Your dumbest reef related move? Here's mine....

[Reef Supplies]

This happened right around 3-4 years ago. It was a nice tank, wall mount 120 LBS, mixed sps/lps with right around 100 lbs of live rock. I was doing a nice clean-up that day...the usual water change, topped-off my CR, phosban reactor...ect. The last thing I had to do was fill up one of the reactors with carbon, I had no time, so rather than waiting till the next day I decided to dump it into a sock and place the sock in my drain area of the sump.

The next morning when the lights came on my tank was black. Everything, rocks, corals, clams....overflow, EVERYTHING was covered in pulverized carbon dust! The sock got loose and ended up on the business end of my drain, so for 8-9 hours the drain was pounding the crap out of the carbon turning it into dust.

The recovery was very very long! I did not want to do a full tear down so I took my time. I lost most of my coral over time, the fish were not affected as they all made it.

My dumba$$ move!

[Gripenfelter]

Took apart my UV sterilizer without verifying that the pump was off.

Took a bath and then when I tried to unplug the pump.

ZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAPPPPPP!!!!!

No damage to tank.

[Reef Supplies]

Took apart my UV sterilizer without verifying that the pump was off.

Took a bath and then when I tried to unplug the pump.

ZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAPPPPPP!!!!!

No damage to tank.

Ouch!

[Zoaelite]

Little to much force :neutral:.
http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/8163/94964083.jpg (http://img847.imageshack.us/i/94964083.jpg/)

[Reef Supplies]

wow

[Bblinks]

Little to much force :neutral:.
http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/8163/94964083.jpg (http://img847.imageshack.us/i/94964083.jpg/)

Levi, that's such a classic picture! Its funy because I had the exact skimmer and let me tell you it was a pi$$ off trying to take that off.

[sphelps]

Here's mine

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/DSC_0006.jpg

[Aquattro]

I set up a 180g and filled it with SPS.....

[Reef Supplies]

Here's mine

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/DSC_0006.jpg

Kalk OD?

I set up a 180g and filled it with SPS.....

Still paying for that mistake huh?

[Aquaria]

Mine was adding a manderian to a new 46g tank about 4m old. My other one was a couple weeks ago When I was at the hospital when my g/f was giving birth I forgot to tell the inlaws that they needed to do topoffs and watch my cpr overflow so on my 3rd or 4th night i had a nightmare that my tank overflowed so irushed home to find my Tom aqualifter had failed and the water was about a half inch from the top of the tank and also about an inch above my return pump.... Fishy 6th sense FTW.

[Bblinks]

Powder brown and Achille in the same tank.

[globaldesigns]

Levi, that's such a classic picture! Its funy because I had the exact skimmer and let me tell you it was a pi$$ off trying to take that off.

I still use a hydor skimmer, but don't use the o-ring on the opening, removed that long time ago, thus easy to take off and put back on. Really I don't know why it was that way, as the skimmer still works like a damn without it.

My first stupid episode was on my first saltwater tank. 28G JBJ, cleaning skimmer, took it apart, but didn't put it back together when I decided to plug it back in. Water pumping on the floor, as it was a hang on back skimmer, all over electrical as well. The programmable outlet was toast, as it turned black and was on fire. I was standing in this mess also, trying to unplug everything. Nothing happened to me though.

Seconds: With new tank, while trying to figure things out with this main tank, sump stuff... on 2 occasions, while trying to figure out flow with valves, had water pour over the top tank on my head. NOT FUN!!! Picture me sitting there after this happening and almost crying, wondering what the HELL I got myself into.

[Lampshade]

First tank, had a stick on temp gauge, and a digital one. Battery died in the digital, so was going off the tank one for awhile because I was lazy. Tank one stopped reading one day and thought "stupid cheap piece of crap". So when I finally got around to it a day or 2 later I replaced the battery's in my digital.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p63/mikey_is_me_bucket/Camera671.jpg

Turns out the stick on temp thing was right. My heater had just stuck on so it was now out of range. DOH!.

[Reef Supplies]

heh those are some blunders :neutral:

Congrats on the baby Aquaria!

[Lance]

I would love to join in on this thread, however, I have never done anything that could be considered dumb. Just ask my wife, she'll vouch for me. :mrgreen:

[fishytime]

my dumbest move was two years ago when I moved from one house to another, I decided to keep the 1" worth of sand that was in the tank.....I went from this

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/JDigital/IMG_0458.jpg





to this

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o19/fishytime/IMGP4427.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o19/fishytime/IMGP4426.jpg

full on crash that killed absolutely everything except three hermit crabs in about 24 hours.....that was a large coleman extreme cooler filled half full of dead coral and fish......certainly my dumbest reef moment and my darkest saltwater days

[globaldesigns]

But Doug, even with the crash, today's tank is still beautiful... Maybe that is what I need a full on crash, too make me start over?

