# Share your worst aquarium mishaps and mistakes



## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Well, let's see...
1) I had a submersible heater break in the tank while I was at work and cooked all the fish and shrimp.
2) After WC, I didn't give the tank my full attention and overfilled causing spillage (numerous times)
3) Large overdose of Excel to kill algae and accidently killed my danios :icon_cry:
4) I went to plug in my Koralia and accidently grabbed the cord for my backup canister filter (hoses not attached), water sprayed everywhere under my cabinet.
5) Forgot to unplug the heater during WC and the heater shattered when the cold water touched it. I keep the heaters below the WC level now.
6) Didn't treat tap water with dechlor and killed my krib fry.

I'm sure there is more dumb stuff, but that's what comes to mind immediately.


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

That's the spirit! I knew this would bring some good stories! Sorry about all your dead fish and shrimp though. That stinks.


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## susankat (Oct 14, 2007)

A few years before there was a petsmart or petco, or any other store that was open on Sundays. We were moving that weekend and was setting up the 50 gal while holding the fish in a big trashcan. While after adding all the hardscape and starting filling the tank. Heard a crack. The bottom had cracked all the way down the center glass leaving us with no place to put the fish.

Luckily for us I called our regular lfs owner which was 40 miles away and he opened the store for us to pick up a new tank and made arraignments for us to pay for it on payday. That size tank was pretty expensive in those days.


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Haha, I was wondering when a thread like this would appear. 

1. Numerous time's I have sucked ont he other end of my syphon to get the water flowing, and I kept my mouht on for too long. This ends up with me having a mouth full of fishtank water and me freaking out and spitting it back into the water bucket. Doesn't taste all that good. :flick:
2. I already told the incident about me grabbing the heater out of curiosity.
3. This one happened like 3 days ago while I was setting up the Eheim for my 40. I forgot to put the endof the intake one and my Zebra Danio got sucked in. He was swimming aorund fine as the bottom of the Eheim, trying not to get stuck to the media. :icon_roll
4. One time I spilled an entire packet of yeast into my tank. Of course my fish though it was food and ate as much as they could. Had about 12 deaths, and I had to restart that tank completelty.
5. I had taken out some water in a cup to put my betta in while I was giving him a water change and kind of forgot about it. A little later I came in my room and took a big gulp of it. Lets just say_[strike] *barf*[/strike]_

I think that's it. I'm sure I have more, I'm just not thinking hard enough. :hihi:


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## mwil (Nov 10, 2008)

Mine had to be my first tank. A friend of mine gave me a 29 gallon that he had neglected. After a good cleaning I was off to petsmart! They were more than happy to set me up with 14 beautiful additions to the new tank! Well, being new to the fish world I had no knowledge of "Cycling"!!! Very good lesson learned! 15 years later and I've got a better understanding of fish, but now I'm off to live plants...Let's hope I have a better start with plants!


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Poor DIY electrical fitting and almost get killed by electrocution when touching the tank! 

(yikes!, but the fish are all OK that day, maybe because they are not grounded directly)


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

fastfreddie said:


> That's the spirit! I knew this would bring some good stories! Sorry about all your dead fish and shrimp though. That stinks.


lol - It did stink, that was my first clue something was wrong when I opened the door.



medicineman said:


> Poor DIY electrical fitting and almost get killed by electrocution when touching the tank!
> 
> (yikes!, but the fish are all OK that day, maybe because they are not grounded directly)


Oh yeah, forgot about changing the light bulbs in my Coralife fixture. I was using a screwdriver to loosen the bulbs. Anyone with a fixture like this knows the bulbs can be a pain to get out. Anyway, the fixture was still plugged in and I got a good jolt when the screwdriver touched the bulb prongs.


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## diyer3984 (Jun 9, 2008)

Used a power head to pump fresh cycled water into my tank from a 5 gal bucket. (Got sick of lifting the bucket up and dumping in the water) Half way through noticed i was late for a night out with friend and left it unattended. Lets just say I learned of back siphoning that night after about 20 gallons of water soaked the carpet of my apartment. The people who lived below me were not enthused nor was my landlord who asked me what happened. For fear of loosing my tank i told him that the dishwasher was on the fritz. I was lucky i wasn't evicted.


