The dumbest thing I've ever done is . . .

[NeedBiggerTank]

Since there was a thread about the hardest thing about salt-water tanks, I got to thinking (dangerous, I know) and thought it might be fun to share some of the dumbest/misguided things we've done/tried/attempted with our tanks. You never know, your post may stop someone from making the same mistake! Or maybe you'll inspire someone to new levels of creativity!
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Three months ago or so, when we added our sump I thought I came up with a great lighting idea - and free to boot. The sump is tall and its rather dark under the cabinet. My tank is the "ceiling" to the cabinet space (there isn't any wood, just the glass bottom of the tank). So anyway, I stuck two pop-up lights we had bought for closets we hadn't used with double-sided sticky tape. You can see them in the picture below.

Long story short, before my custom acrylic lid that I had made for the sump was able to be picked up, one of the lights decided to go for a swim. Two massive 50% water changes later, massive amounts of charcoal, several sleepless nights, and bruises for kicking myself for my stupidity, everything was fine - no deaths or problems (thankfully). Lid is now in place - so kitty paws, dog tails and light fixtures stay OUT of the water!

 

[pickupman66]

Dumbest thing I ever did was about 14 years ago when I very very first had saltwater, I had a 20 tall. this was the year those Eclipse tank top all in one systems came out. I added like 8 fish in that tank and it was not even cycled! yellow tang, niger trigger and several others... I dont even remember. had an eel there too. everything died needless to say. this was my first saltwater tank! I think I had like an aragimax bottom and like a few plastic imitation corals. LOL.. it was AWFUL! then progressed to a 29 gal with a dwarf lion and then to my first reef. a berlin system with only an airstone for circulation. had the most awesome piece of live rock in that bad boy. Glad I learned those lessons early.....

 

[NeedBiggerTank]

Where were the tang police when you needed them? LOL

 

[pickupman66]

OH lordy.. they werent even thought of at that time.... LOL.

 

[New Wave]

Oh boy! Love this thread!

So... I love the vivid colors of coral... In the beginning I couldn't keep sps... Just leathers and lps... So naturally I was drawn to the yellow devils hand... Saw them in the stores nice bright yellow... Just callin my name... So I cycled my system.. 55 at the time... Waited till my levels were PERFECT! made sure my PC's were new and clean... Perfect setup in which to keep my devils hand coral... Went to the store and there it was...BEAUTIFUL!!!! brightest yellow I could hope for!! Bagged that puppy up... Brought it home... Placed her front and center so I could just stare at that brilliant yellow... Funny thing happened craziest thing happened after several hours... There was this strange brown fuzzy stuff all over my beautiful coral...

Ugh!!! That fuzzy stuff was hiding the beautiful yellows of my devils hand... So... Being the diligent keeper that I was... I took a toothbrush and scrubbed away that fuzz... It was killin me... Just a few hours later... The brown fuzz was BACK!!! so again with the toothbrush... This went on for DAYS!!! the fuzz would come... I'd scrub it away...

Poor little devils hand... Didn't make it... I tried and tried... But I guess that darn fuzzy stuff finally killed her... I was heartbroken...

Good grief... I swear... I can be the most ignorant of dumba$$

Anyway... Thanks for the thread... It's hilarious!!!

-mel

 

[pelagic]

LOL Mel, that was awesome.

 

[New Wave]

True story

 

[gmoney243]

Well doesn't everyone brush their corals before bed? U don't want them to get cavaties!.. and I'm newb in reefing so I'm sure I'm doing all the stupid stuff now ill answer back in a year lol.

 

[Jennifier615]

I love this thread too..I haven't really had any mishaps that I can speak of knock on wood! I guess when I get in a area where I am not sure I don't rush I ask 900 questions to the point sometimes I am scared that I annoy some people I don't mean to just I just want to understand all the directions one single action can skew off into. I guess leaving my tank to be cared for by somebody that isn't very bright and they kept overfilling my sump which would flood my skimmer and had a pretty nasty case of cyano when I got home......

For those of you reefers about to "rock"- we salute you

 

[fab1971]

I've always been into fresh water so about 15+ years ago I gave saltwater a try. Everything was going great in my 29 gallon tank. My Porcipine puffer fish, Clown trigger, Purple tang and 5 other fish were doing great, until my skimmer drain got clogged and I found 80 percent of my tanks' water on my rug. I panicked, mixed a bunch of saltwater and dumped it in immediately. Forgot to use my little plastic salty measuring thingy or check for the temps or even mix it well. Suffice to say, my frustration led me to take a few years break and go back to freshwater:sad:. Hmmm, looking back to that horrible experience, I have to say my local fish store definitely gave me some mis-information. This time around, thank goodness, I had the internet and a ton of books and magazines. to learn a ton of information before I delved back into this wonderful b hobby:wink:.

 

[TinaFoster]

This is a great thread! If nothing else it lets us newbs know that even you veterans in the hobby had your rough spots at one time.

