The "Oh Crap" moments

[wnehez]

Hey Everyone,

Over the past 4-5+ years I have been reefing, I have had a couple of these moments. Just thought I would share them and also see how many others had these moments.

My first MAJOR one was when I first got into reefing. The tank was less than a year old and I had a major algae problem on my sand that I could not get rid of. Well, the thought of vacuuming the sand bed comes to my mind and I decide it was a good idea. After all, you vacuum freshwater to clean the gunk out. Well, I woke up at 4am to use the bathroom and walk downstairs and look at my tank and notice some fish floating. I threw on the light and seen they were no more. I did quick test to see what happened and found out my ammonia was through the roof! At the time, I had just moved to my new house and it was vacant for a while and has a well so when I went to do an emergency water change, of course the water wasn't good. Murky and nasty. I had to run back to my old apartment (thank god I still had the key) and transport 5 gallon buckets back and forth between locations. Since then, I NEVER touch the sand. There is too much stuff in there to fool around with.

My next moment (or should I say moments because it has happened a couple times:spin3 was when I went to top off my sump. Water was low and I have a 55 gallon barrel in the basement with RO/DI water that I pump into the sump for top off. The pump I use is a regular maxi jet powerhead/utility pump so as you can imagine, it takes some time to move water. So I plugged it in and said OK come check it in 5 mins. Well I went upstairs and sat down and started watching tv. Well, a half hour later I jump from the couch and start running. My fiance starts freaking out because she has no idea whats going on and Im acting like a murder is going to happen. I run to the basement. As I start down the stairs I can hear water running. I know it overflowed. I get down there and sure enough, the water is running out of the sump onto the floor. I run over an unplug the pump. Thank god it was only a 55 gallon barrel and my sump is 100 gallons and display tank is 220 gallons. One of the many reasons why I am glad I have a big tank. I checked the salinity and it was down to 1.020 from a normal 1.024. Nothing detrimental but still, scary as he77 to go through. After the last time this happened, I made sure I set a timer to remind me, "GO TO YOUR SUMP"!

 

[wnehez]

Oh just thought of another one.... I have my calc and alk on doser pumps with digital timers. I have the big bottles which is like around a gallon. Maybe less. Well I decided I was going to change the timer on the calc because it was a little high and my alk was a little low. So I change it from Mon, Wed, Fri for 20 mins to what I thought was Mon, Wed, Fri for 15 mins. Well, during my change I did not notice that it changed the off time from 12:30pm to 12:30am. I came down a day or two later to check my sump and noticed the doser pump was on. I know it shouldn't be on so I check the bottle. COMPLETELY EMPTY. It pumped the entire bottle of calcium into my tank over the course of 2 days! I was so worried my corals were gunna start dying from an OD. I called my friend who has been doing this a lot longer than I and had his own store for a while and explained it to him and he said it should be fine but thank god it wasn't alk. Needless to say, My corals are all still alive and healthy and My Calc has finally started to come down. Haha.

 

[Art13]

I think my first one was when the HOB skimmer i had was strategically placed directly above the wall outlet... I'm lucky i was working from home that day and heard that nice voltage crackling noise, go in the room and found the skimmer overflowing onto the outlet. Turned it nice and black. Other one would be when i realized the tank was ich infested and my QT was not set up at the time. Most recently, my calibration was off on my refractometer and my tank was at 1.022 instead of 1.025-6.

 

[elFloyd]

I've had a few of those too!

Preparing for a business trip once that would last longer than my ATO tank. Got the idea to fill my sump real full (and wondered why I hadn't thought of this before). Turned on the ATO pump and left the room for a few minutes. The ATO tank holds 13 gallons and I knew the sump could hold it. Came back into the room later to find water flowing down the walls of my 180g display.

Not a big change to salinity, but I really had a mess to clean up.

 

[wnehez]

I think my first one was when the HOB skimmer i had was strategically placed directly above the wall outlet... I'm lucky i was working from home that day and heard that nice voltage crackling noise, go in the room and found the skimmer overflowing onto the outlet. Turned it nice and black. Other one would be when i realized the tank was ich infested and my QT was not set up at the time. Most recently, my calibration was off on my refractometer and my tank was at 1.022 instead of 1.025-6.

