Stupid accidents that you have made...

[Peach02]

I don't know why people seem so bent on suggesting things when they are not certain about them. It is well known that CP will crush anthias in short order. The hippo tang is hit or miss but mostly advise avoiding treating them with CP. There is another fish that they say to avoid. It is listed in the humblefish thread on CP.

Have a good forth everyone!

Your talking about copper powder right?

 

[Zatar1974]

I figured this might be a good way for people to learn from OTHER peoples mistakes. Everyone makes them, and aquariums seem like a running muprhy's law example. So without further ado.. here is a list of totally stupid things I did that resulted in fish death/tank woes.

1. I had a beautiful achilies in QT with copper. Ammonia was creeping up, I didn't want to heat water for a water change..SO.. I added a cap ful of prime. Prime + copper equals toxic copper... fish dead next morning.

2. Had a friend over picking out some frags.. "man, that closed loop intake screen is filthy". .. yeah, I have been meaning to clean that ..I pull it off and throw in vinegar. Need to remember to shut the loop pump off. ... 4 hours later. bzzzzzz... what's that noise? Blue throat trigger and red tailed tamarin wrasse died in the CL inlet pipe.

3. Bought 15 anthias put in QT. didn't start copper yet. Added molly's from petco to the tank. One anthias dead...two...three. what the heck? 50% water change, added some antibiotics. three dead the next morning. "It has to be poor water quality in the small QT" Panic and threw them in my DT. four days later.. massive velvet and Euronema break out.

4. And lastly... on the wifes tank. "I think my wrasse jumped out and the cats ate him" "probably". The tank is noisy. Man, that tank is noisy. A week of listening to it. Then about 1:30AM I think... OMG.. that fish is probably stuck in the siphon tube!!! Opened it up full boar..out he plopped (he limped along for like 4 days then died). I felt absolutely horrible. I am quite certain then when I die, I am going to wake up in a closed tube full of rushing water.


Anyone else care to share? Come on now... fess up!

 

[sp1187]

Getting a reef lobster and putting him in a tank with a lionfish and angler. Both fish are now dead and I had to give the lobster my frag tank.

I put a lobster, my roommate named it Larry, into my moray tank.
week later I get home from work, the roommate sez, "Larry's just a shell of his former self".
Larry parts all over the sand bed and one content moray.

 

[Zatar1974]

So this just happened today!!! I have a Red Sea S-650 that has been set up for a month with water, sand, and rock--no animals or coral in it. It is in the curing stage. Yesterday before departing home at 1100 for a week's vacation, I shut off the skimmer, but I left the overflow hose in a 2-quart container outside of the sump. A friend stopped by today at 1000 to pick up something for me and noticed a very loud noise from the aquarium, and then as she approached, noticed the rug around the aquarium as all wet. She called me and we went through a variety of options but noted that the 2-quart container outside of sump was overflowing with water. So, I had her shut off all the electrical equipment (pumps, heater, UV lamp, skimmer, etc.), and put the skimmer overflow line into the sump. That stopped any further leakage. But the rug is trashed and the SERVPRO folks tell me I need to tear down the tank to replace the rug...UGH... anyone else heard of siphoning out of skimmer before?

 

[Spydersweb]

I was performing a tank transfer with my little Valentini puffer and a few other fish. I bought a second Penguin 200 as a filter, but it was missing a piece on the intake, so I couldn't attach the intake strainer. It didn't even occur to me, but the puffer was small enough to fit in the intake...Needless to say, the next morning, I noticed that the filter was stuck, and the puffer was missing. I take apart the intake...My poor little puffer paid the price. I was heartbroken.

 

[Matt1997]

I fall within the RO category

 

[Perthegallon]

hit the apex on button on the dos instead of the audo

 

[fish farmer]

What seems like a lifetime ago.. I was a commercial marijuana grower (a legal one BTW). I had a 15,000 watt grow in my unfinished basement and a 300 gallon reservoir of nutrients. I had plumbed a one inch line from my house water supply to fill it. I don't really partake in MJ anymore but on this day I decided hey, I should smoke some of this. You know where this is going...

So I take a couple hits and start filling the reservoir. Then I go upstairs. "Hey, I'm hungry". I know!!! I am going to ride my bike up the street and get a gyro. I pedal down the street, its sunny, I'm high. "Hey, this being high thing is kind of fun..I should do this more often". I sit down and order my food, I'm looking out the window, having a good ol time.

My food comes and the waitress says "Would you like a glass of water?".....

WATER!!! OH MY GOD THE WATER!! "i need this to go, I need this to go!!".

Race home, I opened the front door and could hear the water flowing in the basement. I bolted down there and there was about 2" of water in the ENTIRE BASEMENT. Floating power strips, the whole deal. I had to put my finger in the water before wading into it to make sure I wasn't going to die.

That was the last time I have ever gotten high.

NEVER EVER do stuff when you are high or drunk...

1. I lost a nice Orvis flyrod and reel when I was high...chatting with my buddy after fishing, put the rod on the rack of the van, drove off....didn't realize it until a couple days later when i was going fishing again.

