Gator0930
Active Member
Oh man. That is a good train of thought, but it make since to why it doesn't work. The biggest crap part is that you had a brand new heater
Biggest Disaster
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Gator0930
Active Member
I
just saw a massive one of these in the store. I did not know they were so aggressive
Cyano was my undoing. Took over my tank completely for about 2 or 3 months. Coming back immediately (2-3hrs) after a manual removal and vac of it all. It killed a handful of my corals. To my pleasure and frustration I made my light schedule ONE HOUR shorter and it disappeared in a day... urgh.
fish farmer
2500 Club Member
I have a couple...but the biggest "idiot, gosh!" was a cracked tank.
My current setup is a small reef in a wall. It started as a 25 gallon where I DIY a side overflow. It had an external threaded gray PVC hose fitting. There was very little room between it and the side wood. It happened to be a very noisy overflow and didn't have an airlock release on the top. So I was attempting to unthread it from the tank to modify it. It touched the wall adding pressure to the side 0f the tank and sent a crack all the way to the bottom of the side. Water started to pour out. I got a bucket and duct tape, sealed the crack as best I could and started bailing. Luckily I had a middle tank in the arrangement, 20 gallon full of extra rock and sand so I just filled it up with my coral stock.
The current tank is a 29 gallon with a glassholes overflow kit in the same space, but I had to remove some framing wood in order to make it fit better.
Moral of the story, research, research, and research some more. I had been away from the hobby boards for awhile so I didn't know they were making slick drill your own overflows.
My current setup is a small reef in a wall. It started as a 25 gallon where I DIY a side overflow. It had an external threaded gray PVC hose fitting. There was very little room between it and the side wood. It happened to be a very noisy overflow and didn't have an airlock release on the top. So I was attempting to unthread it from the tank to modify it. It touched the wall adding pressure to the side 0f the tank and sent a crack all the way to the bottom of the side. Water started to pour out. I got a bucket and duct tape, sealed the crack as best I could and started bailing. Luckily I had a middle tank in the arrangement, 20 gallon full of extra rock and sand so I just filled it up with my coral stock.
The current tank is a 29 gallon with a glassholes overflow kit in the same space, but I had to remove some framing wood in order to make it fit better.
Moral of the story, research, research, and research some more. I had been away from the hobby boards for awhile so I didn't know they were making slick drill your own overflows.
DracoKat
2500 Club Member
Not properly covering the corner overflow. A wrasse jumped and got himself stuck in the pipes at the ball-valve. Came home with my tank overflowing with water since the wrasse blocked the pipes. (it didn't survive either 
) it was such a mess!
) it was such a mess!Gator0930
Active Member
I made this mistake in my fresh water tank years back. I added a tiny catfish to my tank. It are everything in a few days
Gator0930
Active Member
Knowledge is definitely key. I am huge about research, but we all make impulse buys and/or decisions that we think are right. Cracked tanks seem to be more common then I thought
Gator0930
Active Member
That is insane. I love my wrasse. I have a cove over mine. I haven't had any try to jump YET, but I'm glad I had some research that told me to cover everythingNot properly covering the corner overflow. A wrasse jumped and got himself stuck in the pipes at the ball-valve. Came home with my tank overflowing with water since the wrasse blocked the pipes. (it didn't survive either
cracker
5000 Club Member
I lost a real nice Wrasse by jumping. Took the cover off, walked out of the room for a siphon hose . Straight down to the hard tile. Put it back in the tank immediately . Had a bad scrap on it's flank. Lasted 2 weeks & gone. The cover was off for 45 seconds maybe. Please Folks cover Your tanks !
DracoKat
2500 Club Member
My tank is covered, but he managed to get through the screen and into the overflow. Now that is properly secured where no fish can get between!
Gator0930
Active Member
That is crazy. Now I'm worried about mine lol
Gator0930
Active Member
I keep mine covered unless i am putting a new inhabitant in. Even during a water change i just move it over enough to put the siphon in
how on earth did that even happen? To be honest this makes me re-think the new rimless tank I'm setting up now. Note to self - don't move it an inch!
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
Ha! It was a cheap MDF cabinet not made for aquariums. Nonetheless it held various small aquariums over the years and was moved before. This move just was one to many. FYI, the AquaMaxx Rimless aquarium is still going strong. They are beautiful tanks and I highly recommend them.
EDIT: And to be clear, the cabinet collapsed, the tank was fine.
So I had a security company come in to install a new system. They installed the control box in the room next to where the tank was and needed an outlet to plug into. The switch the tank was plugged into was a switched outlet. Top was on the switch and bottom was dedicated. I moved from NYC->SF and had a 180g in NYC. So I took 30 or so of my expensive corals and took multiple large frags off them to move cross country. I sold the rest of my livestock and large tank. Downsized to a 60g cube and the frags begin to grow out into larger colonies.
So security company comes in and needs the control unit on the bottom outlet. So he unplugs the tank and moves it to the top. He never told me what he did. So fast forward to the night and my wife turns off the switch in the room to turn off the lights. I get up early the next day for a soccer game. Get home have lunch. The lights come on around lunch time. My kids come yelling saying something is wrong with the tank. The temp was around 65 and most of the fish have died. All my colonies are dead. Prices were around $10k for it all if I sold them. Two or three days of arguing insue with the security company. They wanted to only pay $2k in damages. Finally settle for $8k but killed the hobby for me for a good 5-6 years till I'm starting up just now.
I had some of those corals for 10 years before the mass die off.
So security company comes in and needs the control unit on the bottom outlet. So he unplugs the tank and moves it to the top. He never told me what he did. So fast forward to the night and my wife turns off the switch in the room to turn off the lights. I get up early the next day for a soccer game. Get home have lunch. The lights come on around lunch time. My kids come yelling saying something is wrong with the tank. The temp was around 65 and most of the fish have died. All my colonies are dead. Prices were around $10k for it all if I sold them. Two or three days of arguing insue with the security company. They wanted to only pay $2k in damages. Finally settle for $8k but killed the hobby for me for a good 5-6 years till I'm starting up just now.
I had some of those corals for 10 years before the mass die off.
Ah, thought you meant the tank collapsed. Ok Phew, that makes more sense.
