It’s sad but it’s a reminder! What’s the worst thing you ever did in this hobby?

[tgp4274]

Years ago when I lived in AZ I decided to redo my aquas cape. I sent up a temporary holding tank inside for my fish and corals. I set up a kiddy pool outside for my live rock. I underestimated the time it would take. The live rock had Palys on it and I did not know about palytoxin. I let one of my dogs out to do her business. She took a drink from the live rock pool and poisoned herself and died. I was heartsick. I almost left the hobby because of this

OMG i'm sooooooo sorry....:,,)
i couldn't imagine........

 

[MSB123]

Not a catastrophic mistake but I once paid money for xenia not knowing that pretty much anyone will give it away

Same! When I first got in ( i was 12), I loved the "open-em-shut-em" corals (pulsing xenia) and I bought a whole chunk or LR with it covering it- he rock was probably 2 or 3 lbs, and covered. I actually found the receipt a while ago, and I ended up paying just over $150 for the thing!! Worst mistake ever !

 

[JoshH]

I just made my first real bad mistake, too early to tell how bad it will be. Set up for a WC on my QT tank with a new tank member inside. Got the heater and pump in to mix... only I forgot to add the salt! It's only a 10g QT and I changed out 5 gal for RODI. Dropped the salinity to 1.10. I quickly drained most of the water out and replaced it with the "dirty" water I just pulled out. Managed to get the water back to 1.22 (Shy of the 1.25 it usually is), hopefully my little guy can hold out for another 10 minutes while the new saltwater finishes warming up

 

[CanadianReefer]

I just made my first real bad mistake, too early to tell how bad it will be. Set up for a WC on my QT tank with a new tank member inside. Got the heater and pump in to mix... only I forgot to add the salt! It's only a 10g QT and I changed out 5 gal for RODI. Dropped the salinity to 1.10. I quickly drained most of the water out and replaced it with the "dirty" water I just pulled out. Managed to get the water back to 1.22 (Shy of the 1.25 it usually is), hopefully my little guy can hold out for another 10 minutes while the new saltwater finishes warming up

Whoa! Don't raise it quickly!!!!! They can typically handle a drop in salinity but you need to raise it back very slowly over days...

 

[splix]

I just made my first real bad mistake, too early to tell how bad it will be. Set up for a WC on my QT tank with a new tank member inside. Got the heater and pump in to mix... only I forgot to add the salt! It's only a 10g QT and I changed out 5 gal for RODI. Dropped the salinity to 1.10. I quickly drained most of the water out and replaced it with the "dirty" water I just pulled out. Managed to get the water back to 1.22 (Shy of the 1.25 it usually is), hopefully my little guy can hold out for another 10 minutes while the new saltwater finishes warming up

You should be fine as long as they werent in for like 30 min or something. You basically just did a horrible job at a fresh water dip is all haha.

 

[JoshH]

You should be fine as long as they werent in for like 30 min or something. You basically just did a horrible job at a fresh water dip is all haha.

That's what my thought was, it was about 15 minutes in total. And only 2 minutes of that was at the 1.10. I do hope my mistake hasn't cost me my little guy though.

 

[CanadianReefer]

That's what my thought was, it was about 15 minutes in total. And only 2 minutes of that was at the 1.10. I do hope my mistake hasn't cost me my little guy though.

Phew! If it was a really short period of time, then your fish should be fine.

 

[JoshH]

Phew! If it was a really short period of time, then your fish should be fine.

That's great news, I'll be watching him really close for the next few days regardless. He seems unphased eating like a tiny little pig right now.

 

[Mark Derail]

The worst thing I’ve ever done in this hobby..... Well it just so happened to come to my attention last night ...Any advice would be much appreciated!

Teflon tape, just drain the tank to just below the hole. Be generous but don't layer it too thick, two or three layers across all the threads. If too tight turning it in, reduce a layer.

 

[GK3]

I just made my first real bad mistake, too early to tell how bad it will be. Set up for a WC on my QT tank with a new tank member inside. Got the heater and pump in to mix... only I forgot to add the salt! It's only a 10g QT and I changed out 5 gal for RODI. Dropped the salinity to 1.10. I quickly drained most of the water out and replaced it with the "dirty" water I just pulled out. Managed to get the water back to 1.22 (Shy of the 1.25 it usually is), hopefully my little guy can hold out for another 10 minutes while the new saltwater finishes warming up

I like that you took a break to post about it tho, haha. Hope he is okay.

 

[JoshH]

I like that you took a break to post about it tho, haha. Hope he is okay.

Lol I had a lull while the new saltwater was warming up.

 

[K. Steven]

1. Buying incompatible livestock (sixline wrasse, yellow coris wrasse) or livestock requiring larger systems (diamond goby, fighting conch, lawnmower blenny, Mexican turbos).

