What's the dumbest thing you've done?

[Delphinus]

Nope, I mean the waste collector. I keep calling it the collection cup but I mean the thing the collection cup drains into, that has a ping-pong ball that closes the air exhaust when it fills, which basically shuts off the skimmer.

Best darn thing I ever bought! I can't believe I ran a beckett for like 2-3 years without one, now that I know how awesome they are, I feel like a shmuck for not getting one sooner!

[Der_Iron_Chef]

haha, these are all great, guys. many laughs. and...makes me feel better about my own lapses in judgement

keep 'em coming!

[adidas]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I mean the thing the collection cup drains into, that has a ping-pong ball that closes the air exhaust when it fills, which basically shuts off the skimmer.

tell me more about this awesome device

[Delphinus]

This is the one I'm using, http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s..._ID=ps-pmpw410

There's a larger version made by PM as well, as well as a number of other brands that sell the same thing.

The collection cup drains into this thing. There is an "exhaust" port that has a ping pong ball that floats. If the waste collector fills up, the ping pong ball floats and pushes up against the exhaust port. (It's basically a low-tech "foot valve.") Then air can't escape out, which puts back pressure on the skimmer, and the skimmer can't produce foam against the backpressure. So although the skimmer is still "running" per se, it's effectively "shut down" until you empty the waste collector.

[Duffer2]

1. Had 110g sump built and I placed it in my basement. Needed to install the pipes from the tank on the main floor down to my basement. Suddenly I found myself standing in my living room, brand new saw in hand, and three massive holes in the new hard wood floor and none of them were any good. Cut three times, measure once.

2. Had a beautiful Tasseled Filefish which was my favorite fish by far, although it tended to hang out near the bottem of the tank. Decided to move some rock around without using gloves. I was lifting one of my larger rocks, something stung me, I decided to then dropped the rock on my BB tank. Curiously I didn't hear the crack sound of rock hitting glass. It was a sad day for leafy...

3. FW 50g tank and the heater was acting funny. The seal between the plastic top and the glass body was loose. So I duct taped it. Decided it would be okay for the weekend. Water was solid green Monday morning, 36 dead fish, half of them on the floor thanks to our cat, the stench was so bad my wife went to her parents place for 2 days. Temperature on the tank was 38 degC. Took 2 years off before I started my next tank.

DUMB!!!!

[Matt]

- I decided my handy-man skills were up to installing my RO/DI... I didn't plan on how tricky that was with 90psi household pressure. Things got a bit wet once or twice.

- I decided to use a long screwdrive to dislodge a snail from an external durso (don't ask me how it got in there). No problem there, but apparently you can't put as much torque on a bulkhead as you'd think (I didn't think I put any). Crack-splash.

- I thought I could outsmart firefishes with egg-crate. Ha. I no longer keep firefish.

[Quagmire]

First time I added a sump,I filled the sump to the top.Then shut off the main pump. that was good for about 5g on the living room carpet.

I hooked my RODI up to the fauset,turned both taps on full,then went to work.The fitting came apart and flooded the whole place.There was only about 10g of RODI water in my container.Good thing I don't pay for water

[Canadbis]

Well just a few weeks ago I was doing FW water changes and went up stairs the use the can, got busy with something else and ran downstairs to have to run back upstairs to shut off the water so it would stop overflowing the 75G

and last week I got chatting about the new windows with my wife and the can I use for top up water had fallen over and put 30 or so Gallons onto the floor.

Good thing it was the basement tanks!!

I have officially learned a lesson