I had something similar happen with the HOB skimmer. Somehow the output mustve moved slightly and rested on the edge of the tank rim. I got a call from my fiance who was frantic and said that I almost burned down the house today. Here the water built up on the inside of the rim/brace and trickled down the tank and caught a cord that went to an outlet. The whole outlet actually had flames(or so she says. Can be a little over dramatic when pointing out a fault of something I did)

 

[KafudaFish]

Hearing silence is never a good thing.

 

[wnehez]

+1 ^... You sit there thinking "Wait a minute, something is not right here....."

 

[pyithar]

when i started, i only had a clarkii clown in my 50G tank. i set the salinity to 1.024 using a swing arm hydrometer. then i wanted to try corals so i bought a small colony of zoanthids and put in it. it never opened up and died. clarkii was fine though. eventually i bought a refractometer, and the actual salinity was 1.030.

 

[PhaneSoul]

I keep 14-5g buckets of ro/di water, use em all up then I spend a few days filling them back up, an hour 45min each 5g bucket. Needless to say, I've gone to work, gone to sleep and just outright forgot about them leading to an overflow. Luckily I live in a run down trailer and I fill these up by the washer and right behind the washer is a hole in the trailer.

 

[wnehez]

I keep 14-5g buckets of ro/di water, use em all up then I spend a few days filling them back up, an hour 45min each 5g bucket. Needless to say, I've gone to work, gone to sleep and just outright forgot about them leading to an overflow. Luckily I live in a run down trailer and I fill these up by the washer and right behind the washer is a hole in the trailer.

Hahaha score one for beat down trailers.

 

[ska d]

My horoscope today said to be prepared for a surprise. And that I could have avoided the surprise by taking care of an issue sooner. Well I'm dying to get home from work to make sure everything is OK. I keep asking myself if there's anything I've neglected for the past little while. I definitely know the feeling of jumping up from the couch because I left some water running or pumping somewhere. That really gets the adrenaline going.

 

[soulpatch]

For my 125 planted tank I cleaned one of my canister filters and do not properly fit the o ring back on. It started a slow leak that went unnoticed that evening as I could lose around 5 gallons before it dipped below the top trim. Next morning tank was half way empty and it was raining downstairs in my basement. Not the way I wanted to start my day...

With the new biocube I was doing some cleaning and had some items in my water column. I put in more filter floss then normal to catch it and thought to take it out later that night. My skimmer return is into the top of my media rack and thus on the floss. As the floss got dirty it overflowed my skimmer onto my brand new carpet in the basment (just finished basement remodel from first disaster...) Luckily it was only a few gallons and easily cleaned up. Wife never knew about that one thankfully...

I have of course overflowed a RODI bucket. Now I have a float valve that I still do not fully trust but it is better then nothing for my forgetful nature.

 

[Reefwithareefer]

The C02 bottle on my Ca reactor, emptied and the bottle was expired. I did not have time to get it certified again and a week went by. I figured that I better put some calcium in the tank. I was new to the hobby, maybe 3 months or so and had never used any chemicals. The tank that I bought used, came with a bunch of powdered buffers etc and there was a bottle of powdered calcium.

I was in a hurry to get to bed and quickly read the instructions on the bottle. By my calculations, I needed 70 teaspoons of this powder to raise my calcium level up by 20.

I can almost read your mind...70!!!???

I got tired of spooning the powder in to the bucket at 50, so that is all i used!!
I stirred it up and dumped it into the basement sump...
The first thing I hear is the wife yelling that the tank has gone completely white. I yell back up the stairs that I know, as I dumped some calcium into the sump. She says something is not right etc etc. I mumble something about her being a drama queen and proceed to finish up and go upstairs...

WOW! is what I remember my thought being as I looked at the DT tank. It was so white that you could not see anything. It was like trying to look thru milk...
My tang and Dorry were swimming right next to the glass, looking out. I swear the look on there eyes was saying.."hey Idiot!! What are you doing? Fix this now!!

I even told them not to worry, as that is what the instructions said to do...and off to bed I went.

The next morning sucked. 75% of the fish were dead, as were the corals...

To make a long story short, I re-read the instructions and I put had misread them and put in 40 too many teaspoons, which is what caused the decimation of the tank.

