Biggest mistake you have made in this hobby!

[Macca]

I have dropped a wrench into my sump and cracked it from one compartment to another. Also managed to explode a heater/thermostat by running the sump dry. Also about twenty years ago I stripped down a whipser air pump and forgot to unplug the plug!! :eek:

James

[Tangman]

Silly boy James i bet you used a few choice words. Sorry to hear your misfortune m8 is it repairable or not. Eric

[oakwell]

i have only really made one and that was to break 2 t5 tubes in a week, apart from that my biggest ever mistake outside the hobby was probably to buy an mc hammer single!

[Macca]

Silly boy James i bet you used a few choice words. Sorry to hear your misfortune m8 is it repairable or not. Eric

Sorry Eric, my Gramma. It should have been past tense as it was last year.

James

PS No I ditched the sump.

[Tangman]

Yes i realised later that it was, but it was to late to back out.:)


The biggest mistake i have made in this hobby is not having a BIG tank for marines to start with. I started off with a 3x2x2 onto 5x2x2 onto 4x2x2 onto 5x2x2 onto 2x2x2 onto 5x2x2 now i have a 7x2x2, and today i have just rung a m8 of mine who is a glazier to get a price for a 4x4x3 in 15mm glass. So thats where i am at present kicking myself for not planning ahead. :) Eric

[finlee]

same here (about not going big from the start) but when you're a total novice it's worth the experience. Upgrading soon and will have a nice tank to keep seahorses in (he likes them)

[fishz]

I'm not sure if my biggest mistake was not finding out how expensive the hobby is before starting or telling the other half how expensive it is once i had :confused:

More seriously, it was not quarantining my last mushroom rock. Started to hear the dreaded tapping of a mantis soon afterwards, after taking years to catch the last one.:mad:

-Gary

[Macca]

Arghhh! It is very easy to read books and be given advice on quarantine but most of us dont have the money to support this. Anyone that keeps a marine tank healthy on a limited budget derserves far more credit than those in my opinion that have loads of dosh and have computers and technology controlling ever aspect of their reef. I have a large system waiting to be completed that I have been dreaming of for the past 20 years - EVERY NIGHT! I will get it up and running sometime but it does takes time and money.

James

[Macca]

ps I know they are spelling mistakes on the last post. :p

James

[Gillybaby]

The biggest mistake we made...using liquid superglue instead of gel to stick down an errant mushie frag. Wiped out 80% of our fish, corals & inverts. Most definitely won't be making that mistake ever again :(

[Macca]

Gilly I never knew this. I knew to use gel but never knew the normal stuff could result in that!

Thanks for sharing this with us

James

[Kev]

I had an open plan living room, and put my five gallon water change bucket at the top of the stairs to drain into the tank through some tubing. I let go of the bucket and 5 gallons of seawater poured onto the living room carpet.

Big trouble lay ahead. My hobby was on rocky grounds for a few weeks.

Kev

[Macca]

LOL

I have done something similar and it made the carpet change colour???????????????????????????????????????????? ???


Dont understand why salt water would turn my new blue carpet to red but it did!!!!

James

[flying Jock]

Thinking that i could change an in tank DSB to my new bigger reef!:eek:

Low and behold the loss of all sps, lps and a large part of my clean up crew. Around £2000 worth just days before i went on a 2 weeks holiday.

Gutted wasnt the word!:(

FJ

[Tetley]

For me it was not getting sound advice to begin with.

Seaclone, Ocean rock, DSB in tank, Humbug damsel (that will be fine said my LFS).

Still you live and learn - great thing about this hobby, is the nice people you met on the way, must be our fish & corals that chill them out (LOL)

ATB

Ian

[Kev]

The old seaclone. lol:D

Kev

[Hairy Monster]

Ive had a few but the biggest was not buying a chiller and leaving someone who didnt know much about my tank to look after while we went on a weeks holiday (that turned out to be the hottest week this year!).

We didnt go far so i left instructions that if anything didnt look right call me and if I couldnt give instructions over the phone i could always come back.

Anyway the tank was going well for the 1st few days but apparantly their was a storm and my neighbours told when we got back that the power had tripped but come back on again pretty quickly.

This unfortunatley was just enough to throw out my old lighting controller which caused one of my 400w metal halides to stay on constantly...........

They guy looking after the tank didnt notice due to the times he was calling round the lights were both usually on anyway.

This happened on the wednesday, when i walked in the door on the Saturday the first thing i noticed was the smell, then I opened the dining room door and the heat hit me, i looked at the tank and all my corals were dead only a couple of fish were alive, but struggling at the top of the tank.

I put my hand in to get the rose BTA that was face down in the sand to try to rescue that and the tank was like a warm bath! the BTA died the next day but at least i managed to avoid it killing what was left!

Gutted really wasnt the word for it! alot of money, alot of years and alot of good livestock down the drain!

Ive got a chiller now!

[Kev]

Not a nice tale that one.

Kev