Worst accident or mistake?

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Beej1254

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Joined
Apr 29, 2015
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613
Location
Ohio
Just curious and also thinking maybe we can share some of our worst mistakes or accidents that happened to our tanks. Things happen unexpectedly or maybe we just didn't do enough research before trying something.

As of right now I don't have much to contribute myself but this morning I came downstairs to BOTH my powerheads suction cups failed and they were blasting my sand bed around. My fish were not happy at all.
 
I forgot about the time I put a UV clarifier in my fuge and wiped out probably 90% of my Copepods living there. Oops.

I was moving some things in my sump around and placed it in there for 2 days not thinking anything off it and now I see almost no pods around.
 
Forgot my ro/di system on for a week and accidentally had the hot water instead of the cold going so when I realized it was running I had a couple hundred gallons of water on my basement floor and fried all the filters


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Changing out the whole carbon cartridge in my beginner days. Actually not that long ago lol.
 
I was 12, doing a water change, and I forgot to unplug the tank. My glass heater exploded , sending bits of glass everywhere and steam billowing up from the exposed heating coil that was now directly exposed to the tank water. Miraculously, there was no damage of any kind besides the heater itself- no lost fish, no hurt people, and the tank itself was undamaged. It was terrifying though, and I've never left a tank plugged in during a water change since. (I also never, ever buy glass heaters anymore :lol: )
 
One time I left a non fish safe rubber band in the tank for some reason and I woke up the next morning to see the tank water milk white. The light wasn't even on and I could tell. It smelled oily and half the fish were already dead with the other half struggling. I saved the rest of them and spent the whole day doing water changes and re setting up the tank in the dead of a colorado blizzard. Bad day but hey, now I know!
 
One time I left a non fish safe rubber band in the tank for some reason and I woke up the next morning to see the tank water milk white. The light wasn't even on and I could tell. It smelled oily and half the fish were already dead with the other half struggling. I saved the rest of them and spent the whole day doing water changes and re setting up the tank in the dead of a colorado blizzard. Bad day but hey, now I know!


There's such thing as fish safe rubber bands?? Lol I used regular ole rubber bands for Java ferns all the time... Oops...

I've done everything from a powerhead digging in the sand, I forgot to turn off my powerhead and shot my new puffer into the glass because they are poor swimmers, I've forgotten water conditioner a few times then remembered like 30 mins later, chased a ropefish across the living room floor... Sure there's more:)


Caleb
 
Forgot to unplug a heater, mixed 3 yellow lab mbuna with a tropical community in a 29 (i was new at things), forgot prime, forgot to fertilizer for 3 days in a row, rarely did a wc when I first started, and probably some others that I can't think of right now

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Didn't know my angelicus botia was still in a cave I was attaching an anubias to. It jump onto the floor and I picked it up not thinking and got barbed several times.

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I did the whole forgot to unplug the heater when doing a pwc myself. I heard a crackling sound and started to smell burned rubber. Than I noticed the suction cup holder for the heater was melting and smoking. Somehow the chemicals from the melted rubber didn't hurt my fish at all.

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Didn't know my angelicus botia was still in a cave I was attaching an anubias to. It jump onto the floor and I picked it up not thinking and got barbed several times.

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This made me lol, sorry! :hide: I've been barbed by a couple of different loaches over the years, I know it's not fun. Especially not 6 inch clowns :facepalm:
 
Wow it's crazy just how many different situations you all described so far. And I'm glad to see some of you are still alive and doing well haha. No electric shocks or cuts that ended up being too bad.

Hopefully we can all continue to learn from each other on this forum!
 
There's such thing as fish safe rubber bands?? Lol I used regular ole rubber bands for Java ferns all the time... Oops...

I've done everything from a powerhead digging in the sand, I forgot to turn off my powerhead and shot my new puffer into the glass because they are poor swimmers, I've forgotten water conditioner a few times then remembered like 30 mins later, chased a ropefish across the living room floor... Sure there's more:)


Caleb

The rubber band was a weird green one that really decomposed fast in the water. I have no idea why... really was a freak accident and I do think that all rubber bands are safe but I must have ended up with a strange set of circumstances. :facepalm:
 
This made me lol, sorry! :hide: I've been barbed by a couple of different loaches over the years, I know it's not fun. Especially not 6 inch clowns :facepalm:

No worries, I laughed too! Can't imagine the barbs on those guys!

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Plugging heater and light in backwards. I use commercial time clocks for lighting control, and an electtical junction box for the outlets for heater, filter, and lighting. Took me a couple of hours to figure out why everyone was acting weird when I got home from work.

My lesson, always test the control after install to make sure it turns off the correct item.

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