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

diyer3984 said:


> Used a power head to pump fresh cycled water into my tank from a 5 gal bucket. (Got sick of lifting the bucket up and dumping in the water) Half way through noticed i was late for a night out with friend and left it unattended. Lets just say I learned of back siphoning that night after about 20 gallons of water soaked the carpet of my apartment. The people who lived below me were not enthused nor was my landlord who asked me what happened. For fear of loosing my tank i told him that the dishwasher was on the fritz. I was lucky i wasn't evicted.


Man that was good thinking on the dishwasher thing. Hope you had a shop vac.


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

susankat said:


> A few years before there was a petsmart or petco, or any other store that was open on Sundays. We were moving that weekend and was setting up the 50 gal while holding the fish in a big trashcan. While after adding all the hardscape and starting filling the tank. Heard a crack. The bottom had cracked all the way down the center glass leaving us with no place to put the fish.
> 
> Luckily for us I called our regular lfs owner which was 40 miles away and he opened the store for us to pick up a new tank and made arraignments for us to pay for it on payday. That size tank was pretty expensive in those days.


What a nice guy. You must have been dropping some regular $$$ at his store. Why did the bottom crack? 



mizu-chan said:


> Haha, I was wondering when a thread like this would appear.
> 
> 1. Numerous time's I have sucked ont he other end of my syphon to get the water flowing, and I kept my mouht on for too long. This ends up with me having a mouth full of fishtank water and me freaking out and spitting it back into the water bucket. Doesn't taste all that good. :flick:
> 5. I had taken out some water in a cup to put my betta in while I was giving him a water change and kind of forgot about it. A little later I came in my room and took a big gulp of it. Lets just say_[strike] *barf*[/strike]_


I hate that siphon water in the mouth thing! Keep it up. Maybe you'll get a taste for the stuff. I've done the yeast thing too with a first time DIY CO2 gone bad. I still have the rasboras and that was 4 years ago. Sorry about your fish:icon_sad:



mwil said:


> After a good cleaning I was off to petsmart! They were more than happy to set me up with 14 beautiful additions to the new tank!


The people at Petsmart never tell people anything!!!!!!!!!! 



medicineman said:


> Poor DIY electrical fitting and almost get killed by electrocution when touching the tank!
> 
> (yikes!, but the fish are all OK that day, maybe because they are not grounded directly)


Is that true about the fish not being grounded directly. I've always wondered that.


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## blazeyreef (Mar 17, 2008)

oh I have accidently shattered the heater, though no casualties came from it luckily. I had a heater malfunction and cooked 3 panda corries, had another heater malfunction (same brand) and cooked some african cichlids... never used that brand again
I have accidently gotten windex into the tank, killed everything- never used it around tanks again
but thats about it thank goodness


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## Syris (Jul 10, 2008)

This is embarrassing but I'll share. 
I had a reef tank a few years back and was putting some new coral frags in the tank. For those that don't know its a common practice to use super glue gel to glue coral frags down. But my glue cap was stuck so I put the cap end in the side of my mouth to hold it with my teeth while trying to turn the tube. Well I heard a pop so i quickly took the glue out but not before getting a big glob in my mouth:icon_redf My tongue was instantly stuck to my teeth and my mouth glued shut. I was able to get my mouth and tongue separated with my wifes help (after she was done laughing) but it took a good week to chip off the superglue from my molars:redface::icon_roll


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## doodle1800 (Nov 3, 2008)

I turned on my top off water supply on my 55 saltwater tank in the basement.

Went to work.

All fish dead and floor soaked.

Forgot about turning it off.


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## doodle1800 (Nov 3, 2008)

washed the glass with a "non soap" pad.

all fish dead in a minute.

Guess it wasn't all "no soap"..

btw - this was a long time ago....


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## doodle1800 (Nov 3, 2008)

purchased a "chipped" 55 gallon tank from Petsmart.

Heard a loud pop in the middle of the night below my bedroom.

Went downstairs - tank basically exploded at crack.

Ended up getting about $1,000 from petsmart for lost corals and fish.

shall I go on?


