Confessions of a Bad Aquarist

[Ken Burke]

21 minutes ago, Daniel said:

In my Dirted tank project this afternoon, I calmly and deliberately added 1 angelfish to each tank, you know, the take it slow approach. Don't add too many fish, let the tank acclimate to the fish. My plan is to add another angelfish in a day or two if all goes well.

Holy smokes, the first fish look fine, wouldn't hurt to add a second one to each tank. No, wait. Be patient. Slow and steady wins the race.

I am the little boy in the marshmallow project. As soon as the researcher leaves the room, I eat the marshmallow.

I just added a second angelfish to each tank....

 

That’s me too!

[Ben Ellison]

I use to keep a common pleco in a 30 gallon tank...... With a Oscar and rainbow shark. I cringe thinking back on my 16 year old fish keeping self....

[Streetwise]

I am ready to make my confession. When I came back to the hobby, I researched for months before jumping in with an organic soil tank. I was trying to integrate all of the information I was absorbing.

I knew the 1.5" max soil recommendation from Diana Walstad. I was also reading about people turbocharging things with CO2, etc. I thought, why not turbocharge the soil and go for like 2.5-3.0", and then cap it even more?

I had a roller coaster figuring things out, with plants that were all new to me. I got things somewhat okay, and then DW came to the forum I was on, and I got to ask her opinion of my tank photos.

She was very polite, and explained why my plants were not doing as well as they could be.

The next day, I took on the messy job of thinning out my substrate and cap to more reasonable depths.

This is why I try to describe my tanks as organic soil tanks, because my mistakes are on me.

However, every mistake I made has been invaluable.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Streetwise

[Daniel]

Yes, @quirkylemon103  I confess...I am using the Felix on the 1930's aquarium...oh the shame.

[Lemon]

10 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Yes, @quirkylemon103  I confess...I am using the Felix on the 1930's aquarium...oh the shame.

oh 😞

[Kirsten]

I was a bad first fish tank owner and believed the API bottle that said "allows for instant addition of fish!" Turns out...it was fine actually! I kept an eye on my levels, added new plants when the old ones got decimated by brown algae, and got on the weekly 25% changes until I felt things were leveling out. The only things that died were the ghost shrimp (no surprise there) and my first betta who succumbed to a very traumatic filter intake from this bonkers-strong water pump that came with my aquaponic kit. A square piece of sponge is now superglued to the intake and everyone's happy 🙂

[H.K.Luterman]

Guilty of both, though I've been better about quarantine in recent years. When I got back into the hobby I did a fish-in cycle, with daily water changes and lots of plants. Now I just use seeded sponges, but still put fish in within a few days of setting up (never have any problems though). 

[lefty o]

glad to see im not alone. ive never "cycled" an aquarium in my life, and ive set up many for myself , and friends/family. also guilty of not quarantining, though after a few decades, this one finally bit me in the rear recently. in 25+ years, this is the only major kill off ive ever had, so life goes on. 

[Daniel]

I confess that I am considering setting up an aquarium and intentionally trying to grow green hair algae, black beard algae, staghorn algae and cyanobacteria all in the same aquarium. And maybe just throw in some hydra, seed shrimp and planaria for good measure.

I can just see the next poster with staghorn algae problems being annoyed when I start pestering them for their water parameters and their secret of success! I mustn't do that. I must be kind and helpful at all times.🙂

[Alesha]

12 hours ago, Daniel said:

I confess that I am considering setting up an aquarium and intentionally trying to grow green hair algae, black beard algae, staghorn algae and cyanobacteria all in the same aquarium. And maybe just throw in some hydra, seed shrimp and planaria for good measure.

I can just see the next poster with staghorn algae problems being annoyed when I start pestering them for their water parameters and their secret of success! I mustn't do that. I must be kind and helpful at all times.🙂

When you're ready for the "how to", just let me know. I can predict with nearly perfect accuracy where the BBA will appear in my tank! I'm willing to let you in on all my beard-y secrets. 😂😂😂

Edited November 30, 2020 by Alesha

[Daniel]

I give up. I confess that despite setting reminders on my Alexa, despite remaining in the room with any siphoning water, I am a total failure at preventing severe overflows and spills of water.

Therefore instead of prevention, from now on it is all about remediation.

Starting today, instead of putting laundry away, I have begun to steal towels and hide them in strategic locations around the fish room. No more will I yell, 'Towel! Towel, someone get me a towel!'

From now on I will just calmly break out my stash and begin the mop up.

[Maggie]

37 minutes ago, Daniel said:

I give up. I confess that despite setting reminders on my Alexa, despite remaining in the room with any siphoning water, I am a total failure at preventing severe overflows and spills of water.

Therefore instead of prevention, from now on it is all about remediation.

