Stupid Mistakes You've Made

[zalick]

Bought an Australian sea apple in the 90s at the advice of my LFS. It was beautiful for a year....until it got sick, detached, and got sucked up by my Maxijet. Nuked the whole tank instantly.

 

[Greybeard]

A few years back, I spent the morning in my gun room, cleaning and polishing firearms. Lots of nasty chemicals. Walking back to the kitchen, passed my tank, and noted, hey... that coral fell over. So... this idiot sticks his gun cleaner soaked hands in the darned tank and sets the coral right.

Left the next morning for family Christmas, was gone two days. By the time we got back, tank was dead. Completely dead. Fish, corals, anemone, snails, shrimps, crabs... the entire reef. Dead. House smelled like low tide.

Thus, I established Greybeard's 2nd rule of Reefkeeping: Keep your filthy mitts out of the dag blasted tank!

(in case you're wondering, Greybeard's 1st rule: Patience. Nothing good happens fast.)

 

[MichaelReefer]

A few years back, I spent the morning in my gun room, cleaning and polishing firearms. Lots of nasty chemicals. Walking back to the kitchen, passed my tank, and noted, hey... that coral fell over. So... this idiot sticks his gun cleaner soaked hands in the darned tank and sets the coral right.

Left the next morning for family Christmas, was gone two days. By the time we got back, tank was dead. Completely dead. Fish, corals, anemone, snails, shrimps, crabs... the entire reef. Dead. House smelled like low tide.

Thus, I established Greybeard's 2nd rule of Reefkeeping: Keep your filthy mitts out of the dag blasted tank!

(in case you're wondering, Greybeard's 1st rule: Patience. Nothing good happens fast.)

Yikes! I'll have to remember that. I'm an avid gun owner myself.

 

[ReefReadyYouTube]

Rushed cycling a tank. Truly regret it. I learned to always just take you time with a reef tank. Worth it in the long run.

 

[old salt reefer]

Put rock salt in a bucket of water on the floor of the basement in the middle of winter and the dwarf seahorses that arrived airmail died in seconds. This was in 1968 and I was 8 years old. I got a book(remember those) on salt water fish that had a whole chapter on raising dwarf seahorses. Got a clear plastic shoe box(as a aquarium), heater and sponge filter and the next bunch of seahorses that came a month latter made for over 10 months. Had 3 more shoe boxes just to raise baby brine shrimp for them to eat. Then came my first clown fish----------

 

[Radman73]

I mixed up some frozen and left the remainder out earlier this week. For over 24 hours. All of my frozen, cause I'm too stupid to only take out the couple of trays that I was going to use. $60-80 of frozen gone lol! At least my wife took it in stride though I'm not sure that's a good thing !

That's probably about the worst thing I've done, so pretty lucky.

Actually, I did almost catch the last house on fire because I didn't have drip loops. Yeah, that was definitely the worst even though all it cost me was some time repainting the blackened wall and two cheap Jebao power heads. And a new MP40, cause I needed flow right away right? My wife is a saint.

 

[X-37B]

Did not properly tighten my new 10lb co2 cylinder and it dumped 10lbs into the cabinet at night.
Cabinet sits next to the tank. There was liquid co2 on the bottom of the cabinet.
In the morning tank was 7.4 ph but just opened the window and no loss or issues.
It could have been alot worse.

 

[User1]

Common misconception with electronics is that all water contact is fatal. Its the ionized water that is fatal (when in contact and electronic turned on). Rinsing in DI water (with battery removed/power disconnected) and letting dry almost always works. Smart daughter!

Yeah - I wrote it off. Honestly, not going to lie. She pretty much saved it. I wish I could say she takes after me but she got her mothers smarts But yeah - you are right. I recall after the incident reading about it because I was amazed it worked, still works, and showed no signs of corrosion.

Saying is true - learn something new every day. Have a great weekend!

 

[zalick]

I mixed up some frozen and left the remainder out earlier this week. For over 24 hours. All of my frozen, cause I'm too stupid to only take out the couple of trays that I was going to use. $60-80 of frozen gone lol! At least my wife took it in stride though I'm not sure that's a good thing !

