ADMIT IT: What is the most insane, craziest thing you have ever done in the hobby?

[revhtree]

We do things sometimes that we're not exactly proud of and sometimes pretty embarrassing! But they sure can help others in the future and help prevent them from making the same mistakes. So don't be embarrassed and don't be afraid to let it all out!

What is the most insane, craziest thing you have ever done in the hobby?

 

[Devaji]

my story...
I had a brand new red sea reefer 750xxl sitting in my living room since last BF. 2 months after I got it we ended up buying a fixer upper house. it had a perfect place for a peninsula tank. loosely tried to sale the 750 (not many reefers in my area most are 100s of miles away ) tried to convince the GF it will look nice to have two big tanks in the house I would even take down the nano ...she would have nothing of it in the new house witch, she is paying for a year long reno..so I just expected no peninsula and was getting excited about setting it up in the new house in 2020...

THEN...I got a call from a LFS about 6hrs away. he has a client with tons of height end corals that the tank busted a seem ( not RS) and new via FB that i was looking to sale it for a peninsula. so we traded the 750 for the 650P he drove down with a buddy arrived at 3:30 AM and the 3 of use loaded it in a huge snow storm that dumped around a foot of snow.
so now I have credit for the 650P once we get moved in the house.

GF said how knew taking something away could be such a good gift for here ...and I was thinking 2 big tanks!

 

[Jman76]

Ill call it my biggest DUH moment. First reef, first ATO. Decided to do a 20% water change...without unplugging ATO. Im sure you can figure the rest. Included minor heart attack haha. We dont do that anymore

 

[don_chuwish]

Too many embarrassing mistakes to count, but maybe the worst was spilling a good 5-10 gallons of salt water on the floor of a rental house. It happened slowly overnight due to a power outage and slow siphon. Woke up to the smell of low tide. MUCH cleanup later all was well, but that combined with some messes made by aging dogs meant losing over half of a large deposit when we moved out. But that was OK, the landlord was fantastic.

 

[andrewkw]

While I've done lots and lots of crazy things over the years the only time I can think of being embarrassed was using the family washroom at the airport so I could wrap the corals I had with me in damp paper towels to get around liquid restrictions (there is no exemption for livestock in Canada). It's not embarrassing to tell here but I would not want to explain to regular people why I was wrapping corals in paper towels for carry on for my flight. Especially the way things are at airports these days.

 

[Soylent Wrasse]

"Natural" Ammonia.

 

[Quietman]

RODI - have an RO only output for flushing, my planted tanks and wife's houseplants. Goes into 5 gallon bucket (yeah, you know where this is going). Have float switches on my salt and RODI tanks because you need them there. I don't need them on a 5 gallon bucket I watch closely...."Honey, where's all this water coming from?"

Then I did it again two months later (not counting the 2 or 3 close calls I caught at the lip of the bucket - wife doesn't know about those).

I added another float switch to my last BRS order arriving today after last close shave.

Wonder how many close calls happen before I decide to install it now.

 

[Quietman]

While I've done lots and lots of crazy things over the years the only time I can think of being embarrassed was using the family washroom at the airport so I could wrap the corals I had with me in damp paper towels to get around liquid restrictions (there is no exemption for livestock in Canada). It's not embarrassing to tell here but I would not want to explain to regular people why I was wrapping corals in paper towels for carry on for my flight. Especially the way things are at airports these days.

Or security if you tell someone you have to wrap your "blastos" before getting on the plane.

 

[Malifry97]

Mine would be deciding that a tank would be OK on a carpeted floor. Then preceding to spill 5 gallons of saltwater on the floor. A lot of towels and carpet shampoo were used that day.

 

[ahiggins]

I will second the RODI accidents. I have 2.5 and 5 gallon carboys I fill up. Overflowing one for about a half hour to the downstairs neighbors only to remember once maintenance knocked on my door for the below apartments “leak”. They were super cool about it but I felt like an idiot.

 

[raylinds]

Taking up the hobby in the first place

 

[Christa50]

Throwing the whole nano tank out of the patio doors. Out of. Frustration. A d the picking everything up and start over again

 

[ccombs]

Taking up the hobby in the first place

Got to my joke first!!!

 

[raylinds]

I will second the RODI accidents. I have 2.5 and 5 gallon carboys I fill up. Overflowing one for about a half hour to the downstairs neighbors only to remember once maintenance knocked on my door for the below apartments “leak”. They were super cool about it but I felt like an idiot.

Yeah, I've also overfilled my RODI container. Luckily It was not a huge amount and my RODI is in my basement on tile floors. Now I set reminders in Alexa whenever it is running to remember to check it.

 

[raylinds]

Got to my joke first!!!

I was kind of surprised that no one had said it yet.

 

[stanleo]

Not really me but when I moved in with my husband he had this god awful tank that he wasn't taking care of properly that just looked awful. There was this big brown spindly looking anemone. I mean huge. He didn't know it was a pest aiptasia and just thought it was a free anemone. I had been feeding the thing frozen brine shrimp for months! I actually saw him place an entire cube of mysis shrimp in the anemone. The tank was utterly covered in aiptasia. And algae. It was awful.

I guess it was crazy of me to take out 90% of the water, scrub every rock clean and all the sand and buy new equipment all in one day while it still had a few fish and coral. But I just couldn't look at it anymore. That was my intro into this hobby.

 

[stanleo]

I have a 110 gallon freshwater that when I do water changes I put the siphon hose down the drain of the washing machine and when I do this I have to take the washing machine drain hose out. I forgot to put it back in and the next time I did laundry instead of the water going down the drain it went all over the floor. That was fun to clean up.

 

[S2G]

Let's see you take your pick.

I ran rodi in a 5g bucket at 9pm and woke up at 5am on the couch still hearing my booster pump going on a 100gpd system

My wife remotely armed the alarm while I was in the garage without my phone. I used my the buckets for my own "personal water changes".

I removed a bm c9 collection cup and my daughter hit me with her bike dumping black skimmate on my lap. It doesnt come out btw

I was doing maintenance and thought I had the pump shutoff. I removed the union for my fuge and turned the valve to inspect which sent 1800gph into my face at about 2ft away

My wife may be on to something not allowing a tank upstairs...

 

[WVNed]

I knocked a ladder into a tank and broke it. I sat a 5 gallon bucket down and started drawing water from the RODI tank. Saw a large crab molt in my sump and forgot about the bucket until I heard the water hitting the floor.

and that's just in the last week.

 

[KrisReef]

I had some corals up for sale on a famous website. Early one morning I got a text for a picture of the colony. I was home alone so I hopped out of bed, grabbed my I-phone to get the picture of the tank. I stood in front of the tank and was working the focus to get the best shot ( it's a big colony) and didn't notice that my image was caught in the reflection in the picture before I sent it.

It was a fantastic photo but I never heard back from the buyer?

Edit: Pajamas? Sure. Like something out of "The Emperor's New Clothes" closet.