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Just realized I used to dump all my fish meds in at once like it was nothing
Back when I first started my saltwater tank about two years ago, I had a problem with ich and I just poured in a whole bottle of copper treatment without even reading the directions. My clownfish looked like they were swimming in a chemical bath and I nearly crashed the whole setup. Last week I had a similar issue with a cyanobacteria bloom and I finally did it the right way, dosing a specific amount of Microbacter7 over three days instead of going crazy. My water params stayed stable and the corals didn't even flinch this time. My old method came from panic watching YouTube videos at 2am, now I actually take notes from a local fish store guy in Tampa who's been at it for 15 years. What's the dumbest thing you did early on that you'd never repeat?
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miles541mo ago
Poured in a whole bottle of copper treatment" is definitely something I've seen people do on forums before. My question is, how bad did it really get in the end? I mean, fish are pretty resilient if you catch things early. I remember when I started freshwater about ten years ago I overdosed on aquarium salt for some guppies with fin rot. They were a little sluggish for a day but bounced right back. I get that ich is more serious, but sometimes people act like one mistake means your whole tank is doomed. Most of the time the fish just deal with it and you learn to be more careful next time.
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dylanward1mo ago
A buddy of mine did this with his first saltwater tank. Dumped in a full bottle of cupramine trying to cure velvet on a clownfish. Within two hours his cleaner shrimp was doing backflips and his little goby was breathing super fast. He panicked and did a 50% water change but it was too late for the shrimp. Lost both shrimp and the clownfish ended up with permanent fin damage. He still talks about it four years later. Fish can be tough but invertebrates are basically made of paper mache.
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idk but it's funny how that panic mode translates to other stuff too. I do the same thing with cooking, like I'll dump in a whole jar of garlic because one youtube chef said "more is better" then wonder why my pasta tastes like a vampire killing field. It's like our brains have a default setting that says if a little is good then a lot must be amazing, which is pretty much never true for anything except maybe sleep.
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