The stupidest moment EVER game!!! :D

[RLG2182]

So let's play the stupidest moment ever game in saltwater keeping!!! Could be accidents, blatant mistakes, catastrophes... whatever. I know it's not the most cheerful posting, but I know that we are all human, and even the reef-geeks out there make mistakes.

So... after noting that I'm just human... I just had a completely retarded moment & fiasco in my apartment a few minutes ago. I was mixing up some saltwater and transferring it into a separate holding tank. Now... keep in mind... I've had water spill before. Like a dummy, I had my water collect in a separate 5 gal water jug instead of my usual 22 gal tub with float valve from my RO/DI (it usually just stops when it's full... but this time, I had it drain to a different jug w/o a valve thinking I would "catch" it when it filled) ... stepped away to watch a movie... came back... water all over the place. 8O ... no biggy. No... tonight was WORSE.

I figured this time, I was smart. I went to take a break, and checked everything. Pumps were off, RO/DI was shut off, all was good. Then came dinner. Came back... water ALLLLLL over the carpet!!! 8O 8O And this time, it was SALTWATER!! ROAR!!! I happened to see that I accidentally left the pump in the tub (it was off) BUT... the open end was left on the floor lowwwwer than the level of the pump, so it started a back syphon. I'd say that about 6 gal got spilled over. Had to rush to the grocery store to rent a carpet cleaner so I could mop up what was left. Everything is drying nicely now... just waiting for it to dry completely so I can vacuum up any salt leftover. :x

Needless to say... that qualifies for my "stupidest moment ever" ... so far.

What about you guys??!?! Don't skimp with the narration... we want details!!

 

[Brodie]

I had the misfortune of grabbing a Mantis Shrimp once. Yeah..couldn't feel my thumb for 2 hours, Doctors said I didn't have nerve damage.

 

[Morticus]

I havn't been into this hobby long, but I've already killed my first fish.... My tank was almost done cycling, and I had my qt up and running so I decided to get a Royal Gramma. I had left the filter media from the filter in the cycling sump for about a week, when I arrived home with my fish I put it into the filter. I had not tested the water before I put the fish in. Acclimation went fine, the gramma lay on his side in the corner for the first night, and by the next morning he was hidden in the pvc. I tested the water the next day and found 5 amm and 5 trite. Well, I did two 50% water changes, then two 20% over the next week but to no avail, amm and trite stayed high. I saw him in the pvc dying yesterday so I decided he would have a better chance in the main tank that had just finished cycling. I drip acclimated him in for about an hour and a half, but after a couple hours in the main tank he was dead. I was a complete idiot because I used water from a CYCLING tank for my QT..... won't happen again.

 

[Dr.Nate]

Well, I just can't stop kicking myself for my huge mistake(s). My biggest to date is that I started this hobby by reading a sub par book on the subject and then thought I knew everything I needed to know....WRONG. I'm sorry to say that because of my ignorance I have killed about 6 fish so far....stop the madness, I know! Didn't quarantine any of them to start, got ich, tried everything but hypo and copper (all the reef safe stuff).....didn't work....they all died except my clown. So then I used copper and killed my inverts. Didn't do copper long enough, and got more inverts.....got ich again! So at this point, thanks to this site, I finally set up a quarantine tank, but it wasn't cycled yet, so I did hypo on the main....killed all my inverts again and my beautiful live rock from liverocks.com. This I am very sad about, because the rock WAS teaming with life, now all dead. So, I got anxious and only did hypo for 4 weeks (instead of 6). Clown is still alive thankfully, but after quarantining my latest arrival properly, put him in the main and guess what? ICH!. So now I've had all I can stand......put my clown in the quarantine and treating him with copper.....main is fallow and will remain that way for probably 8 weeks just to be super sure there is now way I have ich in the main! UGH. Live and learn, live and learn.