That's probably about the worst thing I've done, so pretty lucky.

Actually, I did almost catch the last house on fire because I didn't have drip loops. Yeah, that was definitely the worst even though all it cost me was some time repainting the blackened wall and two cheap Jebao power heads. And a new MP40, cause I needed flow right away right? My wife is a saint.

Lucky!!!

After reading your post, I'm going to redo all my electric tomorrow....as I've been neglecting for 3 years

 

[Jon Fishman]

Got a Purple Lobster and put it in my tank with a box and cowfish.... Now that I discovered he was a bad-guy, I have had a tank running for months with just a stupid lobster I’m too lazy to take to the store

 

[Gw2kpro]

I once built a diy PVC overflow for my frag tank. Could not get it to return water, followed the design exactly.

Troubleshot it for about an hour, trying different water levels, height of overflow, making sure it was primed.

Finally figured out I had forgot to glue one of the joints. It was just pulling air though it.

Got it glued and it took off, hasn't missed a beat since.

 

[CivicS14]

Simple... chase numbers. Stability is everything and the patience to do thinks slowly.

 

[Chipp]

What stupid mistakes have you made in your reefing experience?

starting in the first place.

 

[motortrendz]

I've over flowed more buckets with rodi than I can count. Flooded my kitchen, my living room (different times) even my basement. Lol. But th biggest mistake was making too many changes too fast and wondering y it's getting worse. Ice learned to just set it and forget it(opposite for rodi) make a small.change and wait.

 

[Radman73]

I've over flowed more buckets with rodi than I can count. Flooded my kitchen, my living room (different times) even my basement. Lol. But th biggest mistake was making too many changes too fast and wondering y it's getting worse. Ice learned to just set it and forget it(opposite for rodi) make a small.change and wait.

RODI has an intimate relationship with my garage floor.

 

[Mical]

Luckily not me, but I witnessed this first hand

A reefer buddy and his wife went skiing in Colorado for 2 weeks and I was checking on his tank(s) every 3 days. On my 2nd trip to his place I noticed fish were following me when I walked past tank (more than normal) Long story short, he forgot to re-open auto feeders when he re-loaded them before he left for vacation. His fish in both tanks went 6 days without eating because his auto feeders were closed.

 

[flsalty]

I had a 65 with some fish and a mud crab. I caught all the stuff myself. One day I was hunting for something else to put in there and came across a small blue crab. I was a little apprehensive about putting him in there because they eat fish, but he was small and it was a sort of survival of the fittest tank.

Went out that night. When I got back there he was right out front and center, picked clean. Everyone in the tank was acting like nothing happened...lol

 

[WVNed]

Today I wanted to fill my water change container so I opened the valve. The one that goes to the pipe used to fill buckets. I dumped about 2 gallons of water on my feet and the floor.

 

[ReeferCrabness]

Should I list them alphabetically, chronologically or by shear
amount of aquatic life destroyed? Need some help here.... ;-)

I'll start with my first one. Depending on a Hydrometer to
monitor my salinity. R.I.P my loved ones. I now have a salinity
probe on my controller, three refractometers and two different
standard 35ppt test solutions.

I still step on my eel from time to time. I just try to keep from
doing a moonwalk across the dang thing....

 

[Karl M]

A few years back, I spent the morning in my gun room, cleaning and polishing firearms. Lots of nasty chemicals. Walking back to the kitchen, passed my tank, and noted, hey... that coral fell over. So... this idiot sticks his gun cleaner soaked hands in the darned tank and sets the coral right.

Left the next morning for family Christmas, was gone two days. By the time we got back, tank was dead. Completely dead. Fish, corals, anemone, snails, shrimps, crabs... the entire reef. Dead. House smelled like low tide.

Thus, I established Greybeard's 2nd rule of Reefkeeping: Keep your filthy mitts out of the dag blasted tank!

(in case you're wondering, Greybeard's 1st rule: Patience. Nothing good happens fast.)

I know where your coming from. I shot often, actually have a practice range in my garage (Cowboy Fast Draw) So absolutely no Tank maintenance on practice days..nada. guns and Reefs don’t mix