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## pineapple (Jan 22, 2004)

My AHS twin 55 watt light (brightly on) fixture fell in the full aquarium as I was weeding and not-thinking I simply put my hand in the water and lifted it out. Have no idea why I was not electrocuted..... but the light did not go out and I seem to be still alive. Don't you try such a dumb thing though and make sure you have one of those GFCI switches installed.... I think I must have used up at least 6 lives by now...

It was an interesting effect having 110 watts of underwater lighting though... and the fish did not die. They must have been seeing black spots for a while though....


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## airborne_r6 (May 2, 2008)

My brother in law set the 150W MH light from his saltwater tank on the floor while cleaning and changing water, but forgot to turn it off. Walked outside and when he came back in he had burned a hole through the carpet and the pad and the wood subfloor was starting to smolder. He figures 2 mins more at most for a full blown house fire.


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## Allen121 (Oct 22, 2008)

Wow, with about 4 years of experience working in aquatics, including over a year as aquatics manager in one store, it blows my mind that I can't think of a whole horror movie full of bad experiences... The one that comes to mind first and foremost happened when I was about 14 and had taken my 10 gallon tank (pride and joy at the time) out back to clean it out with the hose. Upon carrying it back inside through the sliding glass door, my dog (a german shepard) tripped me rushing through the door and hitting me in the knees and I fell into the corner of the kitchen table, tank first, shattering it. Luckily I wasn't hurt but that dog is lucky he was a fast runner!!


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Every time I prime a filter, I always forget about one of the hoses and spray water all over the place. I've also pumped water on the floor with a python. Not cool.


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## Sarge (Sep 29, 2008)

DIY CO2

no valve to close it, I crimped the line with my daughters hair rubber bands, after a few hours, I released it while it was still in the water, and whoosh, out comes a whole mess of yeast bubbly stuff... water instantly yellow and milky snagged my guppies and rasboras and pleco out in less than a minute...lesson learned

Don't bother to close or crimp the line for DIY CO2...


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Syris said:


> This is embarrassing but I'll share.
> I had a reef tank a few years back and was putting some new coral frags in the tank. For those that don't know its a common practice to use super glue gel to glue coral frags down. But my glue cap was stuck so I put the cap end in the side of my mouth to hold it with my teeth while trying to turn the tube. Well I heard a pop so i quickly took the glue out but not before getting a big glob in my mouth:icon_redf My tongue was instantly stuck to my teeth and my mouth glued shut. I was able to get my mouth and tongue separated with my wifes help (after she was done laughing) but it took a good week to chip off the superglue from my molars:redface::icon_roll


ROFL!!! This has to go down as the most original mistake ever made in this wet hobby of ours. I just about busted a gut imagining what this must have looked like to your wife. I'm still laughing about it.


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## notropis (Sep 16, 2005)

Numerous shattered heaters during water changes. I don't use the glass ones anymore and that is probably the only reason it has not happened lately!


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## Syris (Jul 10, 2008)

cah925 said:


> ROFL!!! This has to go down as the most original mistake ever made in this wet hobby of ours. I just about busted a gut imagining what this must have looked like to your wife. I'm still laughing about it.


I can laugh about it now but it took a long time before I admitted it to fellow reefers  
I still cant believe i didnt loose any fillings, my molars were stuck pretty good. 
BTW my wife hides the superglue now:hihi:


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## resowner92 (Jul 23, 2007)

accidentally dropped my light for the turtles basking dock in the water and quickly took it out, nothing bad happened.

during a rescape in my shrimp tank i put almost all my shrimp(100-200) in a little 1gal tank. when i was finished i was tired and went to bed. woke up in the morning forgot about it and finally at night time i went in my room wondering wat this horrible smell was... well you get it

i got new tubing for my fluval canister at the hardware store and hooked it all up. i guess my suction cups for the outtake was bad because i woke up and heard water shooting out of the tank.

