wazzifam
Member
I hate when that happens. I suffer from that too!
next big mistake Listening to everyone, doing everything and Not finding this place untill after tank had issues because of above!
Mistakes You've Made
- Thread starter Stacef
- Start date
I hate when that happens. I suffer from that too!
next big mistake Listening to everyone, doing everything and Not finding this place untill after tank had issues because of above!
Reddog170
Active Member
Well the other night I get iratated with a used overflow bow I was given so I took it off. I then took some 1 1/4" pipe and put it together so that it would work as an overflow and then went an got the siphon started. Ohhh crap that water comes out FAST!! Way faster than my ruturn pump and the next thing I know about 1/4 of my tank water is on the floor I was shocked as the flippin breaker did NOT kick out and I had a huge mess. Then to top it off ,as if I hadnt made a big enough mess, I woke up my wife to help me get everything cleaned up and working right again. At least my couch is comfortable and my water change is done. Ohh the dining room floor is cleaned and mopped.
hehe.. i'm still pretty new to the salt water world but i would have to say i made a nice mistake last week while setting up my sump. I forgot to clamp my return hose to the pump and i ended up pumping about 5 gallons of water on to my carpet.... it's still drying out since this past tuesday. Better my house vs the GF's. I'd never hear the end of it.
One of my many mistakes was when I first got into SW... Went to LFS to get our first fish. Hubby wanted a "nemo". They didn't have any in stock so we got a gsm. A week later, went back and got a "nemo". LFS guy said they would be fine together. Well, within a week, the poor little O. clownfish was near death from being harassed so much, but stubborn hubby didn't want to bring either fish back to the store... So, we wound up setting up a little 10g. tank we had layin around for the little guy. All was fine, but the next week we were stupid enough to let the LFS guy talk us into an rbta. He said they were hardy and easy to keep, and that clownfish really need an anemone. HA! An anemone in a 10g newly established tank with NO lighting. Melted in less than a week and I still feel guilty to this day! :dunce:
Oh, and of course, I've flooded my house about a million times too!
Oh, and of course, I've flooded my house about a million times too!
clownmorph
Member
My biggest mistake was after not even being in the hobby a year I decided to start dosing with Kalk. Well, typical of me not to completely read the instructions. I mixed it up and just dumped it straight into the tank! Needless to say it looked like the rocky mountains the next morning and I lost everything but two triggers. Wow, never did that again 
Stacef
Well-Known Member
I just added this to my chronicle, but think it needs to be added to this list too..
This wasn't my mistake or my tank, but though I'd share.
My friend here in town was moving his 75g SW tank out of the living room. To do so, he was filling all of 10 culligan jugs and some rubbermaid bins with the current water, to just add again after it's moved. He got all of the jugs filled, and the tank moved.
Started to add the jugs back to the tank. On the second to last one, he added it, and the fish instantly croaked. Along with all inverts, and corals dimished within minutes.
He was freaking out, calling me asking what he'd done. I asked him what else has been in the culligan jugs, he said ONLY tank water! So, I got off of the phone with him, he walked back to the tank and there were bubble/suds pouring out of his skimmer, and building higher on the surface of the tank by the second.
He called his wife to ask what could've happened. She remembered---she forgot to tell him she used one of the Culligan jugs the week prior to mix their carpet shampoo in and forgot to mark which one.....
Needless to say, this was 10 days ago. You will never believe or you will, lol what survived. ALL of his GSP survived and doing great.
Lesson learned, don't let wife use Culligan jugs...
This wasn't my mistake or my tank, but though I'd share.
My friend here in town was moving his 75g SW tank out of the living room. To do so, he was filling all of 10 culligan jugs and some rubbermaid bins with the current water, to just add again after it's moved. He got all of the jugs filled, and the tank moved.
Started to add the jugs back to the tank. On the second to last one, he added it, and the fish instantly croaked. Along with all inverts, and corals dimished within minutes.
He was freaking out, calling me asking what he'd done. I asked him what else has been in the culligan jugs, he said ONLY tank water! So, I got off of the phone with him, he walked back to the tank and there were bubble/suds pouring out of his skimmer, and building higher on the surface of the tank by the second.
He called his wife to ask what could've happened. She remembered---she forgot to tell him she used one of the Culligan jugs the week prior to mix their carpet shampoo in and forgot to mark which one.....
Needless to say, this was 10 days ago. You will never believe or you will, lol what survived. ALL of his GSP survived and doing great.
