Worst mistake you ever made?

[jservedio]

Not initially setting up my tank with a sump - caused so much grief and I lost about 3 months worth of growth. Also, spending $280 an underpowered 4 bulb T5HO when I wanted to eventually have SPS. Should have done the tank right from the beginning and set up a sump and just bought the Radion Pro back then. The tank would be 3 months more mature right now.

 

[Squishie89]

Wasting money at the LFS on my start up equipment/set.

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[Eienna]

I have another...using water without testing the source. >.<

 

[NanaReefer]

Adding Green Star Paly and Green Implosion Palys to my 8g bio-cube. UGH!!


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[Flameback Pair]

Drilling my own tank. I'll let you guess what happened.

Next time I'll let the professionals do the drilling.

 

[bucksfan1976]

Lol getting into this hobby because now I can't get out I'm hooked

 

[vicviper15]

Lol getting into this hobby because now I can't get out I'm hooked

+1 to that.

 

[Liquid360]

My first tank I added twice as much salt I should've. Didn't know my mistake till it was too late... around a grand worth of livestock perished

 

[ohio reefer]

Yeah, but I made a huge mistake trying at all. My tank couldn't support it. I also didn't acclimate it nearly long enough.

I bought one about two years ago. Doing great, was a novice and didn't even acclimate it. And it's thriving. Bought another and acclimated for 4 hours slow drip. Died in a month.


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[Salty D]

I set my tank up at the end of the couch. Wife was sitting next to the tank and I got the bright idea to use a wooden spoon to reposition a powerhead. Spoon slipped and soaked her head with tank water. By far the worst thing I've done......

 

[RalphsReef]

I nuked a tank with Flatworm Exit, after underestimating how many flatworms there actually were in the tank. Within minutes, thousands of them were boiling out of the live rock. The tank turned cloudy and had a nasty smell. Fish and coral were dying immediately. Only a few survived. After that, I learned to quickly dip live rock into RO water for just a few seconds. The flatworms are eradicated much more safely.

 

[Liquid360]

Ouch!

I nuked
a tank with Flatworm Exit, after underestimating how many flatworms there actually were in the tank. Within minutes, thousands of them were boiling out of the live rock. The tank turned cloudy and had a nasty smell. Fish and coral were dying immediately. Only a few survived. After that, I learned to quickly dip live rock into RO water for just a few seconds. The flatworms are eradicated much more safely.

 

[totion]

Used a metal bristled brush to try to scrub hair algae off my live rock after being gone for two months and my brother only topping off with tap water. I spent hours pulling metal bristles out of my tank. I still occasionally fine one.

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[Liquid360]

I LOVE this thread. If you haven't made any monster mistakes... just wait.

 

[mike007]

+1 on that.

 

[dryad001]

Grabbed the wrong bottle from my fish shelf and added 30ml of copper safe, thought it was Ca bottle while I was getting my dosing pumps dialed in. Figured it out the next day when all the coral lost color.

All my SPS looked like complete garbage, lost my 2 maxima clams, ORA Joe the coral colony, 3 different types of BN. All my LPS seemed to thrive for some reason, never saw such great color. Oh and lost all my CUC, but my 2 peppermint shrimp and my cleaner shrimp survived.


That bottle now resides in a landfill somewhere

 

[DSP]

Same here worst thing iv done is used tap water

 

[nivram]

Was tweaking my alk dosing pump and left it on for 8 hours before I realized it.

 

[navila06]

allowed the wife to pick out fish and corals for the first couple months.

 

[watdachuck]

I started dosing iodine and strontium without realizing the dangers of overdosing. The idea was to make up for the heavy absorption from my invertebrates, and it ended up wiping out my invertebrates...