probably a couple more but thats all i can think of


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

wow, i did something really really dumb yesterday. 
so i've been cycling my tank for 10 days now, i've been letting the plants grow out a bit. and also i've gotten my CO2 equipment going so in order to make the plants grow better I upped the CO2 nearly to the max. the plants were pearling like crazy and the tank looked awesome. well yesterday i went out to get some fish. i got some otos and i did my usual aclimation method. i put them in a 1g tank and used an airline tubing to drip acclimate them slowly. well what i had forgotten was that I had OD'd the tank with CO2 and even though it was a SLOW drip acclimation the tank water was still really low pH compared to what was in the 1g tank. well about 20 mins later i go to check on the fish and most of them are pale white and barely breathing, i started freaking out and immidietly put an airstone in there. within 10 mins they were back to their normal color and swimming everywhere. there must have been a 20% volume change but i guess my tank water had SO much CO2 that it suffocated them.

after about 3 hours they were fully aclimated and i introduced into the tank after lights out. right now they're swimming around looking for food. I feel so dumb for forgetting that, but hopefully they'll be allright.
so just remember if you have CO2 keep it at a reasonable level. not 20 bps like i was doing.:hihi:


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## thief (Jan 12, 2008)

Such a great thread. 

1) When ever I do WC on this one tank I always happen to hit the lights into the tank full of water while it is on. I've done this 6-7 times and yet no electrocution as of yet!

2) Went to open up a bottle of DIY yeast wondering why it doesn't work. Ended up with a bunch of yeast crap all over me! 

3) Cleaned Ehiem Filter and tubing! I put the Intake part in but forgot about the outtake. Plugged it in! I freak out with water all over my desk. 

4) Cleaning tank, forgot about placing the end in the bucket. End up with water all over.

I bet I have more but no bigy's like you guys. I am still laughing about the super glue!!! ^^
Don't feel too bad though!


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

When I worked at Petsmart we had one of those big plant tanks and a heater broke in the sump and the workers kept complaining that the water 'tingled' while they were cleaning it. I stuck my hand in and got a shock from the broken heater. 

Sigh.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Phoenix-cry said:


> When I worked at Petsmart we had one of those big plant tanks and a heater broke in the sump and the workers kept complaining that the water 'tingled' while they were cleaning it. I stuck my hand in and got a shock from the broken heater.
> 
> Sigh.


hahaha tingled? wow thats funny
did the plants make it?


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## DaveS (Mar 2, 2008)

This is a great thread! I thought I was the only one that did these kinds of things. Some of mine are:

(1) Taking the motor assembly off of my Fluval 404 without removing the tubes first. Water everywhere and I was so shocked I just watched it for longer than I care to admit.

(2) Taking my CO2 solenoid apart to clean it without turning off the gas first. Same general reaction as above.

(3) Setting my canister filter on my DIY CO2 line. Luckily I had the bottle in a trash bag (I knew I would have an accident with it some day) so the mess was contained.

(4) I age my water in a trash can. I have forgotten I am refilling it a couple of times until I hear the water hitting the floor.

(5) I was trying to move a small bristlenose from my QT tank, and man are those little guys quick. I tried the lighting fast upward jerk of the net to catch him. I ended up getting him on the net handle and flipped him right out of the tank. Not a big deal in itself, buy my golden retriever was sitting next to me and snatched that poor fish out of the air and that was the end of that. If I had video of that one I might have made some money from it.

Dave


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## agutt (Oct 28, 2008)

these are absolutely great to read!


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## imeridian (Jan 19, 2007)

The worst incident I've had would of course be the killing of my fish via CO2 overdose.

Second to that I'm not proud of having nicked the glass with a piece of petrified wood soon afterward. 

I also, some time back when I was testing an auto top-off system, inadvertently topped off my floor instead... the tubing had come loose from the rim of the tank. There's a "springy" feeling in the floor there now because the water expanded the cheap subflooring.


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## CKJ (Oct 3, 2008)

OMG some of these are pretty scary!

But the super glue one had me rolling! 

About 10 yrs ago a friend gave me a beta in a vase. Evendually he passed on and I got a neon and had him for more than a year. So we moved into a house we bought and he was the last thing to get moved and the vase was so dirty! So I had my hand over the end of the vase to let most of the water out and then he would get put into a cup while I cleaned the vase and he went right through my fingers and down the drain!