[MarkoD]

Setup auto feeders on tank for a month while on vacation. Came back to a cyano problem. Nothing died, it just looked ugly for 2 months afterwards

[reefgirl189]

my dumbest move was two years ago when I moved from one house to another, I decided to keep the 1" worth of sand that was in the tank.....I went from this

full on crash that killed absolutely everything except three hermit crabs in about 24 hours.....that was a large coleman extreme cooler filled half full of dead coral and fish......certainly my dumbest reef moment and my darkest saltwater days


I'm so sorry. That's tragic.

Luckily I haven't had any ridiculously dumb moves, I've been able to correct mine in time.

It's kinda why I joined this site, so I could learn from others mistakes and not make so many of my own.

[Coralgurl]

Since I bought my ro unit, I have flooded my kitchen at least 5 times, water pouring into my daughters room in the basement each time...she comes running up yelling what the he'll is my problem.....another reefer suggested I put the jugs in a rubbermaid just in case. Start doing that, then start using same rubber made for water changes....set the timer but still get the floods....moved ro to basement, hopefully that's the end of the flooding...as soon as we get the float valve installed....:biggrin:

[gregzz4]

If you want nearly flood proof, you could copy my setup. There is a float valve, but I still turn off the feed when the drum is full.

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx136/Gregzz4/75%20Gallon%20Build/Drum2.jpg

[dwerbs87]

I had my ro/di line run to my tank with just a ball valve I would turn on and then turn off after about 30 mins. I knew it was dumb, my wife told me it was dumb when I had a bit of a spill. I kept telling myself I would set up a proper float I just didn't really have space for it in our apartment. Xmas eve I see it is a little low so I turn it on and then start loading the car with gifts we are bringing out to my moms. Everything is all loaded, lock the door and leave. Xmas morning we are opening presents and I get a phone call from the building manager saying that there was water leaking down last night and they had to go into my apartment. So the whole main area of our place was wrecked, flooring, baseboards etc. The ceiling of the apartment below me was soggy and leaking through their light fixtures. And the main floor apartment had their breaker box explode after water got into it. I ended up selling my tank because all of the floor needed to be replaced and I didn't have the resources or drive to move the tank to replace the floors then move it back, and was out of the hobby for 2 years.
Now we are in our new house and I have the top off pump up from tanks in the basement, being controlled by 2 float switches connected to the apex, a solenoid valve in the line, PLUS a float valve in the tank in case the first two lines of defense fail.

[makana]

I dropped my diy light fixture into the tank and went in after it. The only thing that died was the bulbs. Still not sure how I escaped without being shocked.

[marie]

My dumbest move? Introducing Ich to my display after being ich free for 6 yrs :twised:

[NorthernCoral]

Moved my tank a couple of weeks ago, had most of my corals, inverts and a tomatoe clown in a bucket overnight. Put a new heater in the bucket and turned what I what I thought was the temperature dial to 79. Checked the bucket just before bed and everything seemed fine. Awoke in the morning to an awful stench and to find out that what I thought was the temp adjust dial on the heater was actually for calibration. Was too devastated too take pics...However after seeing fishytimes nightmare my problems dont seem too bad.

[Casey8]

Moving to another house, I was putting all the fish from a 250 gallon tank to a 90 gallon tank. Left the old house that night and brought the big tank with me into the new house, got it ready so I could transfer the fish back. The next morning when I got back to the old house to get the fish, they were all dead because the thermometer kept running up to 42C didn't stop. I was devastated looking at their dead bodies floating or sinking around at the bottom of the tank and I just coudn't even cry.

[asylumdown]

Went out of town for 5 days. Normally, my auto-top off container was a 2 gallon pale in the cabinet under my 90 gallon, but it could hold a max of 4 days of worth of water, so I filled my 20 gallon water change rubbermaid and put the top off pump in it. I didn't move the output of the osmolator pump though, which was clipped to the side of my sump in the cabinet. What I didn't realize was that having 10 times the normal amount of water above the pump in the rubber-maid combined with the extra height the hose gained going up and over the top of the bin was enough to start a siphon the first time the osmolator pump kicked in. It emptied about 15 gallons of top up water in to the sump on the first day we were gone, and since it was only 5 days, I didn't have anyone coming to check on the tank.

Thankfully nothing died, but it overflowed the sump, filled the cabinet with salt water, and spread out across our finished concrete floors. By the time we got home, it had mostly dried so there was a huge salted patch that had eaten through the finish of the floor. The argument that started nearly spelled the end of that tank.

