Tell us your craziest hobby story!

revhtree · Mar 3, 2012

LOL! Yes I start with a LAUGH OUT LOUD thinking about some of the the dumb (smart) things I Have done for this hobby.

One time me and my wife, yes just us, unloaded the seats out of our 15 passenger church van and drove over 7 hrs away to another state to pick up a 125g tank, stand, and canopy with all the LR, fish, corals, and water. LOL! We left early and got back so late. I was exhausted! What a deal though.....hmm.....

MattL22 · Mar 3, 2012

Lol I get 40$ in quarters a week when I cash my check it goes into my coin collection which is for my dream tank in my house which I don't even own yet !

_sludgefactory · Mar 3, 2012

Went to my lfs the other day. The owner sees me, and basically calls me fat. He says i almost didn't even recognize you, i thought maybe you had a brother or something. I tell him, i don't know if i want to shop here anymore. He asks why. I say because u just called me fat. So he starts telling my how he just meant that i look "healthy". Lol. Ps. I know i put on like 20 pounds so i wasn't offend at all and he's a really nice guy. Aquaworld Pittsburgh 4 life!

skinz78 · Mar 3, 2012

I moved and in the move I bought a 29g bowfront tank and crammed all of my corals that were in my 72g bowfront in my old house. I did this so I could anticipate a cycle of the rock in the 72g and start it over slowly. At that time most of the corals that I had were Z's n P's so it wasn't a problem with space issues in the small tank. Well one night at 1am in the morning I was awoken by a loud crack from across the house, I immediately heard water pouring on the floor. I ran out and was able to salvage 2 5 gallon buckets of water out of the 29g tank. I put all the corals and fish in the buckets till morning because I wasn't ready with the 72g to just put them in it. I lost everything but a few fish.. my carpet was ruined, and the LFS refused to replace the 29g tank...

_sludgefactory · Mar 3, 2012

On day after i moved into my new place i decided to get my 55 gallon Oscar tank from my grandma's house. So we get back to my place and set the tank on the stand. Mind you this was in the middle of winter. We start filling the tank and i think because of the cold and the sudden change in temp of the glass the whole back plane cracks from one side to the other. It sounded like a shout gun went off. I'm freaking out, she's freaking out. I'm yelling, "Get the thing, get the thing!" I couldn't remember the word bucket at that time. So fortunately the crack was just leaking slightly. I'm bailing water down the toilet, she's throwing it out the front door onto the side walk. Ended up having to go to Walmart to buy a new tank that night.

SmokeyCFH · Mar 3, 2012

The stupidest thing I did was transferring a very large and "rare" catfish from one 125g to another...as most of us know catfish have barbs so it's best to be careful, especially since this guy's dorsal fin is a 5" serrated spike. Well every time I'd try to catch him with a fishing net he'd flip out and try to break the tank, so I ended up using a towel and laying it at the bottom of the tank and "shooing" him on top of it. I then proceeded to lift him out using my towel cradle. Needless to say this is a powerful animal even at 18" long, well even holding onto him tightly he somehow managed to squirm out of my hands and out of the towel as I was coming down the ladder. I almost fell off the ladder trying to get him as close to the ground as possible before he made his way out so the fall wasn't so great, he hit the ground about a foot and half above my tiled floor...yeah I felt like a jerk! So I immediately grabbed him and placed in my other 125g in the room and he's been sitting there like a lump ever since! I love my ripsaw cat! I can't wait til he gets 4'!

tnyr5 · Mar 3, 2012

This is sad because it's true. I used to work at a lfs and one day we got a call from someone who wanted to trade some fish for store credit. I let the boss handle such things because I knew it always ended in disaster. I was right...he showed up with a bucket of minnows.

skinz78 · Mar 3, 2012

tnyr5 said:
This is sad because it's true. I used to work at a lfs and one day we got a call from someone who wanted to trade some fish for store credit. I let the boss handle such things because I knew it always ended in disaster. I was right...he showed up with a bucket of minnows.

Ha ha that is a good one!

ingtar_shinowa · Mar 3, 2012

I had a unknown fairy wrasse jump from my reef tank 6 inches across a gap through two lights into my FOWLR Snowflake Eel's tank. He has always been remembered as my little Evel Knievel

revhtree · Mar 3, 2012

HAHA good stuff! LOL!

Assassin Smoke · Mar 3, 2012

Back when I lived at my parent's house, I had a small fish only tank. Went away for the weekend. When I came back, found my tank cracked and half drained. The filter was burnt out from running dry too. There was one wet towel on the floor and the carpet was soaked. Turns out my brother and sister had a fight in my room and a book got thrown. They decided it wasn't a big deal because it wasn't leaking very fast and the fish still had water. Fish did live, but I was furious.

lawnman · Mar 3, 2012

Went to bed one night and forgot the Rodi was hooked up to the kitchen sink. I use to put the jug on the floor don't ask why it was not in the sink. Wife woke up for a 3 a.m snack. Next thing I know bedroom lights come on and I get punched in the forehead. Water was 2 inches from the hardwood floor.

harley · Mar 3, 2012

My craziest story is 1 getting back into the hobby
2 deciding to switch from FOWLR to reef, should've done the math on that decision1 lol

KoleTang · Mar 4, 2012

When I was at MACNA I picked up some new corals. But I remembered that the tank was over due for a water change and did not feel good about adding the corals. My RO/DI was not working and LFS would be closed by the time I drove from Des Moines to Minnesota. So I had to beg for a a few jugs of that sea-water that the vendors were using from the MACNA staff. :tongue:

erikjphillips · Mar 5, 2012

back before i got into the hobby my brother had a cube in our apartment that we were sharing. one day he has the RO running in the kitchen, with the bucket on the floor and leaves. i come home from work to find the down stairs neighbor at my door banging. she says to me "i think you have a leak in your apartment because its raining in my kitchen!" sure enough, water a inch deep on the floor and the RO running.

erikjphillips · Mar 5, 2012

back before i got into the hobby my brother had a cube in our apartment that we were sharing. one day he has the RO running in the kitchen, with the bucket on the floor and leaves. i come home from work to find the down stairs neighbor at my door banging. she says to me "i think you have a leak in your apartment because its raining in my kitchen!" sure enough, water a inch deep on the floor and the RO running. 

thewackyreefer · Mar 5, 2012

Oh boy...

About 6 months into the hobby I poked my finger on a vermeted snail. Being a new reefer at the time I was not very conscious of the amount of bacteria in the tank and simply rinsed my finger off with some soap and water and continued working in the tank. Within 24 hours my entire hand was visibly infected and I could feel the infection moving into my wrist and arm. At that point I figured it would be best to go to the ER so they gave me an IV and sent me home with some steroids and other meds. Needless to say, this was a pretty scary experience and the doctor told me the results could have been much worse if I would have waited any longer before going in. Let this be a lesson learned!

ca2or · Mar 5, 2012

SmokeyCFH · Mar 5, 2012

ca2or said:

hahahahahahaha. how did a senegal bichir get into your filter?!

reefsmokinFOOL · Mar 5, 2012

About 2 years ago. My 3 year old son decided to take the top off of my skimmer cup. He then proceeded to clear off his plate into the skimmer base. Lets just say he put, hashbrowns,sausage,eggs,pancakes and syrup in and the skimmer just ground it up and sent into the tank. I was at work and my wife called to tell me that the tank water was very milky looking. She finally figuered out that it really was hash browns and egg swirling around my tank. I was home in 1 hr and spent 23 straight hours doing a tear down than a build up. I only lost 3 pieces and half of my sanity.