Your dumbest reef related move? Here's mine....

Lampshade · #1 03-14-2012, 09:31 PM

First tank, had a stick on temp gauge, and a digital one. Battery died in the digital, so was going off the tank one for awhile because I was lazy. Tank one stopped reading one day and thought "stupid cheap piece of crap". So when I finally got around to it a day or 2 later I replaced the battery's in my digital.

Turns out the stick on temp thing was right. My heater had just stuck on so it was now out of range. DOH!.

Reef Supplies · #2 03-14-2012, 09:46 PM

heh those are some blunders

Congrats on the baby Aquaria!

Lance · #3 03-14-2012, 09:56 PM

I would love to join in on this thread, however, I have never done anything that could be considered dumb. Just ask my wife, she'll vouch for me.

fishytime · #4 03-14-2012, 10:44 PM

my dumbest move was two years ago when I moved from one house to another, I decided to keep the 1" worth of sand that was in the tank.....I went from this

to this

full on crash that killed absolutely everything except three hermit crabs in about 24 hours.....that was a large coleman extreme cooler filled half full of dead coral and fish......certainly my dumbest reef moment and my darkest saltwater days

globaldesigns · #5 03-14-2012, 10:47 PM

But Doug, even with the crash, today's tank is still beautiful... Maybe that is what I need a full on crash, too make me start over?

MarkoD · #6 03-14-2012, 10:54 PM

Setup auto feeders on tank for a month while on vacation. Came back to a cyano problem. Nothing died, it just looked ugly for 2 months afterwards

reefgirl189 · #7 03-14-2012, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishytime

my dumbest move was two years ago when I moved from one house to another, I decided to keep the 1" worth of sand that was in the tank.....I went from this

full on crash that killed absolutely everything except three hermit crabs in about 24 hours.....that was a large coleman extreme cooler filled half full of dead coral and fish......certainly my dumbest reef moment and my darkest saltwater days

I'm so sorry. That's tragic.

Luckily I haven't had any ridiculously dumb moves, I've been able to correct mine in time.

It's kinda why I joined this site, so I could learn from others mistakes and not make so many of my own.

Coralgurl · #8 03-15-2012, 12:07 AM

Since I bought my ro unit, I have flooded my kitchen at least 5 times, water pouring into my daughters room in the basement each time...she comes running up yelling what the he'll is my problem.....another reefer suggested I put the jugs in a rubbermaid just in case. Start doing that, then start using same rubber made for water changes....set the timer but still get the floods....moved ro to basement, hopefully that's the end of the flooding...as soon as we get the float valve installed....

gregzz4 · #9 03-15-2012, 12:28 AM

If you want nearly flood proof, you could copy my setup. There is a float valve, but I still turn off the feed when the drum is full.

dwerbs87 · #10 03-15-2012, 12:38 AM

I had my ro/di line run to my tank with just a ball valve I would turn on and then turn off after about 30 mins. I knew it was dumb, my wife told me it was dumb when I had a bit of a spill. I kept telling myself I would set up a proper float I just didn't really have space for it in our apartment. Xmas eve I see it is a little low so I turn it on and then start loading the car with gifts we are bringing out to my moms. Everything is all loaded, lock the door and leave. Xmas morning we are opening presents and I get a phone call from the building manager saying that there was water leaking down last night and they had to go into my apartment. So the whole main area of our place was wrecked, flooring, baseboards etc. The ceiling of the apartment below me was soggy and leaking through their light fixtures. And the main floor apartment had their breaker box explode after water got into it. I ended up selling my tank because all of the floor needed to be replaced and I didn't have the resources or drive to move the tank to replace the floors then move it back, and was out of the hobby for 2 years.
Now we are in our new house and I have the top off pump up from tanks in the basement, being controlled by 2 float switches connected to the apex, a solenoid valve in the line, PLUS a float valve in the tank in case the first two lines of defense fail.