Have any of you ever lost it???

[fido19]

I know most of you have been in this hobby for years if not a decade. But has there been a time where you just lost it and just wanted to punch a wrasse or a clown in the face
i will start

About a year ago my 6 month old tank was doing well and i was using a Toms aquatic ps2 sump with skimmer (it was decent) but then one day out of the blue it died on me. First the skimmer went out and then slowly the motor for the sump. Now as any sane individual would do i started pulling my hair and tried to figure out what was wrong. i gave it a few minutes and an hour **** didnt work
2 hours later i opened it and found out that the motor was clogged i laughed it off and cleaned it. After putting everything back i turned it on and it worked for about 15 seconds and i hear this loud pop and smoke coming out of the sump. It was done, shot to hell, so again as any sane individual would do i took the pump outside my house put it on the floor and started hitting it with a hammer broke it into pieces and walked away

For about 4 days i was without any form of filtration being a newb at that time i was worried and kept changing the water every day(my back has never been the same again)

Anyway i have come down to an eheim canister filter for now (i live in an apartment with hardwood floor, cant get a sump) it works great keeps my parameters in check its good
so why don't you guys tell me one of your stories where you just lost it

[Mrfish55]

I have a High Fin Snapper that I would love to pan fry and turn into sandwiches, that SOB has eaten nearly 1k worth of fish.

[fido19]

that made me lol hard

[toytech]

Come home after work and find 55 gal of fish soup thanks to a busted heater , need i say more.

[fido19]

that one is a little horrible toytech how much did you end up losing
i have had my share of busted heaters
you would think that by now they would actually come out with a good quality one that actually works properly

[toytech]

I was actualy lucky most of my fish and all my coral survived but i still lost a blenny , goby , and 2 wrasses .Im buying a reef keeper lite next week so that will never happen again.

[fido19]

yeah i am getting a reefkeeper lite(L1) too

[MarkoD]

i use to lose it everytime i saw a fish bug my moorish idol.

any fish that did got removed from my tank and the entire species banned

[fido19]

i used to do that with my blue tang but then the fish back stabbed me and killed two of my gobies (i dont even know how)

[reefgirl189]

I wouldn't say "lose it" but I did get pretty upset with myself over the first fish that died in my care.

This was back in my freshwater days in grade school. I lost a clown pleco. I think I grieved for that fish. It all seems so silly now in retrospect.

[chandigz]

While waiting for a buddy to come help move my tank I decided to finally rid some rock of the ugly brown palys that were taking over. I put on my gloves and glasses and proceeded to rip the little bastards off. I had a great idea. I would run the rock under really hot water to kill every last bit of tissue that was left. Little did I know that the palytoxin was becoming aerosolized and I was breathing it in. Within minutes I was developing a bad cough. We quickly moved the tank and my buddy left to go to work. By this time (1 hour later) my lungs were on fire and I was feeling really bad. I sat down on the couch and the next thing I new it was 12 hours later. I was sicker then I've ever been and completely delirious. I managed to crawl on my hands and knees, stopping and laying on the floor a few times to make it 12 feet over to my buckets of fish and tubs of coral and dump them into the tank. I then lost conciousness again and struggled in and out of conciousness, completely delirious, barely able to breath, with the most intense cold sweats, nausia, shakes, till the next day. At some point I made it to my bed. When I finally was able to function I knew by the smell of dead coral that I didn't want to look at my tank. Complete wipe out!!! Over $6000 in coral and livestock dead. Worst of all I poured 7 of the nicest croceas and maximas(these were like ultra plus) and 2 rhizo coral down the sink. Loosing these hurt the most as they were basicly irreplacable. I wanted to cry. I wanted to kill. I wanted to smash. I yelled and screammed at the top of my lungs even tho there was know one around to hear. Everyone experiences a crash at some point I told myself. But why me? Why now? Why not when I just started and why now when I was fully stocked? I had to keep telling myself to look at the positive side that at least I was alive and now there is a lot more real estate to put stuff or I probably would have completey lost it and smashed everything.

