has never had anything go wrong with there tank?

if so what ur screcet ?

if you have had something go wrong what is the worst thing that has happend ?

as for me I had ten fish die on me in one week

 

[raptorrex]

its a question i would like answered too.

the basis of my community was bought second hand about 19 months ago. since then, apart from a split tank, gulp, i have had no problems. true i have had fish deaths, most unexplained, but they are few and far between. i have never had a problem with water conditioning nor illness, despite adding fish from many places( private and LFS). this is all th e more confusing, because i found out, long after purchase, that the previous owner was having fish die in droves, with constant illness leading to the sale to me. there was a black log in the box when i purchased the tank, it looked like charcoal, but it turned out to be a bit of bog wood so stained with blue it had gone black. we live almost next door to each other so the water is not the secret.

all i do is change the water, 25% every week or so, and top off to replenish for evaporation. the filter gets cleaned every 3 or so months.

 

[lilfishie]

i don't have problems very often just loose the odd fish to old age, do nothing special at all

 

[doresy]

Cycle your tank fully, RESEARCH before buying stock, never over feed, do not overstock, do regular water changes, gravel vac, always dechlorinate new water, wash filter media in old tank water, do water test at the first sign of change, treat your LFS with respect they deserve ( ) and continue to use this forum.......trust me on the sunscreen, whoops

Follow this and your trouble will be over

 

[KhaosInc]

Since I learned about the basics, planned out fish (OK I'm still bad about this one) and do regular water changes, I haven't had a major problem in years other than when the puppy (now 4) chewed through a filter hose and put 200 gallons of water on the floor..

 

[raptorrex]

humm, we all say we do nothing special, so why does the "do nothing special gang". seem to have more success than others?

 

[sunpirate2u]

I had one time with a big problem. I had just bought two baby red platies. They brought ICK to my tank!!!!! So I put them in to bags and brought them back to my LPS(petco ) Then the next day my betta was more than half dead. I put him in his own little vase.
He died that night. It was a sad and frustrating fish week. So I learned that never go to petco!

Sea King

 

[KhaosInc]

humm, we all say we do nothing special, so why does the "do nothing special gang". seem to have more success than others?

Theres a saying I have seen on a saltwater forum that I frequent that I think is kinda applicable.

"nothing good happens quickly in this hobby"

I think those of us who 'don't do anything special' group have learned to take things slowly, most often through the school of hard knocks.

Very few things happen quickly in nature, and we are operating in a micro scale and attempting to mimic the sun, wind rain, evaporation and in most cases centurys of 'adaption with a few plastic tubs, some pumps and a couple of lights over a glass box. Even adding one fish or 1 plant is like adding 100's of fish or a dumptruck load of plants to even the smallest of year round pounds. Things take time to adjust. Can it be done yes, but things take time to recover, even if we can't see (or even test for) the havoc we are reaping on our systems.

Just my half coherent opinion...

 

[raptorrex]

humm, we all say we do nothing special, so why does the "do nothing special gang". seem to have more success than others?

Theres a saying I have seen on a saltwater forum that I frequent that I think is kinda applicable.

"nothing good happens quickly in this hobby"

I think those of us who 'don't do anything special' group have learned to take things slowly, most often through the school of hard knocks.

Very few things happen quickly in nature, and we are operating in a micro scale and attempting to mimic the sun, wind rain, evaporation and in most cases centurys of 'adaption with a few plastic tubs, some pumps and a couple of lights over a glass box. Even adding one fish or 1 plant is like adding 100's of fish or a dumptruck load of plants to even the smallest of year round pounds. Things take time to adjust. Can it be done yes, but things take time to recover, even if we can't see (or even test for) the havoc we are reaping on our systems.

Just my half coherent opinion...

lol yep!

you could say the "dont do a lot group".

so would we all agree that, patients is the first thing on the list?

 

[merry78]

haven't had too much go wrong due to close observation of fish behaviour, however....yesterday, one of my cats (feline, not catfish) entered my fish tank, and now things are going wrong......grrrrr.

 

[FisheyAsh]

when i got my first tropical tank i remember doing a water change and using a bucket to put water back into the tank
the next morning when i woke up my fish all but 2 neons were dead
i was so upset with myself and had no idea why they died
mum then told me thet i used the same bucket that she had for cleaning the floors
ooooooops
i now use a glass jug for top ups and will never make the same mistake

 

[raptorrex]

when i got my first tropical tank i remember doing a water change and using a bucket to put water back into the tank
the next morning when i woke up my fish all but 2 neons were dead
i was so upset with myself and had no idea why they died
mum then told me thet i used the same bucket that she had for cleaning the floors
ooooooops
i now use a glass jug for top ups and will never make the same mistake

ok so thats two rules:

!. patients

2. use dedicated tools

 

[Ian H]

other than the start (didnt cycle the tank, i didnt know!) its all been fine until i bought some fish from pets at home (again bad i know!) now some of my fish have whitespot

most important lesson i've learnt is to only buy fish from a reliable source

i use a bucket for my water changes, but its the fish bucket and used for nothing else!

 

[Esfa]

Worst thing i have had happen to me is........

errmmm.....

I added some wood and the water went cloudy for about 3 hours.

Thats the worst thing in about 10 months

Tip: Research, research, and research some more!

 

[Chrispixx]

The worst thing i had happen to me..
A long time ago my first 55 gal. started leaking. I got the tank from a friend who had it for who knows how long. After having it myself for about 3-4 years it started leaking all over the hardwood floor.
Of course this happend when i had been away for about week, so the only thing i could do at the time was have my dad take care of it, he was mad.

The only option was to put the fish in buckets with tank water, drain the rest of the tank, clean up the mess, then haul the fish off to the LFS who would take them for free of course. I lost some good fish on that one. Not to mention it buckled the floor.

A few years later after taking a break from fish keeping, being that i had filters, gravel decor, etc i decided to start up another 55 gal. tank which is the one i have now.

The whole tank splitting. cracking, leaking thing is a bummer. I want a bigger tank but i think anything over 100 gal. would have to be acrylic, which cost big $$. I dont want to wake up one day and find that much water on my floor from a glass tank leaking.


Most of us have been through it all, and the newbies are just starting the ride. I know i have been through alot over the years.

Tank leaking.
Leading to giving good fish away.
Didnt know about fishless cycling at first
Equpiment malfunctions.
Disease.
Power Failures.
Fish death. Etc. Etc.


Looking back though probably the most morally wrong tank i've ever had, back when i was a teenager and it was more than likely my first tank, back before i knew nothing and the LFS's would say "yeah that will work" just to get your bussiness.

The tank was a 20 gal. High with a Irridesent shark, Bala shark, Two kissing gourami's Two blue gourami's and a Channel catfish. I dont know how that tank and fish lasted as long as it (they) did, but i did. Even with no water changes except every six months.

Now that i think about it, it may have been a 29 gal. but that still does not make it right.
Live and Learn. Thats the moral of the story.