The first time I tried saltwater I was about to have my first child. Went to the LFS, bought a whopping 10 gallon tank and chose 3 fish. I don't remember what they were but one had to be a damsel and one was blue in the front and pink in the back--haven't seen one like it now that I'm doing things the right way. Closest I got was the royal gramma. Anyway, they told me to let the tank run for a month empty. I got some of the fake plastic colorful plants and some rainbow colored gravel and set it up. I let it run 3 weeks and ran back to get the fish I picked out. Took them home, put them in the tank, and within a couple of days they were all 3 dead! I went back and bought three more and same scenario. I went back to the store and told them I did what they said and they told me buy a bigger tank if you're going for salt because a 10 can't house them. I just quit and bought a hamster. But that wouldn't have done it either--nothing in the tank means nothing cycling! I'd only kept goldfish up til then and had no idea what cycling was. Years and internet later, I know that much at least!
So like Jennifier, I'm one to ask 900 questions and drive you all insane before something goes DRASTICALLY wrong.

 

[H@rry]

The dumbest reefing thing I've done was in 1995 I set up a reef tank using tap water coming through copper pipes. I wondered why I couldn't keep a snail alive for more than a day.

The absolute dumbest thing I've ever done was in 1968 when I married a woman with three small children!

 

[Dowtish]

I had a 29 gallon FOWLER/ wanna be reef tank back in 1991. It had this new thing called a skilter, along with a bio-wheel. I thought I had top of the line filtration on this sucker! Anyways, I had this along with 5 other tanks in my bedroom as a teenager. But one day I came home to a surprise. My skilter collection cup/tray had filled up and began to fill up the airline, and then began to drip water off that was then perfectly landing on the main power strip chord and then running down the chord into the outlet. Needless to say there was black burned area about 2 feet wide all the way around the outlet and everything was fried...I was so upset, but my dad preceded to make me get over losing all of my equipment by making me aware that coming home to the entire house on fire would have been much worse.....ooops:squigglemouth:

 

[LadyOfIreland]

...
The absolute dumbest thing I've ever done was in 1968 when I married a woman with three small children!

BAHAHA! This made me lol ^_^

The dumbest reef thing I've ever done was to nuke a tank. Well, my husband nuked it.

So we were still noobs at the time, and were excited to get this 55 gallon tank to replace our 25 gallon hex tank. It was longer and had more swim space for our fish. We put liverock from another reefer's established tank ,and sand, in and let it cycle for about 2 months. Then we thought, "It's ready!" and moved everything over.

Nothing died - yet. Everything was actually going well for about a month. The fish we had moved over were a maroon clown, banggai cardinal, and two damsels. We BOUGHT a lawnmower blenny and a mandarin goby (big mistake since the tank was hardly cycled at ALL, so of course there wouldn't be a sufficient food source for it). We also put in an RBTA.

Well, long story short, my husband put a stainless steel - let me repeat that - stainless STEEL - clamp around the hose that was connected to the return pump in our sump. He did this to prevent it from popping off. Got the idea from his father, who'd never done anything fish related in his life. I suggested a plastic zip tie. *shrugs*

Needless to say, metal did what metal does best under water and rusted. Oh, and during this time, that RBTA died and spewed nasty slimy grossness into the tank overnight. The water was super cloudy and the fish were breathing really heavily that morning.

We lost all but one damsel, the clown, and the banggai. We moved everyone back to the 25 gallon, tore down the 55, and sold it. I didn't want to look at it anymore.

Now, a year and a half later, after my husband threw in the towel and told me it was my problem, we have 3 tanks, all doing fabulously - and all without any sort of metal

 

[Bishop]

I've had my share of mistakes but the two dumbest ones were getting a yellowtail damsel and the other being the purchase of a giant cup mushroom.

 

[p woodard]

The dumbest fish thing ive done is I was about 8 years old and it was the first cold night of winter and I put the old style heater and turned it all the way up and the next morning we had boiled fish that killed me I was so sorry I did that to the fish I just wanted the fish to be warm that night

 

[NeedBiggerTank]

Ya'll are doing a great job with this... keep 'em coming! LOL

 

[ryanuy]

The dumbest thing I've ever done in this hobby was just when i was starting out and I was so freaked out about aiptasia I would spend hours and hours lighting my aquarium with a flashlight with my syringe of joes juice ready at hand. Needless to say i developed a back problem after that.

Never had aiptasia ever again after that though which is great.

 

[greg0385]

well i guess its codes to share mine, my first and only saltwater tank i have had was mainly fish only with a few pieces of live rock from vendor in florida. well the rock had some sea creatures on it and i was so excited because it had dozens of what i thought were friendly anemones!!! so i fed them shrimp every day and took care of all these awesome anemones and took a picture of my little gift from the sea to a LFS. The guy i showed laugh and said that they were the "thistles" of the saltwater world and i was taking care of a aiptasias. so i got a syringe and boiling water and took care of them when i got home, but i was so embarrassed of how lack of knowledge i had and thought i was doing something great.
great thread
thanks
greg