Things that make you say Oh S**t!

[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.

[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. Come on everybody ....Tell the truth and the tales of your errors in reefkeeping.