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

[MaxTremors]

Letting a friend (well ex-friend) who was a little too fond of partying stay at my house for a year while I was in Europe on the condition that he take care of my tank. When I got home, the second I opened the door, I knew there was a problem, I could smell it. The power had gone out during a storm some months previously, and for some reason the filters and pumps didn’t come back on (this was 2002, before any of the automation we have now). The guy said he thought something was maybe wrong with it, but he wasn’t sure. The tank was only half full, it had evaporated that much, the water was so green you couldn’t see through it (the lights did come back on), and it smelled like a dead whale on a beach. I was furious. All my fish and coral were dead, including my massive sailfin tang that would eat out of my hand and spit water at me. I was in Europe and didn’t have a cell phone, but has tried to check in once a month or so, but only actually talked to him a few times, he always assured me the tank was doing great. Anyway, the moral of the story is don’t trust your tank (or house) to just anyone, make sure they’re responsible. Needless to say, we’re not friends anymore.

From what I hear the dude is homeless now with multiple kids he doesn’t take care of, has been in and out jail, and just last year was shot in the face attempting to break into someone’s house. It wasn’t life threatening, the bullet was lodged in his jaw, but he was life flighted to a hospital a few hours away, and then bailed in the middle of the night, apparently to go sleep in a dumpster (in a hospital gown), and then hitchhiked back the next day. My brother still lives in the same small city, and occasionally runs into the guy. So anyway, don’t trust your tank to such people.

 

[areefer01]

Asked for help, got impatient, climbed a ladder to hang my DIY multi channel LED over my display, miscalculate or miss heatsink clip to canopy, mumble under my breath oh crap, daughter who was going to help yelled DAD and we both watch the light slowly float to the bottom of my display with a puff of sand...

Power was off, not plugged in, which was nice. She moves me aside, climbs the ladder, gets face under water to reach (display is 30" tall) LED, pulls it out, runs outside to the garage, and dunks it into our RODI vat. Swooshes it around, grabs the compressor, gently starts air to remove water. I come out, she says just go back inside and let her work, wraps it up, air dries for a couple days. About a week later we go outside and apply power.

Worked like a charm. Still works to this day including the fan. Who would have thought.

TL;DR - impatient, drop LED into display, dumb...

 

[Andresnyc93]

Thinking I didn’t need a lid. Lost my first 2 fishes this way. Not a pretty sight seeing the fish you used to feed dried up on the floor.

 

[bud217]

Turn my dosing pump on manually to bump alk and forget about it. Dumped the entire gallon container in. This happened several times. Needless to say I don't do this anymore. Lol

 

[Manny’s Reef]

My salinity was low so I added a bit of salt to the tank. . . Burned the hell out of the fish.

I saw a similar post back in 2013. Some dude was swearing about the success of peeing in your tank to kickstart a cycle. Never tried it but someone out there has actually done that.

 

[EricR]

During water changes I unhook my ATO fill tube from an acrylic strip I have at the back (to remove and clean the acrylic) -- left the fill tube hanging behind the tank, turned everything ON, and walked away.

Wasn't horrid but a lot of RO/DI water got shot out behind the tank (in a wall nook) before the ATO timer shut it off.

I still "almost" do that about every other water change or so.

 

[Coinzmans Reef]

Bought a 525 liter and thought it was large enough ?

 

[Lyss]

During water changes I unhook my ATO fill tube from an acrylic strip I have at the back (to remove and clean the acrylic) -- left the fill tube hanging behind the tank, turned everything ON, and walked away.

Wasn't horrid but a lot of RO/DI water got shot out behind the tank (in a wall nook) before the ATO timer shut it off.

I still "almost" do that about every other water change or so.

This made me lol — and it’s definitely something I would do.

 

[Garf]

Started a tank after a five year break

 

[MadTrucker]

I was breaking down a 120 g tank to move. I put all my fish into 5 g bucket of the water from the tank. 2 hours or so later all the fish were dead . I guess they used up all the o2 because stupid me forgot to put in a bubbler .

 

[Wrassenaround]

Mine would definitely be just lack of maintenance. I've put off maintaining my tank over month twice in the last 2 years and I've paid the price for it. Coral loss but unfortunately tissue recession being a popular result.

Also as a newbie I dipped a massive neon finger leather to get rid of flat worms. I dipped it twice as long as the recommended time. Killed the flatworms but also killed the leather....it was a stunner and growing like a weed.

 

[mehaffydr]

Started my first tank without RODI. I just used tap water as I was on my own well and knew I did not have chemicals but I had no idea how much nutrient I had. It was a hair algae tank not a reef tank

 

[GARRIGA]

I used to listen to others parroting others without bothering to find out for themselves. To this day. I still find myself doing that, unfortunately.

 

[mcc21]

the dumbest thing i have done is actually getting into this hobby hahaha

 

[Wolf89]

I have never had an AIO before but I picked one up for my first saltwater tank. Never having had components like heaters hidden in a chamber before I would constantly forget they were back there when doing water changes. I can't tell you how many times I have forgotten to turn the darn heater off while doing a water change. A heater out of water is not good. Doh! Thankfully nothing happened but I finally bought a smart plug where now one tap of a button shuts everything off. If I hadn't purchased that I would probably still be forgetting to shut it off. LOL

This happened to me constantly. Half the time I would forget to turn it off at all, and then sometimes I would forget to turn it back on! work up to a cold tank several times. Finally bought smart plugs

 

[Karen00]

This happened to me constantly. Half the time I would forget to turn it off at all, and then sometimes I would forget to turn it back on! work up to a cold tank several times. Finally bought smart plugs

Forgetting to turn the heater back on happened to me as well. I forgot the pumps once too. I bolted upright in bed one night with the horrid thought I forgot to turn the pumps back on. Sure enough I did. Doh! Thankfully it hadn't been that long. I don't know how I functioned before the days of "smart devices". Heaven forbid the electrical grid ever goes down in a nasty way!

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Turned the hobby into a full time business...what was I thinking?

 

[NanoBoxes]

Using Hydrogen Peroxide to take care of cyano issue. My “expert” guiding me through the process fat-fingered his phone while texting the details and had the wrong dosage texted….like quadruple the correct amount. It didn’t look right but I did it anyway. Nuked my tank. Lost some big beautiful colonies and it took over a year for tank to reset and grow healthy corals again.
Lesson learned though…that was a few years ago and I don’t put anything extra in my tank anymore, and things are thriving very well now with just consistent simple routine.

 

[Karen00]

Started my first tank without RODI. I just used tap water as I was on my own well and knew I did not have chemicals but I had no idea how much nutrient I had. It was a hair algae tank not a reef tank

I've been lucky so far using tap water but here in Toronto we have pretty good water. I'm also not trying to keep anything super sensitive. I wish someone would find a way to do RODI type water without all the waste water. That's the reason I haven't done RODI yet but I know not everyone has good water to work with.

 

[Rmckoy]

Accidentally mistook Coral RX concentrated dip bottle for amino acids...

Even with running carbon the tank smelled like Pine-sol for weeks... ;Facepalm





I did something similar on my laminate floor... ;Wacky

years ago I had a hob skimmer pump the entire 75 gal on my landlords brand new hardwood floors in a upstairs apartment . While I was away for christmas holiday

he’s no longer my landlord