Stupidest things you’ve done Reefing!!!!

[SHINYSuccubus]

Dumbest thing I've done is buy cheap equipment. It was a waste of money. 3 years later and I know what to buy and of course within budget.

same here! i started my tank 13yrs ago and decided all i needed for a 150g tank was a canister filter. i was wrong - having to reverse engineer all the guts under my tank was a time consuming expensive lesson. i’m in the process of building a new set up, and i’m doing it from the ground up with the best equipment i can find. i learned my lesson!

 

[anth]

This ones on me and my wife.
Come in from work at 2am from work and emptied a full skimmer cup imto a 2L pop bottle. I left the pop bottle on the fireplace whilst i tidied up but forgot about it and went to bed. An hour later my wife woke me up laced with furry “what the heck is in that bottle!!!” And then it hit me . She had gotten up, went downstairs and drank the bottle of skimmer crap. This was 2 years ago and to this day she smells the bottle before she drinks it.

 

[Dolphin2409]

I got married !

 

[Dolphins18]

Breaking a tank by bumping the overflow pipes coming out of the bulkhead.

I did this yesterday. LOL

 

[ProxyAquarist]

I accidentally placed coffee grounds (Peet’s coffee: Major Dickason’s Blend in the carbon reactor. They were right next to each other.

Yup, a friend of mine once mixed up the "Flour" and "Diatomaceous Earth" barrels at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Later that night, the Manager walked in and asked what happened to the "Diatomaceous Earth?"

Suddenly, he realized why all the customers were commenting that all the chicken was "Extra Crispy" and a bit gritty.

Motto, chicken does not go with crushed coral, aka Diatomaceous Earth.

Happy Holidays,
Jim

 

[Lojenn]

Buying a large tank, with just a vision of the finished product.

 

[UltraKelius]

Adjusted skimmer before going to bed. Woke up to flooded kitchen floor and empty RO top off and pretty much a freshwater/brackish tank
This has happened a couple of times now but not as bad as first time.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Adjusted skimmer before going to bed. Woke up to flooded kitchen floor and empty RO top off and pretty much a freshwater/brackish tank
This has happened a couple of times now but not as bad as first time.

Yep. I've done something similar before. I was topping off the ATO which was attached to the sump late at night. I fell asleep and woke up to a brackish tank. Tragic.

 

[EricR]

Dumbest for me is:
Dumped about 16 ounces of citric acid solution into the tank.
*was soaking stuff on the back lip of the tank ... knew it was risky but figured I'd be extra careful ... fail

My other one is:
Leave my ATO fill tube hanging behind the tank while cleaning the acrylic back cover I usually have it connected to.
End of maintenance/water change, turn everything back on and walk away.
*eventually someone will notice water pouring out of the nook my tank is in ... ooops. (More times than I'd like to admit)

 

[EZKLR]

spending money on Dendronephthya. I just want it to work so badly

 

[KrisReef]

Last year I accidentally poured my cup full of my organic medicine into the tank instead of their food. It wasn't as helpful to the tank as it is for me and a few expensive corals went RTN and then the aiptasia exploded. Still working on the recovery, cleaning and restocking the system from that boner.

 

[EakTheFreak]

I took a HUGE SIP of home cultured Phytoplankton (mix of Tetra & Nanno) after dosing it from a Gatorade bottle while being enamored with my tank.

This was just two weeks ago. To be fair I have a 4 week old child with a 3-1/2 year old and was fairly sleep deprived.

I’ve now decided not to use Gatorade bottles to hold my cultured phyto anymore!!!

 

[flashsmith]

I've got a closet full of stupid mistakes but then again I know I'm not the only one..

 

[vlangel]

I have done more than one really dumb thing, ( especially since I used to service tanks) but this is the funniest. I was changing out a UV bulb for a customer and fortunately they left after I got started. The water through the UV sterilizer came from a penguin powerhead using flex tubing. So all I had to do was take the tubing off the nozzle of the powerhead to service the UV. Well, when I got the job finished and the UV sterilizer back in place under the cabinet I flip the on switch. Oops, I had forgotten to put the flex tubing back on the powerhead and it shot water 20 ft across the customer's dining room straight into a wall outlet and tripped the breaker! Oh man, what a mess. I cleaned the water up in the dining room first and the outlet as best I could. Then I went down into their basement, found the breaker box, and found the tripped breaker. I flipped it back on and it was ok and the customer doesn't know to this day (15 years later) what a really dumb thing I did. LOL

 

[nuxx Verified Sponsor]

Bought our first 55 gallon tank and thought, oh this will be something easy and fun!

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I have done more than one really dumb thing, ( especially since I used to service tanks) but this is the funniest. I was changing out a UV bulb for a customer and fortunately they left after I got started. The water through the UV sterilizer came from a penguin powerhead using flex tubing. So all I had to do was take the tubing off the nozzle of the powerhead to service the UV. Well, when I got the job finished and the UV sterilizer back in place under the cabinet I flip the on switch. Oops, I had forgotten to put the flex tubing back on the powerhead and it shot water 20 ft across the customer's dining room straight into a wall outlet and tripped the breaker! Oh man, what a mess. I cleaned the water up in the dining room first and the outlet as best I could. Then I went down into their basement, found the breaker box, and found the tripped breaker. I flipped it back on and it was ok and the customer doesn't know to this day (15 years later) what a really dumb thing I did. LOL

THAT is a great story! Totally sounds like something I'd do! Haha!!

 

[bvanfish]

Good to know about the siporax...

I was about to buy some tomorrow for the nitrate reduction but maybe I’ll re think that…

 

[vlangel]

THAT is a great story! Totally sounds like something I'd do! Haha!!

I was a noobie at servicing tanks back then and was so glad that the customer was not home. To this day when I pass their house I smile to myself over that incident!