What's the dumbest thing you've done?

[Scavenger]

Stupidest thing I've done is get into a hobby that sucks money, time and energy faster than all my pumps put together.

[Delphinus]

Oh so many things. (See my signature !!) Where do I even begin.

I think one of them has to be checking to see if the "thing that was causing an electrical problem" was what I turned off, by sticking my hand in the water. <zap> "Um nope it was something else that's still on! Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow somebody please pull me away from the tank ow ow ow ow ow ow". Now that I think of it it's a little like checking for a gas leak with a match. Yes it can tell you whether there is a problem, yes there are better ways to check.

Other things .. It's always the shortcuts and the temporary things that get you. Or the things you do just before bed.

I don't run a beckett skimmer without a collection cup anymore (because once it's full it stops letting the skimmer produce foam). And if no collection cup I run the skimmer in the sump, so if it overflows it overflows into the tank. Things you learn the hard way!

One horrible mistake I made as a rookie, I put a float valve for topup on my reef, it was just hooked up to my household cold water supply. Never ever hook a topup on a SW up to an infinite water supply! What a mess that was. Of course it failed at night. On a related note, it's amazing what can survive being in cold FW for hours on end (that you think couldn't survive such a thing) and it might surprise you what can't.

One that I still feel really bad about, I moved a cleaner shrimp from one tank to another. I had done this so many times I got complacent about acclimitizing. Well it turns out if your salinity deviates by 0.002 (eg., 1.023 versus 1.025), this will kill a shrimp instantly. And I do mean instantly, you may as well drop them in boiling water. Always drip acclimate even if you think your source and destination waters are "close enough" - they aren't!

I could go on but I'll stop to save what's left of my dignity!

[kwirky]

I made so many mistakes with my first 18g nano reef tank.

I had to do a water change and I didn't want to mix up the saltwater separately. So I added water straight from the tap, dumped in some prime, and put the salt in and watched it slowly mix before my eyes.

3/4 of my frags died

I once rearranged my rockwork, then thought "where'd all my snails go?" and then scoured the rock over and found I had most of them compacted on the bottom of most of the rocks...

When I first got my mag 700 I wanted to see how fast it was but I didn't have my tank ready yet. I did it in the bathroom sink. That was a mess

[jordsy]

just 3 weeks ago i came up with a design for a trap to catch those bristle worms. I used caulking to seal the holes in my trap but it was type of caulking to seal seams in the walls of houses for looks. It wasnt water proof and it leaked through out my 90 gal tank. I had to change all the water.... not fun

[adidas]

the dumbest thing i've ever done happened when i was new to the hobby...

my first tank move, I had to store my fish in a rubbermaid container overnight... I just left them in with a heater and the lid on....No airstones, powerheads... my Unicorn tang died Stupid!!!!

[Phanman]

Originally Posted by kwirky

When I first got my mag 700 I wanted to see how fast it was but I didn't have my tank ready yet. I did it in the bathroom sink. That was a mess

LMAO nice....

[Murminator]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I don't run a beckett skimmer without a collection cup anymore (because once it's full it stops letting the skimmer produce foam). And if no collection cup I run the skimmer in the sump, so if it overflows it overflows into the tank. Things you learn the hard way!

I assume you mean the collection cup lid?

I left a frag on the center brace on my tank for a couple days while rearanging.....didn't turn out to well

[Delphinus]

Nope, I mean the waste collector. I keep calling it the collection cup but I mean the thing the collection cup drains into, that has a ping-pong ball that closes the air exhaust when it fills, which basically shuts off the skimmer.

Best darn thing I ever bought! I can't believe I ran a beckett for like 2-3 years without one, now that I know how awesome they are, I feel like a shmuck for not getting one sooner!

[Der_Iron_Chef]

haha, these are all great, guys. many laughs. and...makes me feel better about my own lapses in judgement

keep 'em coming!

[adidas]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I mean the thing the collection cup drains into, that has a ping-pong ball that closes the air exhaust when it fills, which basically shuts off the skimmer.

tell me more about this awesome device