Best lesson learned in 2010

[Dadof4]

Just thought I'd see how many pf us have gained wisdom in 2010. I for one have....Do not clean your skimmer in the bathroom after the wife says "no" and then leave some nasty evidence behind.

[RTR]

LOL! I learned that one 30 years ago - maybe longer.

The advantage of age: you have hopefully learned what you will and will not do routinely, and deign your setups accordingly.

With luck you will have accumulated enough in that time so that you design and have what you are sure you can and will maintain.

You know your partner. You can avoid the obvious perils. My wife cannot tell whether or not the water chemistry is off, but she can spot a dirty front glass from 30 feet away. Things that fret me are invisible. I must attend the things which bug her first. I do that.

DO NOT multi-task when one of the tasks is pumping water from here to there. Carry the on/off switrch in your working hand and do not, repeat do not, put it down with it in the on position.

HTH

[Pufferpunk]

Always check to see if the intake cover is back on my filters!!! Lost too many fish this year to this stupidity!

[xrayjeeper83]

Dont get into fish keeping HAHAHA


Do your research on what can go with what. Just lost a batch of marbled crays and lost 30 bucks of cherry red shrimp in less then 48 hours all to the same betta

[Pufferpunk]

Damn betta!

[JRC3]

I picked up a third DP and had her in QT. A week or so later Petsmart had Cardinal tetras on sale for $1, for 2 days only so I picked up six to add to my 15g planted tank that also housed my betta. Well because the DP was in my QT I went ahead and added the cardinals directly to the planted/betta tank figuring if there was a problem the loss would be minimal, but I truly expected no problems. The very next morning the betta and 2 cardinals had columnaris and died within hours. 2 more of the cardinals later died.

I know the importance of QT but never saw it first hand. I really liked my betta, he was a riot.

[purplecandle]

I have had fish before, but 2010 was the year that I really got into and became addicted to puffers.

Two lessons I learned

1. Prepare for the spring thaw
2. Ramshorn snails poop a lot, I can never vacuum enough.

[jmiller]

Ramshorn snails poop a lot, I can never vacuum enough.

I'm doing 75% water changes every third day, most of the time every other day. That tank takes the majority of my time to care for.

[LilGreenPuffer]

The first thing that comes to mind: Go ahead and spend the extra dough - get good equipment! I bought a cheap heater and I finally lost patience trying to keep the temperature from nose-diving and skyrocketing ten degrees at a time; I'm waiting for a new Jager to come in the mail.

[RTR]

Strong +1 to LGP's comments on quality equipment. I freely admit that I spoiled myself on that many years ago and I have never regretted it. Reliability is everything to me on equipment now and has been for a long time.

[Pufferpunk]

I had a brand new Ebo-Jager that cooked a tank full of fish.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I guess there's a bad apple in every barrel. I figure there's just more bad ones in cheap barrels.

[~reefchik~]

"Dilution is the solution to pollution".

I always thought that a really well-cycled, over-filtered tank would be a breeze to maintain with rare water changes. I learned better this year.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Overfiltration doesn't get rid of waste - it just puts it all where you can't see it.

[RTR]

Strong +1 to LGP's comments.

Water changes and filtration are complementary techniques. For most tank handling, they cannot substitute for one another.

library/water-filtration/waterfiltration/