Lessons Learned Board?

[baj]

Originally Posted by Momotaro

AHHH! That would explain the tiny little passport!

Mike

..... and the "flying ducky" speedos.

[TheSmJ]

Not sure if this has already been stated but: Don't pack your tank with a bunch of fast growing plants all at once! Instead, plant sparingly and let them fill out on their own. Use any trimmings you take to thicken any areas left.

You'll save both time planting AND money that way. Not to mention the end result will be much nicer!

[Rex Grigg]

Originally Posted by TheSmJ

Not sure if this has already been stated but: Don't pack your tank with a bunch of fast growing plants all at once! Instead, plant sparingly and let them fill out on their own. Use any trimmings you take to thicken any areas left.

You'll save both time planting AND money that way. Not to mention the end result will be much nicer!

Unless of course you are doing a silent cycle on the tank. Then you do want to stuff it full of fast growers.

[kzr750r1]

Originally Posted by observant_imp

If you're suprised when a test reads 0, redo the test before dosing. For me, this is particularly true of nitrate--I never seem to shake the dang bottle long enough.

I have been blindly following my AP Nitrate kit doing the same thing. After purchasing a new kit I noticed the directions stating to shake the #2 bottle for 30 sec. DOH! I could kick myself.

Interestng part is the tank is not choked down with algae. Swords are blooming like mad but have had irregular leaves lately. I wont be adding any Nitrate for a while.

I was under the impression my tank was consuming around 3 to 5 ppm a day. Wrong...Back to square one. Balance is the goal.

[Canoe2Can]

Lesson learned: Unless you're sure you want it there permanently, never put duckweed in a tank.

A few months back I set up a 50 gallon tank for a solitary red-bellied pirahna. Wanting it to look somewhat natural, I put in some driftwood, floating water sprite, and duckweed. As I discovered, duckweed grows like mad. It soon covered the entire top of the tank and was choking out the water sprite. Every week I would remove some to keep it in check, but that got old. And as it would eventually die, the dead bits would clog up my filter. Worse yet, it always seemed to manage a way to transfer to my 45 gallon planted tank. Finally, I got fed up with it. I pulled out whatever water sprite had not succumbed to it and tried to wash the duckweed off. Then I spent about an hour trying to skim all the rest of it off the top of the tank. Never quite got all of it. Now every time I change water, I spend another five minutes or so trying to finish off the survivors, but I can never get it all. Good news is, it's at least in check and the water sprite is recovering nicely.

[ayrsayle]

Any time there is ANY risk of disease in ANY of your tanks, be sure to sterilize anything changing tanks. or better yet... don't change them (laughs)

I changed a filter from my feeder fish tank, to my 10 gallon betta tank.... and both tanks came down with dropsy. It is my strong suspicion that the goldfish were the cause....

[lumpyfunk]

If you tell someone how happy you are with how long your most expensive fish in your tank have lived and how well they are doing. . .they will die within the week.

Also if you have cats who like watching your fish. . . be aware of other things that may catch their fancy, in my case it was my c02 line they decided to play with and caused a ph swing

[sawallace]

Most recent lessons:

SAE's jump out of tanks

Cannister filters make things easier in co2 injected tanks

When doing a WC, put the end of the hose in a bucket to guard against fish loss

Slow and steady is usually the best method

#1 mega, super, fantastic, best lesson..... PATIENTCE!

[TINNGG]

Hi - new member here.

Thought I'd add my lessons...

1) If there are small children in the house, keep the test kits and drugs locked up.

2) Don't let *anybody* feed your fish without asking

3) Don't mix male and female jewelfish

4) Putting interesting and attractive ornaments in an aquarium will invite little fingers to play with them

5) A guppy is not a sheep, and a net is not a sheepdog - leave the fish in peace (I was 12 at the time)

6) Don't get distracted while filling the tank (at least the carpet doesn't seem to smell funny)

A useful lesson though - provided you can keep small fingers from messing with them, Legos and Megabloks do appear to be aquarium safe (and the megablok man o' war ship from the dragons series looks really cool)

[glass-gardens.com]

Originally Posted by TINNGG

A useful lesson though - provided you can keep small fingers from messing with them, Legos and Megabloks do appear to be aquarium safe (and the megablok man o' war ship from the dragons series looks really cool)

And of course natural looking ......

[TINNGG]

Originally Posted by glass-gardens.com

And of course natural looking ......

To be sure, the brilliant red, blue, and yellow lego ship is *not* natural looking. Then again, it *is* a q/t tank so that wasn't a high priority. (actually, I just wanted to see if it was safe.)

[awdturbo04]

Dont buy used fish tanks. Baught a 55 from someone living in a trailer for 100 bucks. Came with stand light filters buckets everything. Put it on the third floor of the house. Week and a half later brother comes running down stairs saying your tank broke. Aperentaly the seal in the bottom busted. That was fun to catch with bucktes and syfon out really fast. funny thing was week later left for california for 2 weeks

[glass-gardens.com]

Not considering used aquariums is an excellent way to either limit the growth of your hobby or substantially increase the cost. I have two tanks I purchased new, the rest are all used. I do try to purchase used tanks that are filled at time of purchase, but if the glass is in good shape, I'm not going to turn it down.

But I don't take them home and set them up immediately either, I fill them in my shop and let them set for a week to check for leaks, any I find (rarely) are easily repaired, I just cut the old silicone away and redo the seams, never had a problem after a thorough test or reseal and I end getting a heck of a lot more bang for my buck. The only tank I ever had spring a serious leak after it was set up was a new tank. And I treat new tanks the same way I treat used ones so...

[Bluzz_sky]

Dont buy cheap gravel thinking you save money coz you ended up spending more buying substrate suplement!!

[motifone]

Don't leave your tank unattended when refilling with a Python. There's nothing like leaving the room, getting distracted, and then snapping alert to the sound of water bleeding over the top of your tank like an infinity pool and flooding the ground.