Last christmas eve I set up a our 20 gal tank for my son and added our old fish-gold fish, pleco and molly, and before long they were all dead! Learned tons since then! Didn't really know what cycling was then! We had those fish for a couple of years! Matthew also got new fish for christmas!

Sorry fishies!


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## fishbguy1 (Feb 29, 2008)

I havn't had too much happen to me.

Of course, I get the water in the mouth from the siphon...lol

No broken heaters, but I have the dropped lights into tanks at work, with no ill effects when I grab them out.

In our brackish trank though, something is shoking me...literally. I'm not sure if its the heater or the filter, but something in it is electricuting me when I stick my hands in it. Nothing to major, but it stings.

One time my CO2 system tipped over and I killed all my plants, but all the fish made it out okay. I managerd to get 2 liters of the mix into the 29 gallon tank with no ill effects from the fish.


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## mmarnold (Nov 16, 2008)

I had a 30 gallon break when it got hit while in a fight with my brother when I was around 13.30 gallons and fish all over the floor and trying to tell my dad nothing happened when he heard the bang.Everythings fine dad keep watching the hockey game.


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## krames (Jan 7, 2009)

just 2 days ago i went to setup a 55 my dad got me that had been sittin in the garage i brought it in put on the standputin some water and waited cause my dad said it could crack from warm watter cause it was so cold. so i waited over night the next day i washed of some rocks and was all pumped to set up the tank second rock i put in was a big one i ended up dropin it by accident right through the bottom of the tank i nearly cried


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## svdfinally (Jan 6, 2009)

*So it's not just me*

I did the mouth full of water...got a python so that ended

The two big ones that I remember would be using the python to fill my tank from the laundry room when I got distracted. I heard the water starting to spill to the floor so I ran to the tank to grab the hose and turn it off but when I stopped my feet shot right out from under me being on the cement that had become wet. I remember looking up at the tank being on the ground with water spilling down on me.
The second was using my RO/DI unit to top off my reef tank. Again, I got distracted and went to bed. I woke up (Thank God that there is a drain in the floor about ten feet away) and realized that it had been filling all night. My salt content was half of what it was supposed to be and I had a lot of working fixing that mistake (I did this one twice)


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## Zack2112 (Jan 6, 2009)

im glad somebody brought this link up, this is exactly what i was talking about in my thread about lessons learned. i guess there was already a thread and just couldnt find it. I will add mine later when i have more time.


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## amp (Dec 2, 2008)

Well I'v broken & burnt up my share of heaters, but my dumbest tank moment wasn't just one bad move, but an entire bad setup. Take 5 medium sized convicts put them in a 20 gal add a 55w compact fluor lighting, add plants and wait for disaster. This set up was done before I learned of CO2 and during a time that I though high light was the key to good plants. I also didnt realize how big the convict would get or how they enjoy "aquascaping". With in a week the entire tank was covered in algae, every plant was up rooted and it was pretty much a complete disaster. Not long after that I threw the original stock lighting back on, tossed most of the plants and started saving for a bigger tank.


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## lf11 (Jan 3, 2009)

I've gotten the tank water in the mouth, shocked by a malfunctioning heater, DIY yeast in the tank and broken a thermometer in the tank while doing a water change. 
The most surprising thing I learned, which I should have known, is never ever put a tank with a glass top near anything that is higher then the top itself when you have cats, or for that matter forgo the glass if you have cats at all. My big boy decided one day to launch himself from the top of a shelf onto the the tank. Of course he crashed right through into the water taking the light with him as he sank to the bottom. I unplugged the light, which was still working by the way, helped the cat out of the tank and pulled the light out. I ended up moving the tank and getting a new glass top, the light still works. The fish survived the episode and the cat too, he no longer gets up on any of the tanks, even ones with wood canopies. He keeps his feet firmly on the floor and watches the fish from there.


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## frozenbarb (Dec 16, 2006)

One time at Chinese New Year like 10 years ago. My dad had 5 baby arrowanas in a 10 gallon still with sacs. So I went and felt the water and it was HOT, So I turned off the heater and opened the window next to the tank. It was 30F outside?
So then I went out and when I came back they were all dead. I was so scared I plugged the heater back. My dad didn't know I messed with the heater and maybe still doesn't

Heaters I broke so much of them.

