Top 10 Beginners Mistakes - (How Many Have you Done)?
- Nov 04, 2023
- Anshika Mishra
- 223 0 0
Impulse Buying
You see a nice, beautiful tank setup, and you think to yourself, 'I can do that easily.' You do that without any research, with no clue of how to keep a fish tank, and no idea of what to do.
It is pretty standard. Some of the fish keepers enter the hobby with impulse buying. You may even want to buy fish then and there, which leads to the second beginner mistake.
Putting Fish into an Uncycled Tank
Many beginners don't understand that water needs to be a certain way for our fish to survive in our tank. If you don't already know, your tank needs to be cycled to sustain life. Buying that fish with absolutely no other information at all is not the right thing to do.
Even though there are ways to get the fish into the tank right, you must know what you are doing first. When setting up a brand new tank, you'll have to use Prime and Atability.
Fish Research
Many of you probably did the fish research after buying them. Sometimes, you learn that this fish you have cannot be kept with the other fish you have. Either you know that too late, or some fatalities happen, or you learn it in time, and you return the fish to the store in time.
We highly recommend that any fish that you would like to keep in your tank do some research on it before the purchase. It will save you time and money and may even save that fish's life.
Water Conditioner
Many forget to get a water conditioner or other type of chemical that you may need. To many of us, we understand that sometimes certain chemicals are necessary to keep these fish healthy and happy.
A water conditioner is essential in removing chlorine from your tap water and detoxifying Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite, especially in the early stages of your brand-new tank.
Other than that, you may also need buffers and salts depending on the type of fish you need. You may require hard water or software. You may also need chemical media.
Crap HOB Filters
Filters with cartridges that must be removed and discarded are a terrible way to start your tank. Hopefully, you understand what beneficial bacteria do to your tank by now. But, your beneficial bacteria is mainly growing on the cartridges in the early stages of the tank.
So, when the cartridges get clogged, the manufacturers recommend that you remove and replace them; you are also removing all the beneficial bacteria that have grown on them. That means you have to start from scratch again.
Yes, there will be other places in your tank where beneficial bacteria are living, but most of them will be on that cartridges. The moral of the story is don't get filters with removable cartridges. Opt for filters that have the space for bio media to remain in for years at the end.
Panic Water Changes
Many get panicked when their tanks get cloudy and start doing multiple water changes. We have all been there.
Is it normal for your new tank to start looking crystal clear with the -freshwater? A few days later, you begin to get a bacterial bloom, and the water starts looking milky, cloudy, and fuzzy. Do not panic over it with multiple water changes.
All you are doing here is resetting the bacterial bloom and delaying the process.
Panic Testing
Testing water parameters is essential, but you don't need to do it daily. It can drive you crazy testing that often.
Once your tank is cycled, you don't need to go crazy testing it constantly. Once or twice a week is more than enough. You'll soon get to the point where you get so comfortable with your tank that you won't even need to test.
Tank Regret
We all have the fear of maintaining the bigger tank, but very quickly, after getting the smaller one, we wish that we would have gotten the bigger size. We also realize that having a bigger tank is easier to maintain than the smaller one. In the smaller volume of water, it is much more common for parameters to fluctuate up and down; in the more significant book, it won't fluctuate as much.
More water changes mean more dilution. So, get the most prominent tank in your budget.
Conflicting Water Overload
There is too much information, often conflicting, on the internet about the hobby. The best way to deal with it is to find the creator, website, and articles you enjoy receiving information from. If that source of information looks credible to you, follow that source.
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