lets see your MISTAKES!

[Trautman]

after doing the aquarium thing for ten or so months, if there has been one thing that i have done, consistently and remarkably well, it is to make mistakes!

i hope i am not alone...

so here are my best ones:

the spills of course, lots of them.

i once got sprayed in the face with my return pump, it was a 1300 gph pump also. that happened because i was trying to adjust my ball valve and unknowingly loosened the connection to the pump itself.

i have casually left a hose in my mixing tub before and have lost 50 or so gallons to the garage floor.

 

 

and much much more.

now lets hear your failures!

[Hozer21]

Well when I first started i had 8 rows of t-5 on my tank and I had a make shift legs(nutty) and well they didn't work and one side of the light fell in to the tank :eek: . How dumb was that (laugh)(laugh)(laugh) I was so (flame) when it took place and now I look back and laugh about it . Don't worry the lights and fish / coral where all fine but still teaches me not to do that again (laugh)(laugh)

[ReefSafari]

Oh Geezz(plotting)...I will have to reply later this evening after work, as I don't have enough time right now to list all the mistakes I have made....but guess what....I AM STILL MAKING THEM......(laugh)....Sometimes I think I will never learn....DOH!...My most recent major mistake was this last sunday....(nono)....and I am sure I will continue to make more mistakes, but I am determined to someday have an awesome coral reef tank, whatever it takes, blood, sweat, and tears (and even more money) I will someday have a beautiful Coral Reef Tank(laugh)

[h2odvl]

Top of my list are

Leaving rodi on over night( it's in my kitchen) and in the morning finding about a half inch of water on the dinning room floor best guess is 40+ gallons.(blew a breaker)

Having my drain fall off the back of my tank when it was running( it is on the wall with a heater right below it) lucky I was in the other room only lost 5-10 gallons ( blew the breaker)

And my favorite is a tie.

1. Wonder why I was loosing all my coral when I had my tank first setup. I was using pacific coast imports salt!

2. Getting my first skimmer and putting in my in my system when I was setting it up and not being able to figure out why it wasn't make a lot of bubbles. No salt in the water yet!

[cschwarz]

at one point i had an aquarium by my bed. and i was doing a water change but some how i got distracted and walked away and the end of the siphon fell on my bed and siphoned about 20 or so gallons of water on my bed. so that's suck had to buy a new mattress.

[reefnjunkie]

well this is a recent mistake

 

The most recent I can think of, (which still pains me to write about it) was not moving a chalice that was touching another;

when you mix this chalice;

 

 

With this chalice;

 

you get this chalice

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

 

So much for 14 months worth of growth or 75% of what "used to be"

The first was barely touching the edge of the second and that disaster happened in less than 24 hours.ts tough to tell from the picture but thats tissue still melting away-its a white skeleton now, except for the colored section at the top

[dee77]

The most recent I can think of, (which still pains me to write about it) was not moving a chalice that was touching another;

when you mix this chalice;

 

 

With this chalice;

 

you get this chalice

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

 

So much for 14 months worth of growth or 75% of what "used to be"

The first was barely touching the edge of the second and that disaster happened in less than 24 hours.ts tough to tell from the picture but thats tissue still melting away-its a white skeleton now, except for the colored section at the top

 

 

 

thats a bummerDOH!

[Emerald525]

Yeah you gotta watch those chalices. I had one too close to a scoly and took that sucker out.

 

Such an innocent looking toxic pie chalice too!

[dee77]

putting turbo snails in my tank!!!!!

 

 

a turbo snail knocked over 3 polyps of darthmal zoa's and killed themDOH!(flame)DOH!(flame)

[sharoleb]

Setting up my new tank, I made sure to get the right amount and right grade of sand. In the small tank we have crushed coral which I do not like at all. My whole poing of putting a 2.5 inch sandbed was for a goby/shrimp pair. I REALLY wanted one.

 

Shortly after we put in the new sand, and 60 more pounds of rock - I found out I'm supposed to put the rock first, then sand. I did the opposite, which means no shrimp/goby pair for me. SO sad. DOH! (sad)

[impur]

1. Leaving the RO water running over night

2. Filled my ATO bucket in the morning, go home from work and it was empty. So i just filled it up again. A few hours later empty again, yep right onto the carpet

3. Leave heater on while draining the sump - something smells like burning!

4. Dropped half of my TEK T5 fixture into the tank

[Emerald525]

I think leaving the RO/DI water and flooding something is only a matter of time for all of us. Has happened to us twice now!(laugh)

 

Here's one.This was before we got a calcium reactor. We were talked out of getting a calcium reactor and told to get this. We were told it was a "smart" calcium block

 

 

We were told that it would dissolve as needed to replenish the calcium in the water and would last a month. I was thinking wow that's one smart little block of calicum!(laugh)(laugh) We put it in the sump and it dissolved in 24 hours!