2. Buying livestock from poorly maintained stores (introduced dinoflagellates).

3. Using teflon tape on threaded fittings instead of pipe thread sealant (leak destroyed equipment).

 

[Exotic Aquaria]

I got a cowfish on a whim at my lfs. Although he was awsome about a month after getting him my whole tank crashed with the exception of 2 seahorses (one of them died about a month after being moved to New tank) and one damsel and some snails and horseshoe crab

 

[Grey Guy]

I just made my first real bad mistake, too early to tell how bad it will be. Set up for a WC on my QT tank with a new tank member inside. Got the heater and pump in to mix... only I forgot to add the salt! It's only a 10g QT and I changed out 5 gal for RODI. Dropped the salinity to 1.10. I quickly drained most of the water out and replaced it with the "dirty" water I just pulled out. Managed to get the water back to 1.22 (Shy of the 1.25 it usually is), hopefully my little guy can hold out for another 10 minutes while the new saltwater finishes warming up

Forgetting is my tanks worst enemy.

 

[rishma]

Flooded my house, multiple times in different ways. Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.

 

[S.O.MLemos]

The worst thing I’ve ever done in this hobby..... Well it just so happened to come to my attention last night while I was looking around my cabinet and sump. Mind you all, this is the first ever, tank that I’ve owned with a sump and return.

I broke this tank down November 25th from a local hobbyist, and had it full of water and running on the 27th. So it’s been up like this for a little over 2 weeks. Just a little insight so hopefully you guys can offer your best ways on what YOU would do to fix it.

My plan of attack is to turn the return pump off, let the couple inches of water drain back into the sump so that the water level is under the return nozzles. Then simply unscrew it and get a good seal back on them. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hopefully it’s just your 90 degree barb that’s leaking at the threads or split and your plan will work just fine. For me it was the bulkhead that was split from the factory(2 in a row) and I didn’t have backup bulkheads and where I live there are only petco’s which don’t carry tank/piping supplies and nowhere to buy locally so I have to order them. I now have backups for every part except the expensive stuff(pumps, skimmers) which I’m saving up for and I thoroughly inspect ever part before using it. All that said I think it should be a pretty easy fix for you no matter which part is leaking.

 

[derek yoonie]

Years ago when I lived in AZ I decided to redo my aquas cape. I sent up a temporary holding tank inside for my fish and corals. I set up a kiddy pool outside for my live rock. I underestimated the time it would take. The live rock had Palys on it and I did not know about palytoxin. I let one of my dogs out to do her business. She took a drink from the live rock pool and poisoned herself and died. I was heartsick. I almost left the hobby because of this

HOLY **** that is nuts !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mini Coop]

Well. Kind of my fault but not really. Had a friend that worked for an LFS. Trusted him of course. Miss my entire 120 set up with freaking tap water! Mixed the salt in and good to go!! Had 6 fish in 2 weeks, and he did a water change. Again with tap - telling me the salt took care of things but I would eventually need an RO/DI. (This didn’t make sense - but I trusted him).

12 fish in 5 weeks. Including a cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp. . Did a WC 2 days after I got the new fish and the first to die were my shrimp. Losing both shrimp I figured there was something wrong. I took a water sample to the same LFS and they refused to test my water saying that if the fish were fine there was nothing wrong with my water....my TAP water!!!!! I have a photography business on the side and had saved my $ for a year to set this up. Needless to say - the next day the BABY hippo tang I had got ich. And so did everyone else. And one by one over the next 3 days they dropped. And I woke up sick to my stomach every day wondering who I had lost. And said friend disappeared off the face of the earth leaving me with no one to turn to other than online - to you all.

Then I landed here. Learning about quarantine (I had never even heard that word in relation to fish tanks before) - and was able to save my foxface (nick) and sailfin (Judy). 2 of the first fish in my tank besides my clowns, who are still with me today, and let my tank run fallow for 86 days.
Then I started over. And all of you helped me save a dogface puffer from Petco in the meantime, and he is getting ready to go into the main tank at the Columbus zoo.

I’ve learned so much but know I will continue to learn more, and I do every day. I just hope to pass it on and help others.
RIP
Marlin (clown)
Nemo (clown)
Brutus (bluejaw trigger)
Penny (splendid dottyback)
Mickey (purple firefish)
Minnie (purple firefish)
Flash (flame angel)
Dori (blue hippo tang).

I’ve lost a few others in learning the art of QT and getting a couple of sick fish (didn’t know at the time) from LFS - and yes. They all have names and I remember them too.

I have a new rule. No names until they are out of QT and into DT.

 

[Grey Guy]

Forgetting is my tanks worst enemy.

I find that if there is any chance I will forget something turned on or off, I need to do it another way.