Lesson learned, don't let wife use Culligan jugs...
michelle9491
Member
When we moved to our new house 3 years ago I saved as much water from the tank (55) as I could. Got the tank set up, but needed a little more water. So I mixed up some & grabbed the water conditioner out of the box & started mixing. Later put it in the tank & added the fish, but I couldnt figure out why there was a rainbows all over the top of the water. I guess when packing someone put a bottle of gun oil in my fish supplies box. It was the same size & color. Needless to say, I had to tear down the tank, wash it & re-caulk it & wait for it to cycle. Poor fish lived in a bucket for weeks. Lesson learned!! Always read labels!!!
aftbn
New Member
While making RO/DI in a five gallon container on the sink counter, forgetting to turn it off until I went to take trash out through the garage under the kitchen and seeing the waterfall and small pond collecting on the garage floor.
From that point on never forgetting to make sure the container was in the sink and no stopper in the drain.
From that point on never forgetting to make sure the container was in the sink and no stopper in the drain.
Tru2nr
Well-Known Member
haha thats a regular thing in my house because i have a 50gpd ro unit and fill 6gallon jugs so when the jugs are almost full i've already forgotton about it untill i hear the infamous name called from the kitchen and its like uhhh :tumble: my bad
michael_cb_125
Well-Known Member
The Biggest Mistake Ive made (where I got Injured) was when my 100 gallon over flowed. Somehow the water got onto the power supply for all the lighting and pumps. I FREAKED. I did not want my "stuff" to be ruined. So I grabbed the power "strip". It had flames coming out of it. It was pretty hot, but I did not get burnt to badly. I GOT FRIED. My brother had to literally pull me off the cord. It was like I was Stuck. My Whole arm and shoulder was sore for about 5 days.
~Michael
It was pretty hot, but I did not get burnt to badly. I GOT FRIED. My brother had to literally pull me off the cord. It was like I was Stuck. My Whole arm and shoulder was sore for about 5 days.~Michael
Wolfgang8810
Active Member
My Worst mistake is not covering my tank when the cleaning people came. Apparently they use some kind of aerosol that newks tanks. I now clean my own house $@$#!%$#!
Before
After
Before
After
Well let's see= I think the worst thing i ever did was when I was 16, I had a gorgeous 55 with a ton of very purple fiji rock, a hippo tang,a coral beauty a yellow tang, clowns, lots of cool stuff and a pink tipped anemone.
I got a case of ich and in my frustration, dumped some coppersafe in there, not knowing how toxic it is to invertebrates. I left for the day to go to a concert with some friends and returned home to a dead, cloudy tank. I was so heartbroken, not realizing what I was doing. I couldn't even fish them out myself. I'll never forget the dead, toxic chemical smell.I had my stepdad fish them out. I couldn't look at them.
The second time I had my tank stocked, I used low salinity to treat the ich. It was'nt working well, so I asked my mom to pick me up some medication from the fish store. She came home with a different medication other than what i had asked her to pick up and she dumped it in my tank. The combination of low salinity and medication was a disaster and I lost the prettiest powder blue I have ever seen.
I wish I had known about these great forums back then. I don't even know if the forums back then were as resourceful as this one. This forum is great because we can share our successes and failures, as knowledge for hopefully doing a better job at reefkeeping.
This time I am doing a 20 gallon quarantine. I am hoping things turn out a lot better this time. I was almost beginning to think saltwater tanks will never work out, but seeing so many successful, beautiful systems makes me have faith that if you educate yourself, take your time and learn from mistakes it can work.
I got a case of ich and in my frustration, dumped some coppersafe in there, not knowing how toxic it is to invertebrates. I left for the day to go to a concert with some friends and returned home to a dead, cloudy tank. I was so heartbroken, not realizing what I was doing. I couldn't even fish them out myself. I'll never forget the dead, toxic chemical smell.I had my stepdad fish them out. I couldn't look at them.
The second time I had my tank stocked, I used low salinity to treat the ich. It was'nt working well, so I asked my mom to pick me up some medication from the fish store. She came home with a different medication other than what i had asked her to pick up and she dumped it in my tank. The combination of low salinity and medication was a disaster and I lost the prettiest powder blue I have ever seen.
I wish I had known about these great forums back then. I don't even know if the forums back then were as resourceful as this one. This forum is great because we can share our successes and failures, as knowledge for hopefully doing a better job at reefkeeping.
This time I am doing a 20 gallon quarantine. I am hoping things turn out a lot better this time. I was almost beginning to think saltwater tanks will never work out, but seeing so many successful, beautiful systems makes me have faith that if you educate yourself, take your time and learn from mistakes it can work.
yungreefer2410
Well-Known Member
how did that happen? that really sucks misaskies