STUPID things people do in this hobby

[Dearth]

Empty wallet syndrome

Letting my friend convince me to get into the hobby

[lpsreefer]

What I find is procrastinating anything with your system.
The I'll do it tomorrow.
We all do it.
Leads to all kinds of problems!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Doing stuff (like adjusting skimmer or plumbing) to your tanks:

1) after midnight & just before you go to bed
2) just before you leave the house on a trip
3) keeping ick-magnet fish with potentially aggressive tank mates
4) keeping more than one ick-magnet fish in the same tank

and yes

5) starting your first reef tank knowing you are certified as OCD by a doctor friend (most expensive "mistake" ever)

[jtbadco]

Stupidest thing I ever did was thinking I didn't need a quarantine tank.

One nasty case of Marine Velvet, a complete 120 gal mixed reef breakdown, 12 dead fish and 4 destroyed sps colonies later I learned the error of my ways.

+1 to the doing stuff after midnight. Woke up this morning to my newly installed (1:30 am) UV sterilizer with a slow drip on the carpet. 1/2 hr of re-tightening all the seals and it's good to go but next time I'll wait til morning to install.

Why are mangroves a mistake???

[lastlight]

I didn't have a chance to read any of these but great idea OP

I overflow vessels with water all the time! Just this weekend I narrowly escaped disaster twice. I have a small powerhead in my topoff reservoir which I use to fill my mixing tank from. It's a slow fill and I've forgotten about it several times. This time the 90g reservoir ran dry with the 20g mixing tank filled right to the brim!

Then later that day I forgot to reset my rodi timer for a few more hours and was downtairs for some other random task when I remembered to shut the unit off with half an inch to spare.

I'm not to be trusted with water.

[tang daddy]

Eating a powdered jelly donut while reaching over your display to scrape coraline from the back of your tank.....

No but seriously, I find myself waking up at 5am with a flash light to feed my corals, this was a new routine for me. Because my atinics come on from 3pm till 3am I find myself tinkering with the tank at all hours of the early morning. It's a lot easier to do maintenance and enjoy the peace later in the am since most people are fast asleep.

[Slyguy00]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

Eating a powdered jelly donut while reaching over your display to scrape coraline from the back of your tank.....

No but seriously, I find myself waking up at 5am with a flash light to feed my corals, this was a new routine for me. Because my atinics come on from 3pm till 3am I find myself tinkering with the tank at all hours of the early morning. It's a lot easier to do maintenance and enjoy the peace later in the am since most people are fast asleep.

Hahah classic. Im sure the corals dont mind powedered sugar in the middle of the night.

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by jtbadco

Why are mangroves a mistake???

Cause you need a forest of them to have any beneficial effect on your tank. You also have to mist them often. I said a PIA and not a mistake

[LoJack]

lol @ Fragalot. Couldn't agree more, damn scammer

1. Hermit Crabs ( I always put them in, but they just kill my snails, knock my corals over, and clean up half as good as my shrimp lol )

2. Definitely tinkering with equipment before a holiday ... foolish decision lol

3. LED's ... glad I'm back to T-5 now

4. Trying to explain to a newbie that they can't have that tang in that small tank, and they just keep telling you its fine its fine, no aggression yet. Then, you have other newbies chime in saying don't worry ... you can do it, I keep 5 tangs in my 55 gallon no problem at all. Well kid, I know a lot of people who have driven drunk and lived to tell about it ... doesn't make it good advice to pass on just because you've done it once without consequence! ugh, damn stubborn newbies lol