Things that make you say Oh S**t!

[dsaundry]

So I got home late last night and being that I was not tired and anxious to make sure my ato was working properly, {I had plumbed it in the night before} I excitedly filled the 50g barrel and ran it to test for leaks..it was perfect, no leaks at all. Feeling kind of smug about my work I proceded to putter around the den a bit setting a few more things up and organize the room a bit more, after doing this for about 5-10 minutes I heard a noise that just didn't sound right. Looked at the tank, nope it seems ok, looked down at the floor..water fricken everywhere. Fortunately I quickly figured out the problem, when I tested the pump and it ran water through the line it also crated a reverse siphon from the barrel, so it sucked about 10g of water on the floor before I was able to grab my cordless and drill a release hole in the pipe. So now that I have spent the last 2 hours cleaning up this bloody mess, here is the real problem..How the heck do I explain to my wife when she goes to shower in the morning, that there are no towels in the house because I have used every bloody one of them to suck up all this water....Oh boy, I am going to be in big twubble.:redface:

[lastlight]

Where is your laundry room and how quiet are the machines? I'd consider doing the towels to save face!

[dsaundry]

Unfortunately the laundry room is below the bedroom, I got busted this morning.:biggrin: Oh well I suppose there is always room for me to sleep with the dogs..:lol:

[mseepman]

I'm now a huge (did I say HUGE) fan of Shamwows...a box of them can be had at Costco and each little towel can soak up what 5 bath towels do. Used them far too often lately.

[Lampshade]

Sorry to hear about the leak, i've done some of those too. for cleanup I LOVE my shopvac, cleans up 99% of big water spills. Just use a towel to grab the rest. Shamwow's are a good idea, i have some for the car, but they'd probably work well for this aswell, i'll hopefully not be trying it.. but as i've learned, water can appear at any time.

[trinac]

I'm now a huge (did I say HUGE) fan of Shamwows...a box of them can be had at Costco and each little towel can soak up what 5 bath towels do. Used them far too often lately.

Good to know! I love Costco.

Sorry to hear of the spill, I hate those!!

[Ross]

OH S**T moment #1
Remembering that you turned on the RO unit to fill a 5 gallon pail about an hr after it would have been full. Good thing the ro unit is in the basement.

OH S**T moment #2
Doing the same thing as above a few weeks later.

(solution to above was to buy a sprinkler timer)

Run the timer for 45 minutes
Bucket still not full, run timer for 15 minutes more

OH S**T moment #3
Finding out 2hrs later that the timer failed and didnt turn off.

Open basement door, throw timer out the door at the garage wall in a hopes of it bursting forth with all its made in china parts.

OH S**T moment #4
Find Siding on the garage cracked from the timer previously thrown at said wall.


Solution, buy a garbage can and set timer on wrist watch.

And Shamwows ROCK!!

[globaldesigns]

Well that sucks.

My story is turning on a pump to test it with an external skimmer I had on my old JBJ28... Well I hooked up one end, but not the other and when I plugged it in, I started pumping water everywhere. What was bad about that is that I pumped water all over the electrical/surge bars. things were crackling and smoking, and basically my coralife timer/bar turned black and burnt to a crisp.

I think we all have a story.

[lorenz0]

since I don't have a check valve on my 25gal I forgot to close the ball valve when I turned off my pump during a waterchange.... lets just say I won't make that mistake again and I plan on putting a check valve in soon

[Beanz]

Mine was my first 30 gallon sw tank. At 2:00 in the morning i wake to a massively loud crack (tank was in my room) i had no idea what it was. i shot outta bed and my feet were soaked then my heart jumped into my throat. (i was verry lucky the breaker tripped or i wouldnt b here, noob mistake of having the power bar on the floor) then it took a while to get the water soaked up with towels got to bed at like 5:00. i think my dad said that the total damages were like $10 000 but it was covered on insurance the furnace had to b replaced bunch of ducting and total floor redo in my room (good thing or my dad would like kicked me outta the house.) i also was sleeping in the family room for like 2 months. all in all not fun but i not have a 45 and a 15 in my room!!!!!!!! gotta love the hobby

[dsaundry]

I have a shop vac, but at 11pm the wife would kill me for that too...call it double trouble.:mrgreen:

[jon.smolders]

Yup, I've done the "forget the RO filling a 5 gallon bucket."

I also went on Vacation for a week, and came back to find my 60 gallon tank half empty... powerheads barely running (I didn't have a sump at this point). I think the HOB skimmer overflowed somehow and pulled 30 gallons of water out. Thankfully everything was ok.

Then there was the time I was up for some unknown reason at midnight (thankfully), and I heard a sound of water... I thought "what's my wife doing having a shower at this time of night when she has to work in the morning?" The flexible hose popped off the return pump (in sump, and therefore no hose clamp) and it was shooting water at 700GPH all over the inside of my stand. I had to tear the tank down to dry out the carpet in our apartment.

The worst I think was when I was working with some live rock in a tote. I had a heater and a powerhead running in it. The next thing I know I'm grabbing the powerbar out of the water before I realize that I could have been seriously electrocuted if it were not for the AFCI breaker in the panel popping. That was scary.

[dsaundry]

Aren't these tales of woe fun, makes you feel so not alone in our errors.:mrgreen: Come on everybody ....Tell the truth and the tales of your errors in reefkeeping.:lol:

[muck]

This thread has Lance all over it...:lol::lol:

[randallino]

Bid there done that got the t-shirt....... :wink:
Nothing like having to leave work early because of a flood, forgetting about filling a top-up container and then going to work. :redface:

[Sean]

I woke up one morning had my shower and had one foot out the door when I heard my tank pump spitting air bubbles into the tank. Then I remember that i just filled the tank with water the night before. Turns out the cat had fun playing with the plumbing.

[tidal_waters]

1) used a coral life HOB super skimmer 65, and almost burnt the place down, not once but twice! waking up to the smell of smoke is not pleasant way to start the day.

2) built a DIY overflow, lost its feed and the display tank almost flooded. Thankfully the GF was home.

3) a panty hose is not a good substitute for a filter sock. had my panty hose clog up and spilled over the side of the sump all night. woke up next morning to quite the mess.

4) Turn on RO unit, forget to turn on timer, leave for the rest of the afternoon and have dinner return 6 hours later to a nice lagoon! Now the RO unit is in the downstairs bath tub.

[MMAX]

Sounds like I'm not the only one who forgets to turn off the RO unit. I've done this not once but probably about 10 times. I have to re-do a wall in my basement bathroom now before mold takes over.