lets see your MISTAKES!

[grassi]

Now that is funny.....rofl

 

I know... you told me to not doing it... but I wanted to try (nutty)

[newfisher]

Not that I'm smarter than the rest, but I appluade the people on the forum for posting mistakes along the way that I read before I made some of them. Having a buddy like Clay is a double edged sword. You love his enthusiasm to try, but watch and pitty those mistakes made in an upstairs home! I learned fast on the RO/DI thing. I did however try to RUSH things several times and made the damsel mistake, RBTA mistakes, aquascaping/frag crushing mistakes, over feeding by myself and house sitter mistakes, metal hose clamps externally and flooding floor mistakes, ATO not backed up-water level dropped below glass heater-blowing circuit breaker while gone and shutting all tanks off mistakes. i have learned to always have a fellow reefer available in case of Emergency while you are away.

[ReefSafari]

So my latest mistake....I tore down one 40b and setup a new 40b with all new RODI water and New kind of salt (Reef Crystals) while I had been using tap water and Instant Ocean before (I know(nono) but it was working great:p) against my screaming inner voice yelling DON"T PUT YOUR CORALS IN THAT NEW TANK!......I did, now im slowly watching all my SPS weither away one by one, and to top it off, I know my water chemistry is WAY off either Magnesium, Alk or Calcium wise, another mistake, not having all the test kits I need to make sure everything is in check....needless to say, becuase of my impatience and caulkiness, I have pretty much killed all my SPS....and because I didn't have the test kits on hand to see what was wrong with my water parameters, I get to tomarrow drive 2 hours to one of the shops in portland to get my water tested....DOH!

 

Lesson learned, don't put corals in a tank where you don't know if something is off chemistry wise....and don't rush things....Needless to say, I setup the tank I've always wanted specifically for SPS, and that is what I now don't have anymore...(sad)

 

Things to remember...

1) Test kits are important, especially if you live far away from a shop that can test it.

 

2) Impatience and Being Caulky are two things that are a absolute (nono) in reef keeping.....one or both will bite you in the A$$!

 

My temporary lapse in judgement combined with Impatience and Caulkiness has now cost me all my SPS....needless to say, My new tank will not see any new corals for a while till it cycles and things balace out water chemistry wise....I really thought I was past that rookie stageDOH!......Guess Not

[newfisher]

I have a softy frag for you if you get down this way?

[OwenReefin]

Aww Reefsafari , dude that is heartbreaking to hear yo.

[ReefSafari]

Aww Reefsafari ' date=' dude that is heartbreaking to hear yo.[/quote']

 

Yeah, it was just sheer stupiditiy....I actually looked up the word Stupidity and exactly what I did was listed as one of the definitions...

 

Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or sense.

 

Example: Putting SPS coral in a basically a new tank without knowing all of your parameters shows lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit or Sense....DOH!

[jgf86123]

I've done the same thing David, rushing an making stupid mistakes.

 

My biggest mistake so far was putting caulerpa in my first tank and not pruning it, it went asexual and nuked my entire tank, luckily Saltfinsax doesn't live very far from me and he took all the corals that survived that night, but I still lost all of our fish, including the coolest Bar Goby an Melanarus we've ever seen.

[Hozer21]

Here is another one that I have done(whistle) When I first put p my 29 gallon tank I put water and salt (clap) in the tank with live rock and sand and then I was so happy that I got all that going that I had to a lfs to buy some starter fish (4 damsels) . So I got them in the tank and I was so happy and I put them in the tank and went on doing some running around and then I ask my wife how much salt did we put in the tank and she said the small bag and I was DOH!(booboo) that was only enough for 5 gallons of water and so when we got home 2 - 3 hr later I put the right amount of salt back in the tank (laugh)(laugh) the best thing about it I didn't lose one fish. Talk about a noob mistake or what (laugh)(laugh)

[racefan]

I did this a couple weeks ago. I came home after working 14 hours was butt dragging tired but knew I had to fill my RO/DI water barrel to mix some saltwater. Well I hooked up the line to the faucet,started the water flowing into the barrel. It was then I noticed a water puddle on the shop floor (glad I have out in the shop instead of in the house) I right away thought I had a line leaking.Nope. Thought #2. The barrel's leaking! Nope.All the while I'm squeegeeing the water out from under the barrel stand thinking "WHERE IS THIS COMING FROM(scratch) It was at that point that I noticed the waste water line coiled up & still hanging on the wall next to the barrel just waste watering awayDOH! That's all I'm going to admit to.

[Fast5oranger]

One word.... Damsels!!!

[bobby1212]

My biggest so far is when I started using a sump and rigged all the plumbing and was testing to make sure I had the right level of water. When I turned of the return pump and the water dropped below the overflow teeth and should have stopped draining..... but no it keep draining and I couldn't stop it before soaking my carpet not realizing I had a siphon going with my return line. Now I have a hole drilled in my return line!!!