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

[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

[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..... and now I have a lovely water stain on the ceiling.....and the light bulbs are full of water.....sigh

[troni]

Originally Posted by 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..... 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.