The Greatest Mistake You've Ever Made

[PharmrJohn]

The title says it all. What do y'all consider the biggest mistake you've ever made with your set up and what were the consequences?

For me, it was going into this hobby thinking it was easy and my complete lack of knowledge when I started up. My consequences were a long cycle and disease. I finally joined a forum (the now defunct 3reef) and started educating myself on the matter. During that time I lucked out hard-core and made my reef a success.

 

[exnisstech]

Saying my next tank is my last one.
I'll never hear the end of it lol.
That was several years ago. This was from 2 days ago In my defence its a tank replacement not addition

 

[Reef Jedi]

Saying my next tank is my last one.
I'll never hear the end of it lol.
That was several years ago. This was from 2 days ago In my defence its a tank replacement not addition

Ooooh! What did you get??!

And I don’t make mistakes, I just have happy little accidents.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Ooooh! What did you get??!

And I don’t make mistakes, I just have happy little accidents.

Gotta love Bob Ross!

 

[exnisstech]

Ooooh! What did you get??!

And I don’t make mistakes, I just have happy little accidents.

Mariner MP100 to replace my ailing reefer 350.

Gotta love Bob Ross!

My grandfather turned me in to Bob Ross longer ago than I care to remember.
Happy little trees lol.

 

[X-37B]

Selling all my old halide gear, lol.

 

[mfinn]

Selling all my old halide gear, lol.

I was thinking the same.
Now I'm caught up in the rat race for decent led fixtures.

 

[BasementBox]

Here’s something for everyone to chew on. Had a moorish idol from a place I shall not name that had ich. Infected my whole tank. I had copper. Real copper to dose and without researching dosed my whole DT with the copper… I saved all my fish. But the moorish idol. But I had to literally drain out the tank and toss every rock. It was a nightmare.

 

[kitti-fish]

Forgetting to shut off my RODI and then leaving the house for 3 hours…

 

[paraletho]

Starting a 460 gallon tank with man made rock and special reef grade sand. I have been in the reefing hobby for 24 years and after 8 or 9 tanks have never had such a mess. A little bit of hubris convinced me that I could bypass all the problems with my wealth of knowledge. Nothing like the reefing hobby to put you back in the right mindset.

 

[trapphd]

Tank footprint (20 peninsula AIO) was difficult to find high-powered lights, so I settled for the Current USA Orbit strips. Underpowered lighting really hinders your progress for years lol. I think even just gravitating toward the 20 long was a remnant of my freshwater tank days (i.e., you assume all inhabitants want as much horizontal space as possible). If I could do it over, I’d get a cube or similar!

 

[PharmrJohn]

Forgetting to shut off my RODI and then leaving the house for 3 hours…

How long did that take you to clean up?! I remember one year my basement flooded on Dec 24th. Took four hours to clear that out. Thing is I was having a family dinner later that day too. Dinner was 2 hours late but I still got it done!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Testing error that resulted in 100+ nitrates, then after that bombing the nitrates to 0 resulting in Dinos

 

[kitti-fish]

Forgetting to shut off my RODI and then leaving the house for 3 hours…

How long did that take you to clean up?! I remember one year my basement flooded on Dec 24th. Took four hours to clear that out. Thing is I was having a family dinner later that day too. Dinner was 2 hours late but I still got it done!

A few hours but the boards had to be replaced as they were severely damaged..should have just ripped everything up and laid something new but we didn’t want to spend the money at the moment

 

[Reefer Matt]

Changing salt.

 

[Yon reefs]

accidently topping with RO water too much

 

[Dheinze33]

Forgetting to shut off my RODI and then leaving the house for 3 hours…

This is exactly why I know do My bucket fills on the bathtub now lol

 

[BeanAnimal]

Maybe 35 or so years ago one of the prettiest girls they I ever met wrote her phone number on a gum wrapper and a heart with “call me”.

At home and drinking a beer on the front porch with friends hours later, I instinctually put my hand in my pocket, felt the wrapper and wadded up into a ball and flicked it away. I spent days in the front yard looking for it.

Does that count? @Paul B never lost a supermodel that way I bet.

The reef mistake? That is where the overflow came from.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Maybe 35 or so years ago one of the prettiest girls they I ever met wrote her phone number on a gum wrapper and a heart with “call me”.

At home and drinking a beer on the front porch with friends hours later, I instinctually put my hand in my pocket, felt the wrapper and wadded up into a ball and flicked it away. I spent days in the front yard looking for it.

Does that count? @Paul B never lost a supermodel that way I bet.

The reef mistake? That is where the overflow came from.

That DEFINITELY counts! What a bummer man!

 

[Jumpfishyjump]

Forgetting to shut off my RODI and then leaving the house for 3 hours…

Done that too many times. Finally put a shutoff float on the container I use to make water.