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

[BanjoBandito]

blasted my alk and PH with a CO2 scrubber and recirculating air system for a protein skimmer....TWICE. Literally did the exact same thing TWICE. BACK TO BACK. Didn't lose anything but man am I dumb. lol.

 

[BanjoBandito]

Oh and I flooded the RODI....which I feel like is a right of passage at this point in the hobby.

 

[Jim Gomoll]

I overflowed my bucket when I was cleaning my tank...I got distracted and ended up with water all over the floor.

Your not the only one....

 

[Crustaceon]

In my first year keeping a reef tank, I religiously did water changes and tested frequently. I listened to the trend at the time telling me not to. I had excellent acro growth beforehand....I tried the "new thinking" and then I didn't have acro growth...and then I lost acros...and a few years later I went back to "what worked" and "mysteriously" I was able to keep acros again. In a nutshell, if what you're doing is working, KEEP DOING IT regardless of what the community says.

 

[Jim Gomoll]

Years ago, I bought a baby Snowflake Moray for my 15g, and tried to house him with my Tiger Pistol..... yeah, the Tiger Pistol didn't last the night, and the moray was returned the next day.

Years ago bought one thinking it would be cool. Guy at LFS said as long as your fish are bigger than its head you'll be ok. Within 2 day it ate all my damsels 2x its head size.

 

[Jim Gomoll]

Speed Kills / Water Change Embarrassment. Tried to get in a quick water change on my 6g pico after vacuuming out my display tank. Only using the ½” tube (not vacuuming) my focus was on water level in discard bucket which already was half full from vacuuming my display tank. Following day couldn’t find my Neon Dotty. Looked all over in tank, moving rock structure and outside tank thinking it might of jumped out somehow even though there is only a small 1 ½ x 1 ½ triangle opening in corner of glass top. Can only figure out Dotty got sucked up and was tossed with the dirty water. R.I.P. Dotty

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Chased down a sexy shrimp to take back to the store since I suspected it of eating zoas. Didn’t turn off the powerheads and it darted in and “broadcast fed” the tank with sexy chunks. Lesson learned there.

 

[EliVChalk97]

I overstocked the filter and it slowly leaked almost half of the tanks water through the second story of my house. $200 roof repair now the tank is downstairs.

 

[cpalminteri]

I forgot to put salt in my RO water and did a 20% water change

 

[cpalminteri]

I forgot to put salt in my RO water and did a 20% water change

Mind you I have a 13.5 gal tank

 

[SPS2020]

I almost thought I had nothing to add...wrong.

Two weeks ago, I added coral snow to the tank. This was my third or fourth time doing so. One would think that I would remember the amount of coral snow per gallon of aquarium water correctly...wrong. I added 1ml per gallon, not 5ml per 50 gallons! The tank looked like milk; you could not see anything except for the fish swimming next to the glass asking me what the heck did you do?! Fortunately, no Acropora was lost. Once the pumps were back on and the water cleared, I had to use a small powerhead to blow off the remaining calcium powder residue off all of the rockwork. Lesson learned, once again...measure twice, cut once!

 

[Nano New]

I'm not going to say it but I in the same boat.

forgetting that I was making RODI and flooding my laundry room. not once, not twice, not three…but 4 dang times.

I flood my kitchen. Luckily I have tile floors. I've learned to set an alarm on my apple watch to go check...all good as long as I remember what the alarm is for!

 

[Rcpilot]

Go easy on me. I was 14 and this was in 1986.

I had a 135g FOWLR that had about 5 inches of sand on the bottom. I had buried a 3" PVC labyrinth of pipes and bends for my snowflake eel (Slash). He hung around with his head poking out one of the entrances to his cave. He had 4 entrances and nearly 20ft of piping to slither around in. I had been feeding him goldfish from the local bait and tackle shop. ( I know... I KNOW!!! Take it easy. I would never do that today. I'm 50 okay. I was a kid and we had no information except the library or magazines)

Well, ole Slash got used to his food being of the orange color spectrum..... and my stupid self decided I wanted a flame angel. Slash had grown to over 16" and was almost 2" wide by then. Yeah, it didn't end well. I financed this reef with my sweat and hard work. I was mowing grass and raking leaves and shoveling snow year around to make money for my addiction at a young age. That flame angel cost me $58 in 1986.

I floated him and acclimated him. Then I turned him loose. He made a beeline for Slash's lair!!! I saw some commotion near that entrance.... then a puff of entrails and intestinal fluids wafted out of the hole. He doesn't last 3 seconds in the tank. Slash must have enjoyed that one because he didn't come up for another meal for about 5 days after that.

 

[reefermadness441]

First time I decided to try NoPox I accidentally put in 90 ML instead of .3 ml

had a monster bloom and smoked my birdnest coral.

 

[rtparty]

Flooded my upstaris bathroom and all the water drained down into my kitchen destroying the ceiling.

Spent over $10k on LEDs all while killing corals and never finding a light that came close to matching a halide.

 

[c4sxm5]

Moved my sohal into the sump and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to use my hands to grab it in the sump to move it to a different chamber.
The worst pain I ever felt.

 

[jhuntstl]

I almost burned my house down with a $13 backup battery air pump. I was home for lunch to receive the delivery. Excited for a new reefing device, I opened up the package, and set it up to get an idea of how it worked. Got distracted and left to go back to work.

Came home to the smell of burning plastic. I had left it plugged in and below water level. The air pump tubing had siphoned water out of the tank and was dripping directly onto the AC connections inside the housing.

I posted a thread about it at the time.

I was a complete moron this week(electrical fire)

I've been working to build more fail safes into my reef tank. Hopefully this weekend, I'll have a dedicated GFCI circuit with a water proof bubble outlet to power my tank. An electrician is helping, don't worry! Then there's other small things like leak sensors and alarms. I had also heard...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Double monti 61]

Listened to to much B.S.!

 

[Rodrigo Segnini]

Ohh well! I’ve done a bunch of dumb things on my early years but juts recent, in preparation for a long trip, I start doing Maintenance to the equipment and as a routine i always refill dosing containers and purge lines… long history short there am I holding my doser line out in a container pressing my manual dosing switch in the doser and nothing is comming out, I guess how lucky am I of catching this air clog before the trip.. to soon find out I had the wrong line in my hand and just dropped over 40ml of All for reef in 10 gallon zoa garden tank!!!

 

[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.

...and for my newest dummie-ness, just now:

Just finished water change:
-- I use 16 gallon tub on floor next to tank with pump and hose to pump in new saltwater
-- turned off pump when done and threw the OUT end of the hose into the tub
-- came back a bit later to clean up
-- found about 5 gallons of saltwater all over the wood floor (family room)

***I guess I "missed" when I tossed the end of the hose back into the tub of saltwater

Unintended syphon can be a b!+@#