 

[SeriousDude5]

Just built a sump and the pipe that was hooked up to the mag7 decided to slip off. So everything was fine for an hour then I started to here a water fall sound I was like WTF! I ran over to the fishtank and frantically tried to reatch the line I did but not before 10 gallons of SW was on my floor.

 

[RLG2182]

10 gallons of SW was on my floor.

LOL... I think many of us should invest in a wet-dry vac. Either that... or maybe cover our floors with plastic.

What about others out there? I'm sure everyone's had at least a couple goof-ups! **coughrevsteveklambearlandoharamalkoreetcetc***

 

[SirLight1337]

I decided to use a pretty strong power head as a little make-shift pump to go from one 5 gallon bucket to another. ( when mixing salt water and you over fill the bucket with water and the SG is to high ) so while i turn to look away to plug the power head in, the tube falls out and i launch water about 3 feet in the air all over my counter and what not. Luckly my 150gal tank is on TILE FLOOR so i have no wet carpet problems, but i was laughing at myself none the less. Im sure i have quite a few more screw ups to come. We will see when i finish my DIY sump....

 

[Kam]

Being new to saltwater I am sure I have many stories just waiting to happen.

For those of you that do not know I have been trying desperately to catch a mantis shrimp that arrived as a hitchhiker on my LR. What I have failed to mention up to this point is that the mantis was not inside the LR when I got it. The mantis had fallen/crawled out of the rock during shipment. After putting all the rock in my tank (cycled with no fish) I started going through the plastic bag that all the rock was in and found a couple brittle stars, some small rock crabs and a little "shrimp" thing all of which was half alive. I figured if any of these lived, great, if not food for the others, so I put them all in the tank, mantis included.

It was not until AFTER hearing the clicking sounds that I started to research and found that I have a mantis.

On a positive note, I thought I had 3 mantis's, 1 larger and 2 smaller. I saw both of the smaller last night and they are pistol shrimp, not mantis. I have seen and ID'd the mantis so I know it's still in there.

 

[Brenden]

I am proud to say I have never made a mistake with my tank. The fact that it does not have water in it yet may be part of the reason. However since I am off to a new start I will not discuss anything from my previous tank. No more questions please..

 

[lando]

All right Rob, here ya go...My stupidest mistake ever was the duration of my first SW tank. I was in college and knew nothing about LR or LS or filtration. I had a 38gal tank that I was just using to impress the ladies. I had too many fish, inappropriate fish for the size of the tank and very poor compatability. I killed several, I mean several, fish in this learning experience. I shutter to even think about it. That was 10 years ago and oh the things I have learned.

 

[Salttanker]

How about plugging in the pump before syphoning the U tube in the pre-filter? That was stupid! My sump ran completely dry in seconds, and my main almost overflowed.

Mike

 

[RLG2182]

LOL... man... that's awesome Mike! I almost did that once!

 

[Salttanker]

Once is the key word. I never did it again.

Mike

 

[Phyl]

Ok, I can play.

Christmas day. My entire family is over. I'm doing my dog and pony show for the brand new (2mo) tank that we have. My show piece. I'm showing my family how the fish just about eat out of my hands when I dump 1/2 a jar of sinking pellet into the tank. It *instantaneously* falls to the bottom while simultaneously blowing to the four corners of the tank getting under every rock, in ever crevice, etc.

I grab my husband and we begin an emergency water change (just happened to have the mixed water handy, thank goodness). I'm syphoning like made to get as much of it as I can. The hermits are fast and furious at work trying to clean up my *mess*!

It took a week of 30-60g water changes to fight off ammo that would top the charts in a matter of 5 minutes. The week culminated in one massive 90g water change while pulling each and every rock out of the tank, into a bucket of saltwater, shaking them out before they went back in. Finally the tank was stable again. Never saw a nitrite or nitrate spike with this.

Whew.

My other massively stupid moment (Shamefully I have more than one... why is it the rest of you only have one?!) was adding melafix to my main and not knowing enough to turn off the protien skimmer. That resulted in a dry sump with 10g of water sitting on my floor, dripping down to the basement!