One time my dad had Blood parrots in 10 gallons and one day the air pump didn't work. When I came home from school they were all dead.

I broke a ten gallon once when I was washing it. There was a piece of wood in there and it dropped when I tilted it.

I flushed so much Neon Tetras down the toilet by accident too.


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## imeridian (Jan 19, 2007)

Oh, that reminded me of something just horrific I did... a year or two ago.

I was using my diatom filter as a gravel vacuum of sorts to help get rid of my first case of nasty hair algae in the 75 gallon. Anyone with a diatom filters knows they have serious suction, well, I managed to suck my crowntail betta into the filter faster than I could blink. I yanked the power cable out, yelled for help to remove the screws that hold the motor to the jar, slopped filthy diatom water all over the floor. 

Oh, it was horrible! 

His fins were shredded and body cut up, I even attempted to euthanize him, but the dose wasn't strong enough and he woke back up! He did eventually succumb to the injuries a few days later, despite prophylactic medication.


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## seandelevan (Sep 24, 2006)

This isnt my story. But my friend got a great deal on a 55 about 10 years ago. We were both excited. I was going to help him set it up. Got it home and about 5 minutes into cleaning it it slipped while he was turning it and it fell on a rock and shattered it. Proud owner for about 15 minutes. 

I look back at that now I laugh my ass off.


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## tropicalfish (Mar 29, 2007)

Not too bad, I guess, but the worst I've dealt with was a water spill in where I lifted the water bucket too high, it spilled past the intended area of water pouring.
Water entered the intake vents of my Coralife light fixture, fell down behind my plastic black background, trickled into the computer power supply powering my cooling fans, and got the whole wall wet.


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## rwong2k (Dec 24, 2004)

i was getting into discus about 4 ~ 5 yrs ago, one of my large male discus from my breeding pair jumped out of the open top tank =(, saddened, but 5 yrs later, starting a planted discus tank, and it's still open top =)


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## rwong2k (Dec 24, 2004)

seandelevan said:


> This isnt my story. But my friend got a great deal on a 55 about 10 years ago. We were both excited. I was going to help him set it up. Got it home and about 5 minutes into cleaning it it slipped while he was turning it and it fell on a rock and shattered it. Proud owner for about 15 minutes.
> 
> I look back at that now I laugh my ass off.


i always wonder about that happening to me, i've owned a 90 gallon tank before and my bro owns a 90 gallon tank now, everytime i buy a new bigger fish tank or help a friend set up a new fish tank, this thought goes through my mind, what if i trip, slipped backwards, dropped the tank etc etc


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## bklyndrvr (May 24, 2008)

When I first got into fish keeping (probally when I was 12 or 13) My uncle gave me a 20 gal high, and I went out and bought 20 feeder fish. after a while, not knowing about cycling, overstocking, or anything about fishkeeping, I noticed that the fish were getting amonia poisoning (blood in the fins, etc). I decided to make a large water change. The only thing I knew about it was that I needed to leave the water in a bucket for a day to let the chlorine out. Well I emptied about 90% of the water, and then realized that I didn't have water ready. I left the tank with about 2 inches of water and 20 feeder fish in there overnight. Some of the bigger fish looked like sharks, with the top fin above the water line. :eek5: I filled the water back the next day and mentioned it to my uncle. He "educated" me the next day


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## FishGirl65 (Apr 26, 2008)

Yep. Tank water in the mouth syndrome here too. Burned myself on the heater. (Brilliant minds think alike.)

The only original antic I can think of happened when I was about 15 years old. (A while ago fer sure.) I was in high school colorguard and twirling my rifle in my bedroom. I was really getting into it when, smack! The end of my rifle went right through the front of my 10g. :icon_redf


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## Melificent (Feb 7, 2007)

Last night, about 7-ish I finished rinsing out the pads on my Filstar and reassembled it, popped it under the tank stand, plugged the tubes back into the top and waited a minute or so before plugging it in. I heard a weird sound of air escaping, but it was short and went away, so I plugged in the filter, observed things for a bit and went to make dinner...fast forward to 1:30 am, I notice the tile adjacent to the hardwood in the tank room has dark grout, like _wet grout_, I turn and see water behind the tank and open up the stand to find the filter losing water, it lost about 4 gallons or so! What happened, and what made the noise, was one of those little MTS babies lodging itself in the gasket when I was cleaning the pads. I should have rechecked the seal after rinsing the pads, but figured a once over when I first opened it was enough. Lesson learned. :icon_redf