[fido19]

chandigz i don't know what to say man i am really sorry for that huge loss man its not small but dude did you actually crawl out of your bed and then dump your corals into the tank (respect bro), everyone of us has had a loss one way or the other but you know i think we all have done well, we learned from our mistakes(hopefully)
but hey thanks for sharing your story

[chris121277]

Wow chandigz....how do you follow that!

At least your still able to carry on with the hobby

[chandigz]

Ya. I crawled hand and knees from my couch to the tank. 12 feet. I had to stop and lay down several times. It took me a while. It took everything I had to try to save my live stock. I only had enough energy to dump it in before I lost consiousness again. All my coral and clams were in tubs for over 14 hours and were now in a pile at the bottom of the tank. I figure this led to chemical warfair and a domino effect which led to the whipeout. I had just about every symptom for a fatal palytoxin poisoning. I should have been in the hospital but I live alone so there was no one to save me. I'm really lucky to be here to be able to tell my story and warn people not to try to get rid of palys with hot or boiling water.

[fido19]

yo man glad you are still around but dude its amazing that you still have a place in your heart for this hobby

[chandigz]

yo man glad you are still around but dude its amazing that you still have a place in your heart for this hobby

It'll take a lot more then a near death experience and total wipeout to get me out of this hobby. If I have my way, Ill use my tank as a casket when the time comes.

[fido19]

It'll take a lot more then a near death experience and total wipeout to get me out of this hobby. If I have my way, Ill use my tank as a casket when the time comes.

you sir have a real good sense of humour +1 internets to you

[canadianbudz604]

chandigz thats crazy man... im at the boiling point now, about ready to fire the tank right out the window with everything in it. But patience is key i guess

:laluot_14:

[bauder1986]

Chandigz, you the chuck norris of determined sw guys...

My story....well ill shorten it as much as possible.:pop2:

first tank had a seal burst at the exact same time as the sump shattered in my bedroom thus letting 60 plus gallons flood the basement floor and short the electrical in my sleep, good morning to me!:shocked!:

Second tank was pathetic in comparison and had nothing but problems with red slime and aptasia(months and months:neutral:)

Third tank was a DIY acrylic that had a seal burst (oh joy! I love surfing!)

Fourth tank had a heater go bad on me the same day i brought home some of the most beautiful sps and lps i have ever seen in my life (Pigs dont fly away but money sure does:wink:)

And since then i have had no problems(knock on wood with a jack hammer:twised:) and im on my seventh tank working into my 8th tank next week:biggrin:

Oh and i had many fish that ****ed me off so much that i actually tried to surprise punch them from above! Only got one ever and that fish is now the best fish i have ever owned! Polite, clean and friendly.


Sometimes it felt that as soon as i broke ahead something reach out and dragged me back:grab:. We all learn from this crap, its like any serious hobby we have and become compasionate about.

[fido19]

you know what they say spare the rod spoil the child
but yeah it seems everyone has had their share of leakage, it really sucks when you have hardwood floors (like me)
the damages go up and up
and yeah punching a fish or too is always a good idea, puts em in their places

well guys keep the stories coming its really good to get em out their

[toytech]

Had to flick my green spot puffer in the face to get him to stop bitting me when i put my hand in the tank , totally worked .

[fido19]

Had to flick my green spot puffer in the face to get him to stop bitting me when i put my hand in the tank , totally worked .

i dont get it with some fish, they act like dogs you know, its as if they respond to training and stuff

[Leah]

I have a High Fin Snapper that I would love to pan fry and turn into sandwiches, that SOB has eaten nearly 1k worth of fish.

Did it eat them all at once?

[tt101]

I wouldn't say "lose it" but I did get pretty upset with myself over the first fish that died in my care.

