Worst Investments You've Made in the Hobby.

i bought a $100 ricordia mushroom rock that died in less than a week due to improper acclimation. it was bright orange/pink mushrooms at least 8 of them. i acclimated it for like an hour.. but store owners tank is liek 1.019 and myne is 1.024. anyone got tips on acclimated a big jump like that? im sure it was salinity everything else in my tank is great i have torch coral, watermelon mush rooms, duncan coral, acroporas, and montiporas.
I also lost a $40 zoanthid rock in the same fashion. out of at least 100 polyps only 6 are still alive hardly opening. the others melted/disintegrated. i acclimated for an hour on this one. once again from the same pet store with the low salinity it looked great in his tank however. Any acclimating tips? I also once owned a sea clone skimmer. ill make sure and spread the word to any new hobbyists on that one ..
 
im with spoiled 739. lovely prizm hang on back aquarium water faucet. 15 gal sprayed into power strip tripping heater and lights. along with nice stain down wall. lucky i was home noticed lights off earlier than usual.
 
Actually, I use to agree with the PetCo remark. But the one here seems to have semi-decent livestock. No rescues, no deaths (other than from aggression issues, my mistakes I might add). On the other hand, PetCo in Hot Springs, Ar. was a concentration camp for fish. And they always had ich and/or Velvet. Never made that mistake, thank God!
I'm a little leery of trashing a large chains' stores in their entirety. Its sadly, a case by case call.

Sincerely,
Matthew
 
Nova Extreme T5 Lighting. 8x54 watt
Went threw Ballast after ballast and 3 different units over about 18 months until I was able to get Marine Depot to just take it back for store credit. During that 18 months I only had all 8 bulbs fire about 3 weeks total between the 3 different units.
 
breakdanc3 said:
i bought a $100 ricordia mushroom rock that died in less than a week due to improper acclimation. it was bright orange/pink mushrooms at least 8 of them. i acclimated it for like an hour.. but store owners tank is liek 1.019 and myne is 1.024. anyone got tips on acclimated a big jump like that? im sure it was salinity everything else in my tank is great i have torch coral, watermelon mush rooms, duncan coral, acroporas, and montiporas.
I also lost a $40 zoanthid rock in the same fashion. out of at least 100 polyps only 6 are still alive hardly opening. the others melted/disintegrated. i acclimated for an hour on this one. once again from the same pet store with the low salinity it looked great in his tank however. Any acclimating tips? I also once owned a sea clone skimmer. ill make sure and spread the word to any new hobbyists on that one ..
Click to expand...

Best bet would probably be to get a small tank & set it to the LFS's specific gravity. Add the new corals to that tank & slowly raise it to the salinity of your display tank, then transfer the corals.
 
Worst ever... Way back, when I bought a rock with aiptasia on it as a "beginner's coral". It was 1986 and reef tanks were new, LFS staff knew nothing, and I was just a kid who knew even less.
 
NatureNerd said:
Worst ever... Way back, when I bought a rock with aiptasia on it as a "beginner's coral". It was 1986 and reef tanks were new, LFS staff knew nothing, and I was just a kid who knew even less.
Click to expand...

LOL, beginner coral! You must have thought you were a natural born coral-meister with explosive growth and success out of the gate!
 
A par38 led bulb for supplemental lighting, 'enhancing' the look of the corals. Nearly bleached my corals to death. Nice bulb. Puts out killer par. And i should of only used it alone, as the primary lighting. Not in addition to a phoenx 175 hqi.
 
pimp4cheddar said:
#1 Bad Investment - Being cheap in the early days:

I started thinking I wanted to go Fresh Water...so I brought some nice blue rocks to decorate my tank with.

After reading...the next week I was convinced I wanted to go Salt Water and brought crushed coral. I wanted to be cheap so I didn't buy a lot of crush coral...I figured I'll just lay it on top of my blue rocks (and no one would see).

It worked well...at first...

fishtankstart-up009.jpg































But then it comes time for a WATER CHANGE...












HOLY S#%T...A SMURF JUST DIED:






Picture014.jpg







Picture015.jpg
Click to expand...

I am a new beginner and that made me laugh so hard....because it is something that could happen to me or any beginner. Thanks for the smile
 
:lol: Nice blue tank!


My answer to the question is all of it. Reef tanks are not an investment :D They are like boats, cars and planes. You lose money the second you buy something new.
 
It would be easier for me to quote the entire thread. Made every bad investment from Seaclone tobattery powered leds.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
New to the hobby, but already did a dumb thing (RC saved me from numerous more dumb things). I knew I needed a smaller tank for QT. Wanted something that would look nice on my bathroom counter. Fluval Edge! Looks very nice!

First of all, the top being completely covered with a small opening that you could just fit your hand in (only if you syphoned off water first) was completely impractical. Still, I liked the look of it. I managed with a razor to get the glass top off. Now I could use it better.

First fish....hey, someone said 6 gallons was too small. Know what? They were right. Couldn't keep up with the water changing to keep the amonia down. My first QT experiment was a complete flop.

Expensive fluval Edge now sitting on a shelf in the garage and cheap 10 gallon tank now starring as QT. Sheesh. Anyone want a fluval edge with the top removed? Free to good home.
 
10 gallon tank..... too small and hard to keep parameters steady. Even for QT I have not had luck with it. A 20L is the smallest I would use for anything now.
Grounding probe is the stupidest (and most dangerous) thing I ever bought. Want to electrocute everything in your tank or possibly kill yourself? Waste your money on this!!
As far as livestock: Blue Spotted Jawfish. Paid $75.00 for it and constantly found the smallest holes to jump out of no matter what I did. Didn't get to him quick enough the last time..... felt real bad about it for a long time and think this one is better off left in the ocean.
Corals: Chili coral, Palm coral and a few more. Got these when I started 13 years ago. Chili coral needs feeding and Palm Coral is actually a tunicate! What the LFS will sell you and give wrong advice on should be a crime.
 
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