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

I can't believe I didn't see this thread:hihi:

My biggest mistake must have been this (the bottom half of the message)


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

Melificent said:


> Last night, about 7-ish I finished rinsing out the pads on my Filstar and reassembled it, popped it under the tank stand, plugged the tubes back into the top and waited a minute or so before plugging it in. I heard a weird sound of air escaping, but it was short and went away, so I plugged in the filter, observed things for a bit and went to make dinner...fast forward to 1:30 am, I notice the tile adjacent to the hardwood in the tank room has dark grout, like _wet grout_, I turn and see water behind the tank and open up the stand to find the filter losing water, it lost about 4 gallons or so! What happened, and what made the noise, was one of those little MTS babies lodging itself in the gasket when I was cleaning the pads. I should have rechecked the seal after rinsing the pads, but figured a once over when I first opened it was enough. Lesson learned. :icon_redf


You really have to have those Rena's "just so" when you plug them back in. I have to birp mine for like two days after I clean them each month. Just cleaned one of them tonight and was super careful after reading your little story here!



ZooTycoonMaster said:


> I can't believe I didn't see this thread:hihi:
> 
> My biggest mistake must have been this (the bottom half of the message)


Canisters can be a pain ZTM, but all in all, I've got to say they blow HOB's out of the water! :tongue:


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## bishop169 (Aug 14, 2008)

I was having a party at my house and I left the drunk kid alone with the tanks he booted in my 30g 

Yea not the best thing to wake up with a hang over and a tank that really needs to be cleaned.. only lost a couple of fish….. 

Sucked in some tank water other then that nothing yet…


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

I just broke Thai's tank about an hour ago. I had to move him to the finnex.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Syris said:


> This is embarrassing but I'll share.
> I had a reef tank a few years back and was putting some new coral frags in the tank. For those that don't know its a common practice to use super glue gel to glue coral frags down. But my glue cap was stuck so I put the cap end in the side of my mouth to hold it with my teeth while trying to turn the tube. Well I heard a pop so i quickly took the glue out but not before getting a big glob in my mouth:icon_redf My tongue was instantly stuck to my teeth and my mouth glued shut. I was able to get my mouth and tongue separated with my wifes help (after she was done laughing) but it took a good week to chip off the superglue from my molars:redface::icon_roll


Been there..done that too..:icon_roll:redface:


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

Moved a 90 gal while it still had some water in it...three months later one of the seams broke open and put about 70 gallons of water on the floor in the middle of the night....


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## gvr-4579 (Jan 2, 2009)

The worst thing i have had happen was a return line sprang a leak on my reeftank while i was gone and pumped the sump dry and all over my floor, about 10 gallons onto the hardwood floor. =(


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## BruceWatts (Feb 27, 2008)

Well since I have been in the hobby for so long I have made about every mistake in the book.
When I was 13 I put a 20 high on top of my dresser. The back of the "stand" gave way and the back glass cracked. The tank completely emptied onto the floor. 

A couple of years ago I was in a big rush to do a WC on a seahorse fry tank before work. I had 75 two month old erectus in the tank and I did a 90% WC. I grabbed the wrong water jug and did the change with RO water instead of saltwater. When I returned from work all 75 seahorses were dead. I still cry over that one.

BruceWatts


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Yikes Bruce, I am crying with you. That is terrible!:icon_cry:


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## katiej (Sep 30, 2008)

A few years ago I cracked a 1 gal glass betta bowl while cleaning it. It cracked along the round bend at the bottom so I didn't know I'd done it. The next morning had water all over the carpet and it ruined the top of the end table, but the betta, rushed to a glass of water was just fine. I didn't even treat the water with dechlorinator until he was in there, I was in such a rush to get him into something wet. I figured any water was better than no water. I have no idea how long he was without water, but he lived for another year and a half.


