Stupid mistakes... anyone else?

[Michael Cronmiller]

So.....I'm pretty sure I killed a pretty nice double headed hammer today.[emoji36] While siphoning during a water change... I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back, there's my hammer stuck to the end of the siphon tube. Tore pretty much all the fleshy parts away. Don't know if it will come back.... arrrggghh. Anyone else killed their coral while being dumb?

 

[Michael Cronmiller]

 

[Tahoe61]

I have done the same think more times than I can count. Vacuumed my Euphyllia a couple times but it did not die, injured and mad but the coral recovered. My favorite stupid mistake that I will probably repeat is not unplugging my heater when lowering the water level for maintenance.

 

[jsker]

When I built my sump, I installed a drain and also a drain line to the outside world for maintenance and quick water changes. Two weeks ago I forgot to close the drain after draining the sump for a water change. I did a really big water change two weeks ago without any RO/DI ready

 

[Michael Cronmiller]

Thanks at least I'm not alone..lol

 

[5altkreep]

I have two bone - headed mistakes that come to mind. On my old aio tank i was tinkering with equipment, and accidently submerged my ato line. About an hour later i noticed ato kicking on about every 5 minutes. It was siphoning tank water back to my freshly filled top off container. Luckily i didnt flood the house, but salinity dropped alot, and the whole tank was mad!
Second time was in my 75. I was trying to rescape/move a lg anemone that was taking up too much of the prime real estate...i had a rock slide and smashed the disc part of the nem between two rocks. He was definitely injured, and quite angry for about 2 weeks, but made a full recovery.

As delicate as these creatures are, they're also surprisingly tough. Hopefully yours will recover!

 

[Flippers4pups]

So.....I'm pretty sure I killed a pretty nice double headed hammer today.[emoji36] While siphoning during a water change... I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back, there's my hammer stuck to the end of the siphon tube. Tore pretty much all the fleshy parts away. Don't know if it will come back.... arrrggghh. Anyone else killed their coral while being dumb?

Should recover in time.

 

[Michael Cronmiller]

Should recover in time.

Hoping so..thanks

 

[Michael Cronmiller]

I have two bone - headed mistakes that come to mind. On my old aio tank i was tinkering with equipment, and accidently submerged my ato line. About an hour later i noticed ato kicking on about every 5 minutes. It was siphoning tank water back to my freshly filled top off container. Luckily i didnt flood the house, but salinity dropped alot, and the whole tank was mad!
Second time was in my 75. I was trying to rescape/move a lg anemone that was taking up too much of the prime real estate...i had a rock slide and smashed the disc part of the nem between two rocks. He was definitely injured, and quite angry for about 2 weeks, but made a full recovery.

As delicate as these creatures are, they're also surprisingly tough. Hopefully yours will recover!

Thanks sure hope so, it's was a nice healthy piece

 

[DeniseAndy]

I have two really boneheaded mistakes too that come to mind and they are not happy or funny. I siphoned up a green clown goby when cleaning my 210g and did not realize it. The large black garbage container I was using to clean the tank was emptied and left out. I could not find my clown and after a week or so did. Yep in the bottom of the black bin. Poor baby.

Other thing I did was in trying to ease the stress of the fish in a small pico tank I was re-scaping, I left the fish in and was actually cutting a piece of rock away (with bone cutters) and my pink bar goby was hiding exactly where I cut. Poor thing lost its entire back end and did not recover. Learned my lesson the hard way to just removed all live critters. Safer that way.

 

[Michael Cronmiller]

I have two really boneheaded mistakes too that come to mind and they are not happy or funny. I siphoned up a green clown goby when cleaning my 210g and did not realize it. The large black garbage container I was using to clean the tank was emptied and left out. I could not find my clown and after a week or so did. Yep in the bottom of the black bin. Poor baby.

Other thing I did was in trying to ease the stress of the fish in a small pico tank I was re-scaping, I left the fish in and was actually cutting a piece of rock away (with bone cutters) and my pink bar goby was hiding exactly where I cut. Poor thing lost its entire back end and did not recover. Learned my lesson the hard way to just removed all live critters. Safer that way.

dang that's crazy.. sorry bout that.. luckily this is the first thing I've really killed... unfortunately there will probably be more..since this is just past my first year doing saltwater

 

[DeniseAndy]

I have almost 14yrs on you. Well, if you do not count my fish only marine tanks back in college.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Don't feel bad, look at it as a learning experience. I've had a few dumb/dumb mistakes in my salty time.

 

[DSC reef]

The old siphoning coral by accident is almost like a reefers passage right. We've all done it and those who haven't likely will. Lol. Your coral should be fine. Last week I accidentally got to close to the large trachyphillia and it literally left fluorescence on the drain tube. We've all been there.

 

[Katrina71]

You're human! Don't beat yourself up. I'll have plenty of **** moments just like this.

 

[cracker]

Do I really have to talk about it ? I'd rather not ! LOL

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Listened to a bit of Richard Ross' talk at Neptune and he made sure to point out that the #1 reason for reef failure was human error [emoji1]

Not in my tank but I need to share. Just got back from MACNA and I'm acclimating all my frags and realize I forgot one of them at the show. Thankfully it was just a $10 one but it still sucks.

 

[K. Steven]

I've sucked up quite a few torch tentacles when stirring my sand with a turkey baster, but luckily they've healed every time. Now, I'm sure to release the bulb away from them.

 

[Rob77]

I have done the same think more times than I can count. Vacuumed my Euphyllia a couple times but it did not die, injured and mad but the coral recovered. My favorite stupid mistake that I will probably repeat is not unplugging my heater when lowering the water level for maintenance.

This is one I make alot myself

 

[Captmcfly]

My RO system is at my sink I without thinking about it made 15 gallons of tap water salt mix and killed all my invertebrates and coral frags what the heck...