What's the dumbest thing you have done in the hobby

[LRT]

Mine is dumb but also lazy — I got very lax on checking refractometer calibration. Long story short LPS and SPS corals began going south and I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why. As a last effort at figuring out the cause I thought, oh, just to be thorough let me just check the calibration on this refractometer… Discovered I’d let my salinity dip to 1.020 sg

I finally learned after too many times. I typically have to calibrate my refractometer a couple times when I'm mixing salt. I keep calibration fluid rubberbanded to it so I don't forget. It helps 90% of the time hahaha

A long time ago I killed a wrasse that was in the sand. I thought that I had all of the fish out of the old tank and into the new tank. I drained all of the water out of the old tank and moved it to the garage to clean it "later". I didn't realize that I had not transferred it to the new display until it was too late. I still beat myself up over this.

I did something similar moving rock around. Not sure where it ended up or if I blocked him in one of his caves or what but it was a bummer. Blennies are super cool fish with tons of personality. Just waiting to find the right one again!

 

[moz71]

For many months didn’t have a float valve on filling my 55 gallon RODI trash can. Well you know where this is going. I went to fill the container in garage right before going on vacation for my tank sitter. This was winter mind you. I get a call two days later with my tank sitter saying my driveway is a skating rink. This is when heart skips some beats

 

[Arego]

I about had to fist fight a couple customers when I worked at a fish store. Luckily we had display tanks with 10" sailfins and stuff so I could steer them over there, point to the tang and tell them they can't have that fish in their 40 breeder.

Df?

Mine was putting way too much stock in popular opinion on every single thing. Since that reboot it's been years and I could not possibly ask anything more from my reef, literally nothing. Unpopular opinion works best for my tank.

For a specific event it would be buying name brand salt for years, wasted money. Or not pointing the penductors down before firing up the reeflo hammerhead..

 

[ReefGeezer]

Unfortunately I have more than one... I bought a Copperband that I knew wasn't eating... love those fish... thinking I would feed him live blackworms. That didn't work out. He ate, but wouldn't eat anything else. I got lazy. Needless to say, the outcome was not good.

 

[ReadySet-Flow]

Put the electronic eye that shuts my rodi off on the outside of the brute trash can. Woke up to a flooded laundry room that morning.

 

[jkcoral]

TLDR: A few weeks ago I nuked my entire acan collection. Absolutely melted every single frag.

A couple of months ago, I had a small piece of unused flat rock (about 5-6 inches across) I decided to use to start a small acan collection/garden. I bought a couple acan frags and was super happy with my humble little collection. However, algae took hold and exploded on the rock (I think this being a new rock might have made it easier for the algae to invade).

I was giving some zoas a hydrogen peroxide bath one day and I got an idea. I was upset about the algae ruining my little island and decided I’d just give it a dip in some hydrogen peroxide to melt the algae. I usually do not measure the amount of H2O2 I use when doing this to zoas (even though it probably isn’t a good idea) because, in my experience, zoas are too stupid to die and have withstood anything I’ve thrown at them.

Well this day I must have mixed a particularly strong batch. After placing the little acan rock in the bath and going to do some chores for a few minutes, I returned to a container of liquified acans. I was (and still am) extremely upset about having killed innocent creatures because I was being negligent and decided to freestyle.

I guess the only positive thing about it all was that the idea worked and achieved the original goal. The peroxide did in-fact immediately eliminate the invading algae. But at great cost haha.

Hurt feelings, lesson learned.

 

[Dbichler]

I’ve flooded my basement too many times to count before finally installing float valves and shut off switches. First tank stocked way too fast and lost a bunch of fish. Just recently dropped my floating hydrometer and glass broke all over. I could keep going with a ton more but heck you do anything along enough stuff is going to happen.

 

[Dakota_reef]

Buying equipment for "future upgrades" that will never happen and now I have a 80 gallon tank with equipment for a 200 gallon.

