War stories of reefing

[badstorm48]

I haven't seen a thread talking about injuries acquired from reef keeping. I thought it would be interesting to hear people's stories of things that have happened to you from reefing. Such as the time I didn't pay attention to where my sea urchin was and when I went to move a rock I accidentally grabbed it. Fortunately I didn't get hurt and it didn't puncture cause I was able to let go before I hurt myself. Now I just make sure and know where he is before I grab rocks. So, what are y'alls stories of reefing

 

[Salt Creep]

I used to have a Clarkii clown and every time I stuck my hands in the tank for maintenance we were at war.

 

[badstorm48]

Yeah I get attacked at feeding time by my tang every time

 

[melypr1985]

We had a very large gold stripe maroon clown pair at the store for a while. That female was the meanest thing I've ever encountered. Every time I went into the tank for a customer I got hit. She drew blood a few times too. I still have a scar from the worst one that I show customers that are contemplating maroons.

 

[badstorm48]

Are their teeth really that sharp?

 

[melypr1985]

Are their teeth really that sharp?

Well something is. I know others who's clowns have drawn blood too. Clowns are all sweet and cute until the get full grown, pair up and start defending their territory with viciousness. Dont get me wrong... I love clowns and I love MY clowns, but my female hits me every time I reach too close to her man and I'm lucky she's not big enough to do damage yet.

 

[badstorm48]

Interesting wouldn't of thought they would of been able to do that

 

[human]

My female Tomato clown would attack my hand and occasionally draw blood. She would bite, twist, and pull. I have also picked up bristleworms with my fingers, mostly accidentally and had to remove a bunch of tiny spines, it's like getting fiberglass in your skin if anyone was curious how it feels.

 

[Lowstorm]

I electrocuted myself on a 250 metal halide. It just needed to be turned a tiny bit to turn on. Salt creep and the metal on the bulb....

 

[dutch27]

I tried to break down a Solana with a broken back pane, figuring I could get a new piece of glass cut and re-assemble it. Apparently using a mostly dull paring knife the try and separate the panels was a bad idea, the knife slipped out of the joint between the panels, hit my thumb, cut it to the bone. That was 6 years ago, I now forever have a scar from it. Of course when it broke I happened to come home just in time to see saltwater dripping directly into my surge protector, lots of sparking and sizzling. I now keep my strips of plugs attached up on the wall, or inside of my stand on a shelf where no water can hit it.

Had a short in a return pump that was electrocuting my tank. I found out the hard way when I reached into my tank. I can't imagine what the poor fish and corals had been going through with that constant current running through the tank.

And of course bristle worm stings, I'm apparently very sensitive to them. A couple times my fingers got so swollen that the tip started to turn purple and I could feel my pulse in it, like having string tied tightly around them. Each time that's happened, the day I decided "If its like this tomorrow, I'm going to the doctor" is when it starts to recede. Yet I still keep grabbing rocks without gloves on. I should really just invest in some of those thick elbow-length gloves.

 

[badstorm48]

I couldn't imagine being shocked with the water that had to be a fun experience. I got shocked once when my dog chewed my computer charger and I didn't think to unplug it first and got a good shock from grabbing it. Never knew bristle worms would cause that. Do they inject poison or something into you when you grab them? Sounds like you had a bad week with that broken back pane one thing after another.

 

[GrandLotus]

We are trading war stories?
We reefers are on the rise!
Jealous anti's I despise...
Look in my eyes.

 

[1fishjones]

I almost electrocuted myself reaching into my Rough Neck. Earlier I had received a small shock from the top of the heater I had in there. In my infinite wisdom I deduced the heater had a short in it so when I went back I of course unplugged the heater. The problem was I never considered it was the cheap *** powerhead flopping around in there that had a broken cord. Fortunately for me my fist was closed around a four cup measuring cup & I didn't get in too deep. When it hit me I just kind of flopped out, fell on the floor, heart racing a mile a minute. From that day forward everything gets unplugged.

 

[hejjo]

Woke up at 4 am to 5 -10 gallons all over the floor. A hose popped off and the sump emptied all over my doser. Grabbed my doser like an idiot cuz I jus woke up and got a rude awakening. Shocked me so good I couldn't let go lol. Had to fall away from it. Why it didn't trip the breaker I don't know. I'm fine but sadly my doser was not.

 

[dutch27]

I couldn't imagine being shocked with the water that had to be a fun experience. I got shocked once when my dog chewed my computer charger and I didn't think to unplug it first and got a good shock from grabbing it. Never knew bristle worms would cause that. Do they inject poison or something into you when you grab them? Sounds like you had a bad week with that broken back pane one thing after another.

Yeah, that broken tank almost made me leave the hobby. I was so scared that if something like that happened again and I wasn't home, I could have burned my place down. In the end the LFS gave me a deal at the time on a replacement 25g tank and I stayed in, glad I did.

No clue if bristle worms have any sort of venom, or if some people like myself are just allergic. I'm vary wary of them now, and take great joy in seeing them dead when I dip a rock or coral in something. Screw those things.

You name the dumb mistake though and I've made it, hand in water with stray voltage, leaking tank, leaving the RO on and going to bed (more than once), snails sticking the ATO on, etc. Many lessons learned the hard way, lol.

 

[badstorm48]

My greatest fear is flooding the house. Mainly cause of having to replace the carpet in the room and my girlfriend if that ever happened the tank would go bye bye. I have had quiet a few scares though. Where the return hose popped off my return pump and I just so happened to be lucky that the return wasn't able to shoot the water all over the place.

 

[Salt Creep]

Woke up at 4 am to 5 -10 gallons all over the floor. A hose popped off and the sump emptied all over my doser. Grabbed my doser like an idiot cuz I jus woke up and got a rude awakening. Shocked me so good I couldn't let go lol. Had to fall away from it. Why it didn't trip the breaker I don't know. I'm fine but sadly my doser was not.

Similar story... I come home from work with the girlfriend and as we walk into our living room she notices the display tank is lower than normal. I go to check it out and realize the hose popped off my return pump and water was shooting out of it all day while we were gone. This went onto the floor and when I went downstairs in our room the water soaked all the way through the floor ruining the ceiling tiles, soaking the insulation, and onto our king size temperpedic bed (a $3,000 bed). I was expecting a war, but she just said accidents happen... that's when I knew she was a keeper since then she decided we needed another tank... so we set up a separate tank dedicated to softies.

 

[badstorm48]

Wow I bet that was a lot of money to repair every thing

 

[Salt Creep]

Wow I bet that was a lot of money to repair every thing

Collateral damage... such is the life of a reefer. I just had to replace 6 tiles at $3 each and put new insulation in-between 2 joists so it wasn't too bad. I was worried she was going to say the tank has to go. I have put much more money into that...

 

[badstorm48]

Yeah reefing is definitely not cheap