2. I dumped water on the dowstairs neighbors a couple of times, then I started to make the DI in the shower.

3. I set up some quick top off for a different tank above a restaurant, that did something wierd and pumped water downstairs. Lukcily it was right in front of the door and not where people eat.

4. I tried messing with my DIY overflow pipe while the tank was full...cracked it all the way to the bottom.

 

[fish farmer]

double post

 

[Idaho Lone Wolf]

I have two 50 gal barrels for RODI water and one 50 gal barrel for mixing saltwater. I am really good at turning on the pump to fill my saltwater barrel with RODI water and getting busy and forgetting to turn it off. I've had water all over the floor more that one time. I seem to do a good job at getting water on the floor and in the carpet. I learned to put a water alarm everyplace I am pumping water. In that same light, I do aquarium maintenance on the 180 gal freshwater tank at a doctors office. Water change is pumped into a deep well sink. There was a sponge in the sink and without thought I left the sponge in the sink when pumping water into it. The sponge plugged the drain and water went all over the floor and soaked the carpet in part of the office. Needless to say, it got a good carpet cleaning after using a carpet cleaner to pick up the gallons of water. Fortunately the Doctor was good natured about it. I now make sure there is nothing in the sink now and use a water alarm. One last thing. Don't put a clown fish in a tank with a snow flake eel. The eel had a nice snack and it made me sick for my stupidity.

 

[Bosreef]

Anyone else find themselves double checking their tank after reading this thread?

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Cool thread btw : )

 

[JasThomp27]

Like most of us, watching TV while the RO unit is running!!
YOU CAN GUESS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT !!

lol yep done that

 

[New&no clue]

Feeding reef roids and following the instructions of 1 tablespoon per 100 gallons. My phosphates skyrocketed... it’s 1 teaspoons.

 

[Humblefish]

I've done lots of stupid things:

1. Left fish in freshwater dips unattended, and they jump out!
2. Tried pouring Prazipro into a teaspoon measure over the tank and too much came pouring out. Thus, overdosing the tank.
3. Dosed powdered medication into a QT without fully dissolving it in a cup beforehand (undissolved granules can get "sucked up" by a fish's gills and cause damage).
4. One time as a kid I pulled my arm back to punch another kid, and my elbow went thru the aquarium glass. Glass, water, fish + blood went everywhere. I also got my tail whipped by my father afterwards. Talk about a really bad day.
5. But my biggest all-time boo boo was thinking I could use the "Python" water changer to suck freshly mixed saltwater from my vat back into the aquarium. I was young, and didn't realize it also shoots tap water when sucking. So, my salinity crashed and tap water went into my DT. I grabbed a bag of salt, but it had clumped up, so a bunch of it went into the tank and the SG skyrocketed! I pretty much wiped that tank out.

^^ In my defense, I was just a pup when most of that stuff happened. Nowadays, I'm just a kinda dumb middle aged man who only occasionally makes stupid mistakes.

 

[dtruitt]

Wait, there's a way to fill up a bucket w RODI without watching it and not flood the house?

Time it while you watch it a couple of times. I set a timer for 3/4 of the expected time to fill buckets, check when it goes off, and as long as the bucket is about 3/4 of the way full, I set a timer for the remaining 1/4.

 

[dtruitt]

Your talking about copper powder right?

Chloroquine Phosphate is usually abbreviated CP.

 

[Conovan]

I am pretty fresh to saltwater but I can still contribute.

First mistake; not mixing saltwater outside of the tank. I set up my rock, added sand then added ro. I let the tank run 3 days then slowly added salt. Read 1.026 on the hannah and swing arm all is good right? noticed sediment on the rock and blew it off with a turkey baster went up to 1.04. So I spent the next little bit dipping saltwater and replacing with RO.

Next mistake; Having never used a skimmer before I was not prepared for how crazy it was going to go when I first fired it up. I waited until day 7 to start that up I am running a fishless cycle so I figured 7 days would establish the bacteria well enough to start the skimmer and learn to tune it. That thing went to dumping so I paniced, turned it of, and hit google and these forums to figure out what I did wrong. I wound up turning it back on and riding it out. after emptying the cup 4-5 times it calmed down and acted right.

Thats all for now but thats just my first 2 weeks. I look forward to being able to write a book on what not to do over the years

 

[richarddeweerd]

No knowing that a heremite did molt, i though it died. I was so surprised when i saw it the next day walking around

Going on holiday with a hang on skimmer that overflowed in my living room.

 

[Aquavaj]

Finished up a 2g wc on my nano and left the bucket unattended while I went to grab a bite to eat. My 15m old son managed to tip it over and there goes 2g of dirty saltwater on the carpet.

Hung my apex display on the wall over my tank using sticky velcro. Adhesive gives away and my display goes for a dip in middle of the night. Woke up to my pumps going nuts and the display beeping like crazy.
Had the rodi run a few times overnight after forgetting to turn it off. Good thing it was outside or in garage.