Starting today, instead of putting laundry away, I have begun to steal towels and hide them in strategic locations around the fish room. No more will I yell, 'Towel! Towel, someone get me a towel!'

From now on I will just calmly break out my stash and begin the mop up.

I don't have many towels, and they go through stages. First they are people towels, then dog towels, then floor towels, then project/car towels. It was always a symbiotic relationshop, never needed a whole lot of any of them and one towel lasts almost forever! But now that I also need fish towels, I had to go and buy these. Also have a Coop towel on the wish list!

[Brandy]

6 hours ago, Daniel said:

I give up. I confess that despite setting reminders on my Alexa, despite remaining in the room with any siphoning water, I am a total failure at preventing severe overflows and spills of water.

Therefore instead of prevention, from now on it is all about remediation.

Starting today, instead of putting laundry away, I have begun to steal towels and hide them in strategic locations around the fish room. No more will I yell, 'Towel! Towel, someone get me a towel!'

From now on I will just calmly break out my stash and begin the mop up.

 

I have dedicated fish towels. They are red. The white towels are for people. I keep one hooked by my water change bucket at all times, but it doesn't keep me from abandoning it somewhere and running thru the apartment looking for a new or additional one.

[JettsPapa]

I have quite a list of "No-no's".

1. I have also never done a "fishless cycle".  When I set up my first tank I didn't know anything about the cycle, so of course I added fish immediately.  Since then I've always seeded new tanks with media from old ones and also added fish immediately.
2. I haven't tested my water in months.  I do weekly water changes of around 30% in the fish tanks and about half that in the shrimp tanks, so my thought process (such as it is) is that I'm going to change water anyway, so why waste time testing the water first?
3. I only quarantine fish going into my 65 gallon tank.  I cringe when I think about what it would cost to replace those fish.  The angelfish is the only one that cost more than $10.00, but the Lake Kutubu rainbowfish didn't cost much less than that.  It adds up.
4. The 65 is also the only tank with a lid.  I also got tired of scraping mineral deposits.
5. By some people's standards I wildly overstock.  "one inch per gallon" rule?  I'm closer to "one fish per gallon" on a couple tanks, but it's working well.  Being heavily planted helps.  I also started out with just a few fish in each, and added more gradually to get to the present levels.
6. I tried to temperature match when doing water changes when I first started, then talked to my daughter-in-law, who started keeping fish shortly before I did.  She refills hers with a hose from outside.  I started doing that too on the larger tanks a few months ago, and it sure beats lifting buckets of water up shoulder high to pour into the 65.  I'll revisit this when the weather gets colder, but I suspect I'll keep doing it.
7. I have one set of tools that get used interchangeably between tanks.
8. I know a lot of people who are smarter than I am (which is most of the world population) say Seachem Excel does nothing for plant health, and only kills algae, but after using it to treat staghorn algae in my 40 gallon tank some months ago my plants definitely looked better.  I started using it in all my tanks, and the plants look great.  I now use it 5 days a week (they get Easy Green the other two days).

[FrozenFins]

I don't test my water before waterchanges, I do waterchanges when I feel like it. its usaully on Waterchange Wednesday or Thursday.

[Marnol D]

@James Black dont worry i test mine and realize i cant read the nitrates master kit test correctly because i dont see shades of red well  (but i still test it to see if its less than 10 because i can read that color) so i do waters changes either on Wednesdays Fridays or saturday... sometimes sundays or if im bored. Now in my shrimp/peapuffer/snail tank i dont know what a water change is because i can read that nitrate reading which stays low i jsut remineralize the water every so often and top off. 

[FrozenFins]

2 minutes ago, Marnol D said:

@James Black dont worry i test mine and realize i cant read the nitrates master kit test correctly because i dont see shades of red well  (but i still test it to see if its less than 10 because i can read that color) so i do waters changes either on Wednesdays Fridays or saturday... sometimes sundays or if im bored. Now in my shrimp/peapuffer/snail tank i dont know what a water change is because i can read that nitrate reading which stays low i jsut remineralize the water every so often and top off. 

I only test my water when it looks like my fish are stressed or something like

[FrozenFins]

On 12/5/2020 at 10:38 AM, JettsPapa said:

I have quite a list of "No-no's".