I felt so bad. Still have not forgotten how the fishes eyes looked as I went to bed...

 

[wnehez]

The C02 bottle on my Ca reactor, emptied and the bottle was expired. I did not have time to get it certified again and a week went by. I figured that I better put some calcium in the tank. I was new to the hobby, maybe 3 months or so and had never used any chemicals. The tank that I bought used, came with a bunch of powdered buffers etc and there was a bottle of powdered calcium.

I was in a hurry to get to bed and quickly read the instructions on the bottle. By my calculations, I needed 70 teaspoons of this powder to raise my calcium level up by 20.

I can almost read your mind...70!!!???

I got tired of spooning the powder in to the bucket at 50, so that is all i used!!
I stirred it up and dumped it into the basement sump...
The first thing I hear is the wife yelling that the tank has gone completely white. I yell back up the stairs that I know, as I dumped some calcium into the sump. She says something is not right etc etc. I mumble something about her being a drama queen and proceed to finish up and go upstairs...

WOW! is what I remember my thought being as I looked at the DT tank. It was so white that you could not see anything. It was like trying to look thru milk...
My tang and Dorry were swimming right next to the glass, looking out. I swear the look on there eyes was saying.."hey Idiot!! What are you doing? Fix this now!!

I even told them not to worry, as that is what the instructions said to do...and off to bed I went.

The next morning sucked. 75% of the fish were dead, as were the corals...

To make a long story short, I re-read the instructions and I put had misread them and put in 40 too many teaspoons, which is what caused the decimation of the tank.

I felt so bad. Still have not forgotten how the fishes eyes looked as I went to bed...

That was a sad, sad story. How long after the incident did you feel guilty and constantly think "If I only listened to the fish when they were asking me to save them with their eyes"?

 

[Jason S]

A few years back, my 100g reef sprung a nasty leak, so I ran to my LFS, bought a 125 and switched set it up with minimal loss. About 6 months later, I was walking through my living room, and had the dreaded wet sock syndrome once again, so I started freaking out looking for the new leak. 30 minutes later, my boy comes downstairs and lets me know that he was looking for a towel to clean up the water he had spilled earlier...

 

[Reefwithareefer]

That was a sad, sad story. How long after the incident did you feel guilty and constantly think "If I only listened to the fish when they were asking me to save them with their eyes"?

Every time the incident comes to mind..or I see a bottle of powdered calcium...kinda of like when you smell the alcohol that you first ever drank way too much of and puked your guts out. Still can not stand the smell of whiskey

 

[rffanat1c]

The moment I reached under the tank to flip the power strip on for the powerheads while counting all my fish knowing my royal gramma liked to hide in a powerhead. I flipped the switch and instantly realized it was in the powerhead. It was on for only a brief moment but enough to shred some fins and cut the skin. He recovered but never fully, stress from a tang and ich got em.

 

[wnehez]

Every time the incident comes to mind..or I see a bottle of powdered calcium...kinda of like when you smell the alcohol that you first ever drank way too much of and puked your guts out. Still can not stand the smell of whiskey

Smirnoff... still gag when someone opens one near me.

 

[wnehez]

The moment I reached under the tank to flip the power strip on for the powerheads while counting all my fish knowing my royal gramma liked to hide in a powerhead. I flipped the switch and instantly realized it was in the powerhead. It was on for only a brief moment but enough to shred some fins and cut the skin. He recovered but never fully, stress from a tang and ich got em.

I always worry about this happening. I have a sharptail snake eel and when I put my powerheads on the feed timer I feed and then sit there and try and keep him from sticking his head in there. He is blind so his just tries to go in every nook and cranny in search of food. I grab him and pull him out and move him to the middle of the tank. My other fish seem to know "do not go in there" haha.

 

[[WDT]TardFarmer]

I had just purchased an Apex VDM for my 4 AI-sol's I had been having great growth with the lights but I wanted storms and more dynamic control. Well I setup the VDM and tested quick and then had to fly out to Vegas for a week for a Cisco convention. I got back and all my coral was bleached and my clams mantles had burn spots on them.. Turned out the lights were set at 100% for the entire week........ I could have killed myself. I know better than to make a change and walk away...