Top Five Errors; Top Five Best Things For Marine Tanks

[steelhealr]

Please post what you think are the top five most common errors or mistakes made in setting up any size marine tank. Feel free to list more than five. Then list what you think are the top five best things you can do for your marine tank that helps in maintenance, prevention, etc. If respones is good, it would be nice to post this link under the FAQ section. SH

 

[Mr Miagi]

Common Errors: (In no specific order).

1: Lack of Research on the entire hobby by the Keeper
2: No RO. By a Unit, or buy gallons of it from your LFS.
3: Stocking with in-compatable species or species which require specialist care.
4: Dosing with un-neccessary products. Dont add what you dont test for!
5: Patience. Guilty of in-patience myself on occasion, try and relax, and watch the hobby from all aspects.

Top 5 Best Things you Could do:

1: Invest in RO. Water clarity, coral growth and extension...the benefits are huge.
2: Buy atleast 2 recomended, recent books, on the hobby.
3: Research Research Research.
4: Buy quality, buy right, and do things proper the first time rather than spend your life saving to upgrade.
5: Just know what your buying. It saves tanks and lives!

Awsome Top 5 reasons to keep marine: (Sorry, had to add this SH)

1: Bacteria/macro life/plants/algae/inverts....everything you can think of, and thats just on the LR!
2: The Fish! They are amazing, and occupy hundreds of different niches.
3: Corals! What tank would be complete with out even shrooms or Zoas.
4: The huge diversity of animals you can choose from.
5: The fish/inverts have varying, funny, agrivating, frustrating, and lovable character.

 

[SkiFletch]

Errors

1. Lack of RO water.
2. Insufficient research
3. Insufficient volume of LR. Dont see it much on this forum, but its a problem through out the hobby.
4. Lack of patience, disaster does happen quickly (guilty myself)
5. Skimping on lighting, refractometers, and filtration (especially skimmers on larger tanks)

1. RO unit or buy RO from your LFS, really saves a lot of hassles.
2. A good quality lighting system and a powerful protien skimmer.
3. Extra buckets, small powerheads and heaters for water changes.
4. Get a good book or live on some forums for a few weeks and research research research.
5. Find a local reef club if you can

 

[crazyelece]

Top 5 Errors
1. Adding livestock too early
2. Adding too much livestock at any one time
3. Overpopulating the tank with livestock
4. Adding incompatable livestock
5. Using outdated or insufficient means of filtration

Top 5 Best
1. Use a quality RO/DI unit with addaquate storage capacity for your situation
2. Research before you purchase anything
3. Join a local fish and/or reef club to gain valuable info from those with first hand experience
4. Take it slow - nothing good ever happens fast
5. Take a chance. I have found keeping a marine tank is all about ballance. Don't be too carefree but don't be too cautious. Calculate any risks, some risk is not bad, but too much leads to disaster.

 

[andywg]

Errors:

1) Insufficient research (after two years of research I am only now starting to look at seriously doing a marine)
2) Cutting corners to save money
3) Thinking all marine tanks have to have corals
4) Getting caught up in rules brought in from FW (inch per gallon or watts per gallon)
5) Not placing enough trust in LR and skimmer

Top 5 Tips

1) Go RO (or possibly natural seawater - it does work for some)
2) Patience
3) Research
4) Get the best setup you can fit at the start, you might have to wait a little longer, but it prevents a rebuild later on.
5) Get a sump. Even on a small tank it can help a lot.

And I have one real reason to start marine keeping: VENOM! Can't get enough of the venomous fish, hence a lionfish tank is planned with other venomous mates (stone fish, rabbitfish, coral cats).

 

[steelhealr]

I'll try and add some others without duplicating the excellent stuff above:

1) Not investing in a refractometer over a plastic hydrometer
2) Adding overly aggressive livestock or adding them in the wrong order
3) Rolling the dice and adding dangerous livestock, eg, sea stars, when all literature suggests that they starve to death on a regular basis
4) Agree with dosing strontium, molybdenum and iodine without testing for what their levels are in their tanks
5) Failure to use the search button

Positives:
1) Adding a refugium to one's tank
2) Agree. RO, RO, RO water
3) Balancing a good cleanup crew that will cover all nasty hitchhikers, ie, wall cleaners, sand sifters, valonia eaters, hair eaters
4) Regular consistent water changes
5) Always inspect your tank....the best way to prevent problems is forethought and foresight...intervene first...attention to detail

SH

 

[Aquascaper]

With regards to the actual tank..................

Errors:

1) Setting up the tank then deciding where it looks best in the room
2) Solvent welding all the plumbing then deciding that the sump would be better in a different location
3) Drilling the mounts for the lighting then deciding that T5's in a hood would have been better in the long run
4) Arranging all the rockwork then trying to get a magfloat down the front glass
5) Milliputting corals in place then deciding to re-arrange the rockwork

Tips:

1) Paint/cover the back glass before you do anything
2) Allow plenty of room for access behind and below the tank
3) Always do a 'dry' run before permanently fixing things
4) Arrange corals with though and only fix them down when they are absolutely happy
5) Allow room inside the tank for maintenance and don't 'hide' powerheads under loads of rock

I have tonnes more that i've fallen foul of over the years but these are the common ones