your worst mess up on a reef tank

maury

Member
I could write abook! Luckily, these were all when I jumped into the hobby feet-first (so to speak) big mistake! read and do the research first!!!!
Poured sea-salt right into the tank to ge the salinity up. Corals shriveled like slugs at a salt-lick!
dosed large amount of Kalwasser water to tank with high Ca level, but low Alk. Has near white water in about 2 hours, required fluval filtration, and a 70% water change!! Luckilly, all the fish and corals made it. Ad thing is, I did this twice before I figured out what I was doing wrong!!
Had heater turned down, forgot to turn up and had a cold snap, water temp dropped to 59 F! Loast Acropora, but all the other corals weren't phased.
Thought fish looked bored, so poured beer in the tank to liven them up!! JUST KIDDING ON THAT ONE!!!
Now, these were all made when I was just getting intot he hobby and didn't know a thing. Let this be a lesson to any folks starting out, do plenty of research before you start. Of course, that still will not save you from screwing up somewhere! ;)
 

mobikobeyob

Member
<a href="https://www.saltwaterfish.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=12&t=011226" target="_blank">https://www.saltwaterfish.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=12&t=011226</a> Need i say more.... :D
 

triggerfool

Member
Heres about the most retarded thing i ever did. Keep in mind this was the first fish i ever had, i was young, and taken advantage of by an LFS. That and i had not discovered teh boards.
So, My first fish was a Picasso Trigger. NO ONE TOLD ME THEY WEDGE THEMSELVES IN ROCKS TO SLEEP! So making a long story short, I GENTLY poked him with a wooden chopstick till he let go. It took a while, and he was pissed afterward but i found out how stupid i had been the next day when i went back to the LFS. THen i went nuts on them for not telling me about it. THats it. Pretty stupid, but im sure im not the only one to do it.
You can stop laughing now...
 

maury

Member
Wow Mobiko! You make me feel better! ;) So what ever became of your tank after the paintwater incident?
 

cyn

Member
The worst thing I ever did was left home for a week. I left my now ex boyfriend pet sitting/tank sitting. I came home and found only one of my 5 banghaii cardinals still in the tank and one very large green brittle star. To make a long sad story short, my ex decided that he did not need to feed the tank and the brittle had a buffet of banghaii cardinals, among other things.
Lesson learned...No more big brittle stars and no more boyfriend!
cyn
 
I moved to Olympia and I didn't test my tap to do water change. My 18 gallon that was up and running for a year died over night after a water change. my fiji leather, elephnet mushrooms, And the green stars. all tured to goo. So now I have a bigger tank and buy filter sea water.
 

broomer5

Active Member
I have two mess ups that I'm not proud to admit, and that I regret.
Lost a beautiful red open brain coral due to my stupidity. Had it on a ledge, and it fell off, ripping open it's fleshy parts.
It did not survive -
Lost a Mandarine dragonette due to my own "I can do anything" foolish attitude. Insufficient sustainable pod population, and it too did not survive.
The loss of money spent was unimportant to me.
I live and learn - but unfortunately at the expense of two wonderful creatures I was responsible for.
 

aceiswild7

Member
i would never have thought of it but it is killing me now.. not putting as big of a sump as possible in the stand before the tank was setup.. now i can only fit a small sump which is not working as well as id like it to
 

k.lee

Member
Originally posted by Zack Schwartz:
<strong>Are you saying never leave home?</strong><hr></blockquote>
yOU SHOULD TRY A PARROT ;)
 

k.lee

Member
Originally posted by broomer5:
<strong>I have two mess ups that I'm not proud to admit, and that I regret.
Lost a beautiful red open brain coral due to my stupidity. Had it on a ledge, and it fell off, ripping open it's fleshy parts.
It did not survive -
Lost a Mandarine dragonette due to my own "I can do anything" foolish attitude. Insufficient sustainable pod population, and it too did not survive.
The loss of money spent was unimportant to me.
I live and learn - but unfortunately at the expense of two wonderful creatures I was responsible for.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Amen. Some mandarins wil take food, I hear . . ..
 

ren

Member
Hummm, easy question - Getting into this hobby!
Distroyed and continuing to distroy my bank acct. Cost- not yet determined nor shall it be for a long time!
 

k.lee

Member
I lost 500 - 1000 US$ AROUND 86 in my first reef experience. The tremp got as high as the year, andf, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Worst mess, yep. :D
 

k.lee

Member
Originally posted by Ren:
<strong>Hummm, easy question - Getting into this hobby!
Distroyed and continuing to distroy my bank acct. Cost- not yet determined nor shall it be for a long time!</strong><hr></blockquote>
<h1>LOL</H1>
you gotta do better than that tho, c'mon. The animals and environment are stake. Nice joke tho, I hope ;)
I've had many fish for 2+ years in my tank(s).
 

k.lee

Member
Ren, your shrimp seem to get along? I'm acclimating three cleaner shrimp atm. Thinking about gettingsome peppermints too, and, I also have hermit crabs (blue legged) in the 45 hex. No other crustaceans besideds copepods, amphipods, blah, all important micro-fauna. :D
 

ren

Member
Ya they all get along but ... lol not sure about the peppermints, think they are preying on my hermits. Some others have posted concerns as well on the peppermints.
 

zack schwartz

Active Member
I bet some of u people wished you had help with $ from your parents! They think the hobby is okay but also give me a lot of $$!!
 
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