If it makes you feel *any* better, I had a 50 gal tank that I bought 180 gallon equipment for, and 18 years later, I'm finally building a 150g.

 

[costaricareef]

Back around 2002 I bought a Leopard Shark, flew it on commercial airline (in a box in the overhead bin), brought it through customs and then put it in my 80 gallon cube. Not much else to say. I have no excuse.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Buying a 5x4x2' tank with no euro bracing at the top. Than re sealing it ans trying it again with an added euro brace. Lol...

Adding a minatius grouper to my reef tank thinking it would be docile. Lol.
I beat myself up over #2...
-d

 

[LPS Bum]

Not quarantining new fish comes to mind (a Velvet outbreak wiped out my entire FOWLR years ago, and I lost 12 big, beautiful fish).

A close second would be forgetting to empty the HOB skimmer on my reef tank before I left for a weeklong vacation. It dumped 5 gallons of water on my floor during my absence. Caught some serious flak from the wife for that one...

 

[Lavey29]

Mine was around 7 months, I saw GHA developing in the tank but also coraline all over my powerheads. I thought the tank was going through a maturing phase and the coraline would outcompete the GHA so I just let everything evolve naturally with only my cleaner crew mowing the lawn. Months went by and the coraline never migrated to the rocks and I got a GHA jungle going. Now finally the coraline is covering the rocks and the GHA is starting to recede and disappear. About 50% gone now. Got urchins and turbos working overtime now too but the parameters seem perfect now for continued coraline growth on the rocks. Had I know coraline developed in phases I would have brought the heavy hitters to my cleaner crew much earlier

 

[OrchidMiss]

Made the mistake once with HOB skimmer overflow once on my 110...
Made the mistake of not having shoes on, on the tile floor, and grabbing the power strip instead of resetting gcfi breaker....
Hearing the electricity in your head is freaking weird!!

 

[Danroo]

Killing corals because I got a dud new led light that doesn’t have many reviews to discuss but people who have it are lucky enough to enjoy their purchase.

 

[OscarHaglund]

Im very new so yhis one might not be as bad but I did it today.
I just bought a euphilia and was going to cut away the extra “rock” as according to the generic dipping instructions. So i took my bonecutter to its poor skeleton and cracked it like a walnut. I could almost see the tissue being torn apart. Luckily, I quickly realised what i had done and had some glue handy and managed to glue the skeleton back together.
It seems no worse for wear

 

[Wasabiroot]

Took my credit card out of my wallet. Well, that was dumb. Where did my money go?

 

[fish farmer]

I put a yellow tang in my 38 gallon, it jumped out 6 months later. At least it took care of the GHA..

 

[Wasabiroot]

In all seriousness...left my return pump off overnight by mistake feeding. Came back midnight to a refugium the temperature of bath water. Lost a blenny that was living in a ceramic tube happily munching on treats I'd drop down there. I still feel crushing guilt about it when I think about it. Not the way I wish to see any livestock go that I had a responsibility to care for. It was a real wakeup call to smarten up and pay better attention though. So his death wasn't in vain.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Made the mistake once with HOB skimmer overflow once on my 110...
Made the mistake of not having shoes on, on the tile floor, and grabbing the power strip instead of resetting gcfi breaker....
Hearing the electricity in your head is freaking weird!!

Your brain on electricity...
I got electrocuted by ancient fridge door handle when I was a kid at my grandma's. I agree...getting electrocuted is not pleasant, and there's nothing else quite like it, haha

 

[snorklr]

was in the process of moving from NY to NC...traveling back and forth a lot and being away for weeks at a time...so i came to the brilliant conclusion that a mandarin would be a perfect inhabitant as it would live off the pods in the tank and i wouldn't have to feed it...in a 30 ...with no fuge...well i think he ate every pod in the tank in 2 days and wound up buying a $20 bottle of pods a week for a year till he was killed by a 2 week power failure during hurricane sandy while i was away...