1. I have also never done a "fishless cycle".  When I set up my first tank I didn't know anything about the cycle, so of course I added fish immediately.  Since then I've always seeded new tanks with media from old ones and also added fish immediately.
2. I haven't tested my water in months.  I do weekly water changes of around 30% in the fish tanks and about half that in the shrimp tanks, so my thought process (such as it is) is that I'm going to change water anyway, so why waste time testing the water first?
3. I only quarantine fish going into my 65 gallon tank.  I cringe when I think about what it would cost to replace those fish.  The angelfish is the only one that cost more than $10.00, but the Lake Kutubu rainbowfish didn't cost much less than that.  It adds up.
4. The 65 is also the only tank with a lid.  I also got tired of scraping mineral deposits.
5. By some people's standards I wildly overstock.  "one inch per gallon" rule?  I'm closer to "one fish per gallon" on a couple tanks, but it's working well.  Being heavily planted helps.  I also started out with just a few fish in each, and added more gradually to get to the present levels.
6. I tried to temperature match when doing water changes when I first started, then talked to my daughter-in-law, who started keeping fish shortly before I did.  She refills hers with a hose from outside.  I started doing that too on the larger tanks a few months ago, and it sure beats lifting buckets of water up shoulder high to pour into the 65.  I'll revisit this when the weather gets colder, but I suspect I'll keep doing it.
7. I have one set of tools that get used interchangeably between tanks.
8. I know a lot of people who are smarter than I am (which is most of the world population) say Seachem Excel does nothing for plant health, and only kills algae, but after using it to treat staghorn algae in my 40 gallon tank some months ago my plants definitely looked better.  I started using it in all my tanks, and the plants look great.  I now use it 5 days a week (they get Easy Green the other two days).

most of my tanks are "overstocked" but I like to keep foating plants to keep the nitrites and stuff low. I just do waterchanges regularly like once a week, so I don't usaully test my water unless something is up with my fish. 

[Marnol D]

@James Black thats how i mostly tell if something is seriously wrong with my tank. I judge off the activity of my guppies and the color of my rainbow shark. Sometimes i look at the ghost shrimp to see if they are agitated. Really if my fish arent agitated i dont see the point in doing anything. Like my water changes are usually just to gravel vacuum the open areas without plants. 

[Lemon]

a couple of thing that could potentially be bad

don't really test unless i'm having issues.

i trust my lfs not sure if that is necessarily bad. anyone in nwa probably knows which store i trust.

i use the same equipment for fresh and salt they just get a quick rinse when switching between

i don't ever gravel vac i haven't ever in the 2 yrs i've been keeping aquariums

[Oriole Lyric]

I prefer salt treatments over meds.

I don't salt dip my betta, I just dose the tank for a week.

One of my bettas is in a 2.5gal, because any bigger and he stops swimming and eating. I think it partially blind.

According to the betta group I'm in, I "promote bad betta keeping habits" when I help others who have bad setups, by suggesting gradual upgrades or diys especially to people who are younger than I am, and trying hard, and cannot drive yet or get paid for chores and not say they have to have all the right equipment now.

[Marnol D]

@Oriole Lyric sounds to me like youre doing it right... sometimes the fish knows what it wants and if it wants a small space well theres nothing wrong with that. Also salt in my opinion works wonders and is the only "medication" I have.

[Ken Burke]

7 hours ago, Oriole Lyric said:

I prefer salt treatments over meds.

I don't salt dip my betta, I just dose the tank for a week.

One of my bettas is in a 2.5gal, because any bigger and he stops swimming and eating. I think it partially blind.

According to the betta group I'm in, I "promote bad betta keeping habits" when I help others who have bad setups, by suggesting gradual upgrades or diys especially to people who are younger than I am, and trying hard, and cannot drive yet or get paid for chores and not say they have to have all the right equipment now.

Love that u recommend gradual changes.  Sounds like ur betta group has some pretty strong opinions, and some have trouble distinguishing between fact and opinion.  

[Oriole Lyric]

On 12/12/2020 at 10:26 PM, Ken Burke said:

Love that u recommend gradual changes.  Sounds like ur betta group has some pretty strong opinions, and some have trouble distinguishing between fact and opinion.  

They love their gold standard and anyone not following the exact equipment list is not a good owner. Some even call the younger members animal abusers before they even get a fish just because their air pump is for a smaller tank. Like I agree on getting the basics the best you can, before the fish, but if you already got it, and it's more expensive than you thought,  take the time and effort to make the changes, maybe you will have everything in 1 week or 1 month. Don't have a fancy hob or sump ? Make a sponge filter or box filter. Lots of times parents get fish without knowing what they need, and the group puts alot of the blame on the kid rather than their parents. What are kids gonna do? Walk 6 miles to the pet store with money they don't have? Knock door to door asking if anyone is willing to take their fish? People in the group are so weird.

[Axle86]

Probably the worst thing I ever done was try to do a marine aquarium in a 10 gallon tank. Not saying it can't be done but at the time I had no idea what I was doing and as anyone could imagine it didn't end well. I simply had no understanding about things like the nitrogen cycle and that ammonia was a thing. I have definitely learned a lot since I was a kid and getting back into the hobby. Looking back it is amazing how many myths and bad information there is out there. For instance like someone else mentioned, I would change out all of the water, rinse the gravel and so forth...it does make me cringe thinking about how bad that was.