[Maverick00]

Since I bought my ro unit, I have flooded my kitchen at least 5 times, water pouring into my daughters room in the basement each time...she comes running up yelling what the he'll is my problem.....another reefer suggested I put the jugs in a rubbermaid just in case. Start doing that, then start using same rubber made for water changes....set the timer but still get the floods....moved ro to basement, hopefully that's the end of the flooding...as soon as we get the float valve installed....:biggrin:

Im not sure what size jugs your using, but I throw my 5gal's right into the kitchen sink so overflow is impossible except into the drain.

Havent come across any major problems yet other than some sps stn, bubble algae im too lazy to manually pick out, and the idea i can keep more than one chromis in a 33gal tank at once :)

[asylumdown]

oh, and probably even worse - after i set up my very first salt water tank for the very first time, I looked at one of the pieces of live rock near the sand and said "OH WOW! There's like these cool little anemones starting to grow! So awesome!!!"

The correct response should have been to have taken that rock out, locked it in a shed, then set the shed on fire.

[Cugio]

Yesterday, went to safeway and bought a bunch of frozen stuff. Took the bag of fish food out and set it aside. Forgot to put back in. There goes $80. I'll never stock pile frozen food again.

[waynemah]

Messing with a biopellet reactor, left the pump in the sump with the hose attached (aimed right at my power bars). While waiting for pellets to rinse off I decided to label some switches, couldnt figure out what one was for, switched it on and watered my electronics. The sound of zapping and popping is pretty scary. :redface:

[spawn]

Yeh I redcently bought some new to me, used halides. So naturallty when I got home I set them up to see that they worked & to see how they made the tank look. They worked & looked awesome. Trouble was that the fish room is not finished wiring yet so I used extension cords. I had to unplug the deep freeze to plug in one of the ballasts. Then after I unplugged the ballasts I forgot to plug the freezer back in. I didn't find out until about a week later when my wife was at yoga & I needed frozen pizza for dinner.:) Then stench that came out of that $#%! freezer was enough to make me puke literally, & had to have a shower because of the smell. Also The dogs were running after me cause they liked the smell. Always plug the freezer back in. & agree with Brads comment about filling tanks with sps.:twised:Yesterday, went to safeway and bought a bunch of frozen stuff. Took the bag of fish food out and set it aside. Forgot to put back in. There goes $80. I'll never stock pile frozen food again.

[gregzz4]

Messing with a biopellet reactor, left the pump in the sump with the hose attached (aimed right at my power bars). While waiting for pellets to rinse off I decided to label some switches, couldnt figure out what one was for, switched it on and watered my electronics. The sound of zapping and popping is pretty scary. :redface:
So do you have some GFIs? :mrgreen:

[gregzz4]

Being a newb, my dumbest move so far is kinda boring for the rest of you ...
Don't drill your sump :wink:
I bought a 50g for a sump and drilled the face of it for 2 external pumps. Since then I have reconfigured it twice and have wished both times that I had never drilled it as I have gone with internal pumps.
I suffered one external leak, and have since spent time and money messing with the irregular shapes due the the patches I placed over the holes I cut. Each time I re-designed it, the baffles ended up right where the holes are :mad:
If I only knew now what I knew in November .....
It just failed a baffle test ( minor ) and if it fails again, it might get smashed and I'm starting over with a brand new tank :twised:
I've spent over $100 on plumbing and glass so far ....
I'm ready to spend another $200 on a new tank and glass just so I can tell the world to ......... yeah I'm upset

[reef-keeper]

Me l bought a RO/DI unit turned it on forgot about it flooded my basement. THREE TIMES. Once was bad twice is just embarrassing but three times is just get out of the house and go buy your water stupid or finally install a float valve

[MMAX]

I've overflowed water jugs so many times that it doesn't really bother me anymore. Just sucks that I'll eventually have to replace a wall in my basement because of water damage. The dumbest thing ever? Setting up my dosing pump and chemicals, was going to put in my sump room. Had my 1 gallon alk jug filled with the lid off when I heard one of my kids crying upstairs. Knew I shouldn't have done this but I set the open container on top of the sump. I even said to myself "take it off there" and then figured that it would be ok. When I came back down, guess what was in the sump? Was extremely lucky that a 1 gallon dose of alk did nothing, everything survived.

[fishoholic]

I once left my automatic top off hose just resting on the edge of the tank, normally held into place with a zip tie. The hose fell into the tank, back siphoning water from the tank into my RO top off container then over flowing from the container onto the floor.