This was back in my freshwater days in grade school. I lost a clown pleco. I think I grieved for that fish. It all seems so silly now in retrospect.

haha this is so similar to me, i also cried and sobbed all day when my first fish bowl of goldfish died......dropped it while trying to clean it and it shattered with goldfish flopping everywhere.....bad bad day

[fido19]

haha this is so similar to me, i also cried and sobbed all day when my first fish bowl of goldfish died......dropped it while trying to clean it and it shattered with goldfish flopping everywhere.....bad bad day

the sad thing is my first fish was killed by my room mate sob overfed them and polluted the water. being a newb at that time i really didnt know what to do

[asylumdown]

The closest I came to abandoning the hobby was when everything failed while I was on vacation. M auto-top off pump kicked it on the first day, and I got a call a few days later from the house sitter asking why my tank looked like a jacuzzi. Over the next 8 days, a bunch of pumps failed, and a heater broke. I had to diagnose all of it over the phone with someone whose knowledge of fish extended no further than 'food goes in the top'.

I came home to an alkalinity of 4, 80% coral loss, and needing hundreds of dollars in replacement equipment.

[tt101]

the sad thing is my first fish was killed by my room mate sob overfed them and polluted the water. being a newb at that time i really didnt know what to do

that does suck....i have overfed many fish when i was still really young but it worked out lol

[spit.fire]

Spend 6hrs drilling a 90g breeder for a herbie, closed loop, built the overflow, plumbed it all went to bring it into the house and lost my balance and shattered the tank

[SanguinesDream]

Spend 6hrs drilling a 90g breeder for a herbie, closed loop, built the overflow, plumbed it all went to bring it into the house and lost my balance and shattered the tank

:shocked: I am so sorry.

[ScubaSteve]

I had a Goldstrip Maroon Clownfish that was the living definition of *******. It would smash SPS frags and colonies into pieces (literally), pick up anything semi-loose (like freshly glued frags) and drop them into the waiting tentacles of my mini-maxi nem who'd sting the living **** of of said coral. And, best of all, LOVED to bite me. I'm not talking little nibble bites but full on chunks out of my arm and hand.

So, of course, one day, after a complete **** day at work, I had a heater go in the tank (this was pre-sump days) which promptly fried a bunch of corals and I needed to spend a couple hours elbow deep in the tank trying to clean up the aftermath... all while the little **** was biting me (blood pressure quickly rising...). At one point the damn fish latched onto my arm and wouldn't let go. I yanked my arm out of the tank in a full on rage, fish still attached. Once I had him about 2 ft off the water I grabbed him and pulled him off my arm (with a good gush of blood following shortly behind) and was faced with several options:

1) squish the bastard until it exploded
2) baseball pitch it out the window
3) baseball pitch it out the window but purposely miss the open window and hit the wall

... damn near had a rage black out. Took a minute or two to calm down, be the bigger species and let the fish back into the tank. Had to go for a 45 minute walk just to come down.

The worst part was.... it wasn't even my fish! I was fish sitting while my buddy was away traveling. I celebrated with many beers the day that SOB left my tank.

[Murminator]

Ok I have had a loooong grudge going on with my tank.....Had a huge die off killed everything but a filefish ...tore down tank and rebuilt it added let it cycle for a month restocked with fish everything looked good for a few months fugly zoos came back fast killed them off by putting rock outside in a pail of snow. Next day woke up to a foul smelling dead tank everything dead bristle worms included...frigging fugly zoos. 99% water change this March will be 2 years with no livestock in it still adding 5gal a water a week there is nothing alive look like the surface of the moon no pods no bristle works no feather dusters everything still running like a functioning tank except the lights are off. The tank has never been cleaner in it's life it actually looks awesome. Think I gonna add some LR soon to try and reseed it. Tested couple weeks ago and it was pretty good.

....and the rock is still outside in a bucket

[spit.fire]

Purple bubble algae in my frag tank is driving me insane. Next weekend ill be doing a hydrogen peroxide dip for everything then transferring everything to a quarantine then eventually into my new frag tank