[dee77]

I think leaving the RO/DI water and flooding something is only a matter of time for all of us. Has happened to us twice now!(laugh)

 

Here's one.This was before we got a calcium reactor. We were talked out of getting a calcium reactor and told to get this. We were told it was a "smart" calcium block

 

 

We were told that it would dissolve as needed to replenish the calcium in the water and would last a month. I was thinking wow that's one smart little block of calicum!(laugh)(laugh) We put it in the sump and it dissolved in 24 hours!

 

 

 

 

lol that one sounds bad

[Gilliroo]

I have left the RODI running and flooded the basement several times now. Apparently, I am a slow learner.

 

Dumbest thing- trying to start a siphon by mouth. Eeeeeeeeeew!DOH!

Gillian

[NoobtoSalt]

Putting a powder blue in my tank and letting it kill every fish I have from velvet...

 

Still have two left but I'm sure its just a matter of time.

 

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

[Emerald525]

Putting a powder blue in my tank and letting it kill every fish I have from velvet...

 

Still have two left but I'm sure its just a matter of time.

 

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

Wow Jesse way to be a downer in this thread....(nono) Okay now come up with a funny mistake that we can all laugh at now...(clap)

 

 

 

I have left the RODI running and flooded the basement several times now. Apparently, I am a slow learner.

 

Dumbest thing- trying to start a siphon by mouth. Eeeeeeeeeew!DOH!

Gillian

 

I'm thinking we should start a "I left my RODI running" and have the wet carpet to show for it club!(laugh)

 

I siphon that way all the time Gillian. It's quick and I'm impatient! I know I know ewwww.:p I just try to be quick and when I'm not quick enough, I just pretend when I taste saltwater I'm in the ocean in Hawaii....(laugh) It grosses Beth out!

[newfisher]

Setting up my new tank, I made sure to get the right amount and right grade of sand. In the small tank we have crushed coral which I do not like at all. My whole poing of putting a 2.5 inch sandbed was for a goby/shrimp pair. I REALLY wanted one.

 

Shortly after we put in the new sand, and 60 more pounds of rock - I found out I'm supposed to put the rock first, then sand. I did the opposite, which means no shrimp/goby pair for me. SO sad. DOH! (sad)

 

Gently press the rock down until you feel it rest on the bottom. Not all aquascaping has flat bottoms and rest perfectly. I have had no problem doing it this way.

[cellowithgills]

- Buying a montipora without knowing that it needed strong lighting.

- Thinking that my skimmer was broken because it wasn't working in the

bucket of fresh water.

- Filling the tank without putting the return pipe onto the overflow.

- Pulling the heater out of my mixing bucket without unplugging it. Let's just

say it broke.

- Not securing the ATO tube after refilling the bucket.

- The recent fiasco with the hammer coral.

 

 

Who knows what else I could be doing wrong right now

[thatguy559]

leaving my rodi on over night!!!!!

siphoning water out for a water change and didnt pay attention to the water level and drained to much water out. (siphon drained to the driveway)

adding an anemone to my tank that was only 2 months old. it walked and got choped up in the vortech nuked my whole tank.

taking out a full skimmer cup and then dropping it in the sump

and countless other dumb things!!!!!

[jadams7]

I still seem to shock myself about once a month...

[Topher]

I think leaving the RO/DI water and flooding something is only a matter of time for all of us. Has happened to us twice now!(laugh)

 

Here's one.This was before we got a calcium reactor. We were talked out of getting a calcium reactor and told to get this. We were told it was a "smart" calcium block

 

 

We were told that it would dissolve as needed to replenish the calcium in the water and would last a month. I was thinking wow that's one smart little block of calicum!(laugh)(laugh) We put it in the sump and it dissolved in 24 hours!

 

they do tell you it should be in a low waterflow area in you tank(i use the small block one or two at a time, last about 2 to 4 days) i do beleave there is a lot of flow in a sump so it arodes, not disolves. i have to ask what the paramiters went to after that happened?

 

 

i have had a black sun polyp colony fall on a candy cane and that candy cane is no more. i beleive a milli knocked out 3/4 of a chalice:eek:

[Emerald525]

they do tell you it should be in a low waterflow area in you tank(i use the small block one or two at a time, last about 2 to 4 days) i do beleave there is a lot of flow in a sump so it arodes, not disolves. i have to ask what the paramiters went to after that happened?

 

Parameters didn't change a bit in a 150 gallon tank!(laugh) And yes it did erode in the sump. This one makes a nice paper weight!(clap)

[grassi]

Seems that the RO-DI is the most common. I had that problem too.

Then I got a valve that stops the unit for me

Now I still do the other mistake: leaving the flush valve of the ro-di open for a couple of days. But at least it does not go on the floor.

Last mistake was to give oyster eggs to a giant clam without a protection for the metal halide that is 15 inches on top of it

[Frank]

.

Last mistake was to give oyster eggs to a giant clam without a protection for the metal halide that is 15 inches on top of it

Now that is funny.....rofl

[XrayGuy]

Putting 10 damsels in my tank and then after realizing they are evil, trying to catch them to take them out of the tank - ended up getting one of those acrylic fish traps and got them one at a time over a period of a couple hours. It was kinda like real fishing...had a few beers, baited the trap, caught some fish