I had a 6 bulb T5 light over my QT tank, it rested on two pieces of wood that sat on top of the tank. Had finished with the QT tank (a few weeks ago, at the time) but hadn't got around to cleaning the water out or putting the lights away. Came home after work and found the T5 lights inside the tank of water, no idea how long they had been in there for, but needless to say the lights didn't work after that :sad:

[doch]

Having the excellent attention span that I have, I have (several times) turned an output from my controller on or off to test it, or add some chemicals, or... who knows... and then gone to bed. I've managed to drop my temp as low as 70, bring my alk as high as 19dKh (I think thats the right scale), and Ca as high as 600. I've also poured 8 hours worth of RO water all over the floor of my basement.
UGH.

Ooooohhh.... butterfly!!!

Oops, back on track... I think that I've learned my lesson... I think.

[Reef Pilot]

I have a Vertex In-280 skimmer in my basement sump, and just before I drain and clean it, I raise the water level up a bit, to get rid of the rest of the foam, before dialing it down and removing the top piece. However, I have to be careful not to raise the water too high, or it goes into overflow mode, and spills out the top.

Well, one time, as per usual, I raised the water level, and went upstairs, planning to return in a few minutes to drain and clean the skimmer. But left it a bit longer this time. And then I heard a screeching sound coming from downstairs. I rushed down, and my fire alarm was going, with a strong smell of something burning, and water splashing out of my skimmer.

My skimmer is tight against the side of my sump, which is also against the wall there. I also had a power bar hanging there with a timer and plug for my refugium light. And sure enough, some water splashed onto that timer and plug,and shorted it out. It was all black and melted.

Interestingly, though, it did not trigger the breaker for that circuit. And no, I did not have a GFI. You can beat me for that, if you want, but I had my reasons.

Since then, I stay present when raising my skimmer water level, just prior to cleaning it. I also added a lexan splash guard to the side of the sump, where my skimmer is, so the worst it can do is just overflow back into my sump. And I moved the power bar.

[Reef Supplies]

haha these are soem great DOH! moments....some are also tragic :-(

[Finnegan]

Been in the hobby long enough not to have only one stupid mistake. I punish myself though.

[Jakegr]

I've only been in the hobby for 3-4 years and thanks to my ocd relating to tank safety I've only had one minor flood.

I went away for a month on vacation and left my protein skimmer on with a huge reservoir for the skimmate. Well the day before I got home for some reason the skimmer over reacted, the storage container overflowed, and I got about 1-2 gallons of water on the floor. Unfortunately the overflowing skimmer set the ATO off so salinity dropped... I think I got away with that one though as nothing died. If it had happened sooner, I may have lost a lot of livestock too. So now I turn my skimmer off on holiday. Eventually I plan on installing a float valve in my the storage container to automatically shut off my skimmer in case of an overflow. This can really happen any time, even while I'm at work so I think it's good idea even when not on vacation.

And I'm sure everyone has a money related mistake, here's mine:

Bought an Aqua Medic 2 pump doser for $275. Despite being recommended by my LFS, it turns out the thing is a a POS. So I sell it a month later for $150 to someone that likes them. There is essentially no difference between that and flushing $125 down the toilet.

[Kryptic4L]

worked for a day straight to set up my tank after a move finished at 3 am and had a 6:30 am flight to the dominican half way through my trip got a phone call saying my basement. was flooded...... the good was its unfinished.. apparently my overflow plumbing job had enough splash into the sump that it slowly splashed out into the basement + extra ato for vaction

[Enigma]

Wow! Some truly terrible moments have been documented in this thread.

I'm just starting out, and I've made a few mistakes. They pale in comparison to most of these, though.

[martinmcnally]

Dumbest move? Stumbling upon a picture of a reef tank on the internet when i was 20!

[Coralgurl]

Me and water definitely do not mix. This is not reef related....but, I'm a girl, I have long hair, long hair clogs drains. Pull the pieces under the sink off, unclog drain, don't put back together, but keep cleaning leaving water running. Finish up, come downstairs and there's water pouring out of the light fixture in the kitchen. I guess the good thing is that it's above the sink.....:twised: and now I have a lovely water stain on the ceiling.....and the light bulbs are full of water.....sigh

[troni]

Me and water definitely do not mix. This is not reef related....but, I'm a girl, I have long hair, long hair clogs drains. Pull the pieces under the sink off, unclog drain, don't put back together, but keep cleaning leaving water running. Finish up, come downstairs and there's water pouring out of the light fixture in the kitchen. I guess the good thing is that it's above the sink.....:twised: and now I have a lovely water stain on the ceiling.....and the light bulbs are full of water.....sigh

Ya I hate that too. Do you leave clumps in the shower like my wife?


I'm new and my only hope is I don't flood my house. Whether its tank breaking or whatever! So thanks for sharing your...mistakes.