ImGoingCoastal November 11, 2018 Share November 11, 2018 So last night, after a few beers, since I was hanging out downstairs I thought it would be a good idea to filter some water.... Well even more beers later I decide I was tired and went to bed. Woke up to some damp carpet since my 7.5 gallon container overflowed. Oops! Fortunately I was up late and woke up early so it was not THAT bad. I just bought a float valve to prevent this ever happening again. So this got me wondering, surely other people had some DOH! moments. Curious to see if others had moments they wish they could take back. Worst part is, I don't even have a tank yet. This is strictly for my rock. Haha. -A-a-ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefdUp November 12, 2018 Share November 12, 2018 I was out of town for work, and either I forgot to label the magnesium jug as such or my husband can't read... Instead of a gallon of RODI, my 40g tank got a gallon of magnesium. It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't terrible either. (This happened like 10 years ago, so I don't remember all the details.)Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bues0022 November 12, 2018 Share November 12, 2018 My three biggest: 1) First time using kalk to kill aptasia. I had a minor outbreak of aptasia. Nothing terrible, but I wanted the 6-7 of the little buggers gone. So, I mixed up some kalk paste, but it wouldn't flow through my syringe. No worries, I'll just smear it with my finger. I put a big glop on my finger, and into the tank I went. Expect I neglected to turn off powerheads, so it all blew off my finger before I got to my target. Ok, no worries, I'll turn off powerheads. I completed the rest of my paste smearing and was pleased with myself. Turned pumps back on, and the roughly 1/4 cup of kalk paste I had just used (WAAAAAY too much at a single time), went into the water column and the water turned like milk. Big water change couldn't stop the damage. I lost LOTS of coral (almost everything stony) but my fish managed to survive. 2) low salinity: I started up a tank once, and being cheap (a.k.a. stupid), I thought it was smart to run hypo during the cycle. I added my first fish, everything went great. Spend a few hundred in frags and after about a week they melted/withered/receded almost completely. I panicked, checked every parameter I could think of before I remembered my bonehead move. This was on a previous incarnation of my current 30 gallon setup, so I wasted hundreds of $$ in frags to save about $5 in salt. This also lead to mistake #3. 3) Adding salt straight to tank. After my salinity was found to be super low for corals (1.016), I needed to add salt - easy, right? Stupid move #3 - and I'm sure you can see from 100 miles away what not to do: I poured a few cups of salt into the overflow of my tank. At the time, my logic pattern was that it would dissolve in the overflow, down to the sump, and by the time it made it back to the display I'd be fine. Yeah, no. I had little bits of white flecks all over the water. All kinds of shimmering salinity changes observable in the water. The remaining corals I had left were burned (or so it seemed), and I was left with the remains of the last of the frags I was trying to salvage from #2. Moral of my story: remember: nothing good in this hobby happens quick. Even changes to fix "whoops" should be done slowly/methodically and not with lack of thought on the output of these changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b November 14, 2018 Share November 14, 2018 Over the course of 2 years a thin barely visible layer of slime built up in my fresh water reservoir. Took me time to figure out why trates were rising. I ran my finger across the inside of the water bin and I could feel the layer of slime. As this slime grew so did the TDS of the water in the bin reaching 256 TDS. The high trates killed corals. I cleaned the bin out and problem gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madweazl November 14, 2018 Share November 14, 2018 The first addition to my first reef tank around '95 was a 12-14" green carpet anemone. It died shortly there after; it seems new tanks, two 50/50 NO T8s, and no clue what you're doing made for a poor environment... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImGoingCoastal November 14, 2018 Author Share November 14, 2018 Aw man, that's one H-E-double hockey sticks of a 'nem!Ya know, as I'm going through the process of setting up a new tank, I'm realizing how many idiotic designs I've made over the years....-A-a-ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco November 14, 2018 Share November 14, 2018 Oh, I got this!External canister filter with tubes going way too deep into the tank. Fitting popped off the canister in the middle of the night. Wife woke to “sucking “ sounds. Came down and stepped (splashed) into water.Siphoned 110 gallons of saltwater on the second floor of the townhouse. Two floors of carpet, drywall and ceilings, AND went into the ductwork and had saltwater pouring out the furnace!A good $18k-$20k worth of damage. Thank goodness for USAA. And yes, the fish did live in the inch of water they were down to. Corals, not so much.Oh, and in the new house 8 have had enough salted moisture in the fish room that had pitted the (supposed) stainless steel gas lines causing them to leak lots of propane into the basement.What we put up with for the addiction...., Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime November 14, 2018 Share November 14, 2018 I've flooded enough places making Ro/Di that I might win. You'd think I'd have float valves on everything by now. I think the stupidest thing I've ever done though is think that I'm still going to try something every saltwater OG tried to nicely tell me was stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie2014 November 14, 2018 Share November 14, 2018 When I switched from FW to SW, I kinda knew the simple bases. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and tank cycle. I knew how to monitor and check those elements using API kit. But I failed with salinity. I used a refractometer to check it, but that refractometer was calibrated for a different type of solution. My salinity was about 1.045 for the first 6 months or so, as I watched almost all corals and cleanup crew melted. Only the fish and one polyp of eagle eye zoa survived. I have my share of milky water too, using soda ash container instead of kalk, but nothing died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami November 15, 2018 Share November 15, 2018 7 hours ago, dbartco said: Oh, I got this! External canister filter with tubes going way too deep into the tank. Fitting popped off the canister in the middle of the night. Wife woke to “sucking “ sounds. Came down and stepped (splashed) into water. Siphoned 110 gallons of saltwater on the second floor of the townhouse. Two floors of carpet, drywall and ceilings, AND went into the ductwork and had saltwater pouring out the furnace! A good $18k-$20k worth of damage. Thank goodness for USAA. And yes, the fish did live in the inch of water they were down to. Corals, not so much. Oh, and in the new house 8 have had enough salted moisture in the fish room that had pitted the (supposed) stainless steel gas lines causing them to leak lots of propane into the basement. What we put up with for the addiction...., ^^ Winner, winner, chicken dinner. That beats crashing my tank with palytoxin as I rushed a tank transfer. Or my three exposures to palytoxin. (Once wasn't enough.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImGoingCoastal November 15, 2018 Author Share November 15, 2018 That's some pretty rough stuff. Pretty sure if that happened to me I'd never have a tank ever again.-A-a-ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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