Been in the hobby long enough not to have only one stupid mistake. I punish myself though.

I've only been in the hobby for 3-4 years and thanks to my ocd relating to tank safety I've only had one minor flood.

I went away for a month on vacation and left my protein skimmer on with a huge reservoir for the skimmate. Well the day before I got home for some reason the skimmer over reacted, the storage container overflowed, and I got about 1-2 gallons of water on the floor. Unfortunately the overflowing skimmer set the ATO off so salinity dropped... I think I got away with that one though as nothing died. If it had happened sooner, I may have lost a lot of livestock too. So now I turn my skimmer off on holiday. Eventually I plan on installing a float valve in my the storage container to automatically shut off my skimmer in case of an overflow. This can really happen any time, even while I'm at work so I think it's good idea even when not on vacation.

And I'm sure everyone has a money related mistake, here's mine:

Bought an Aqua Medic 2 pump doser for $275. Despite being recommended by my LFS, it turns out the thing is a a POS. So I sell it a month later for $150 to someone that likes them. There is essentially no difference between that and flushing $125 down the toilet.

worked for a day straight to set up my tank after a move finished at 3 am and had a 6:30 am flight to the dominican half way through my trip got a phone call saying my basement. was flooded...... the good was its unfinished.. apparently my overflow plumbing job had enough splash into the sump that it slowly splashed out into the basement + extra ato for vaction

Wow! Some truly terrible moments have been documented in this thread.

I'm just starting out, and I've made a few mistakes. They pale in comparison to most of these, though.

Dumbest move? Stumbling upon a picture of a reef tank on the internet when i was 20!

Me and water definitely do not mix. This is not reef related....but, I'm a girl, I have long hair, long hair clogs drains. Pull the pieces under the sink off, unclog drain, don't put back together, but keep cleaning leaving water running. Finish up, come downstairs and there's water pouring out of the light fixture in the kitchen. I guess the good thing is that it's above the sink.....:twised: and now I have a lovely water stain on the ceiling.....and the light bulbs are full of water.....sigh

Ya I hate that too. Do you leave clumps in the shower like my wife?


I'm new and my only hope is I don't flood my house. Whether its tank breaking or whatever! So thanks for sharing your...mistakes.