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## Borgie (Oct 19, 2008)

mizu-chan said:


> Haha, I was wondering when a thread like this would appear.
> 
> 1. Numerous time's I have sucked ont he other end of my syphon to get the water flowing, and I kept my mouht on for too long. This ends up with me having a mouth full of fishtank water and me freaking out and spitting it back into the water bucket. Doesn't taste all that good. :flick:


Try filling the hose with tap water (tastes better XD) first, plug both ends of the hose, and use the water in the hose to start the siphon?

Here's my share of several things. . .

1. Picking exotic fish because they look cute. My case dwarf puffers, they look so cute, didn't know they were territorial and vicious fin nippers.

2. Overdosing Amquel in the same dwarf puffer tank, I can overdose NovAqua, why not Amquel? Next thing I know dwarf puffers were skitting about, dwarf crayfish flitting like crazy. Dwarf puffers and other fish didn't survive (wasn't able to change water fast enough) dwarf crays survived though, hardy little mudbugs.

3. Housing dwarf crayfish with dwarf puffers. . . poor dwarf crayfish babies. . .


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## Ross (Jan 25, 2009)

Doing a water change forgot to turn off the heater it ran dry and shattered.


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## Porkchop (Feb 9, 2009)

Stupidest thing I did was trying to use pool algacide in my 10g tank. I had done it before without an issue but trying to put just the right amount in a medicine cup above the tank was a terrible idea. I wiped out everything in the tank.

Of course I'm a member of the fishwater in the mouth club too, I think just about everyone here is. 

Trying to use peroxide to clear up a fungus on some of my fish and accidentally getting it into their gills and then watching the flip and jerk around in the tank when I put them back into the water.


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## zzyzx85 (Feb 13, 2008)

well...not really a mishap or mistake, but more of experience:

not all dead fish float. actually, very few of them do.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I haven't done anything really disastrous yet, but I just attribute that to not having been in the hobby very long.

I have done a number of stupid things with minor consequences. My favorite was attaching the gravel vac siphon hose to the outside of the 5g bucket instead of the instead. I had a small puddle before I finally realized that the splashing noise was water hitting the floor, and not water going into the bucket.


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## Sixwing (Jan 30, 2009)

Worst thing I've done was to place a small school of panda cories in a tank without quarantine. The poor cories didn't make 24 hours. The rest of the fish (aside from one tough-as-nails oto) did not make 72. I still don't know what they had, but it was awful.

Pulling sword plants out of a peat-under-gravel substrate made a glorious mess, but has not had any terrible results. It just looked really, really bad (and clogged my siphon, and gunked up an AquaClear something awful.)

Haven't gotten fishwater in the mouth since I got a siphon with an installed check valve. I love that thing.


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## WiseNet (Oct 1, 2004)

One day I was rescaping my 20g so I put all fishes in a rubbermaid tub next to the aquarium. Then I had to go in an other room for a while so I checked the cat. He was laying on my bed and didn't seem to be very interested in what I was doing so I left the room. Well.... big mistake ! 

My cat didn't actually eat the fishes but went fishing and took out a couple of them. My dog saw that and apparently knew those little things were important to me. Guess what, he took a fish in his mouth without hirting it and droped it right in front of me in the living room. I couldn't believe that. He is a fish salvager. But at that time I didn't know what happened exactly and tought the dog took it. So as a thank you I gave him a kick in the butt, only to realize after what really happened. I'm not sure he would save my fish again!


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## phan10ms (Sep 7, 2009)

Just when I got the art of acclimation down for red nose rummies to achieve a 100 percent survival, I thought I was invincible. Sadly, I got greedy with dosing Excel today and I've lost 2 out of 11 rummies. I did a water change to remove some Excel and almost slipped on a wet floor. What a day...


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## wadesharp (Nov 27, 2009)

i had a 200 gallon salt water tank break when i was out of twon for two weeks... a fish hit a piece of coral over and it some how broke it all 200 gallons and about 2-3 dozen fish in my living room


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## wgama (Dec 1, 2009)

My mother accidently dropped my light fixture into my 16 gallon reef the first time around...nothing survived.


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## mykoe817 (Jan 20, 2005)

A while back I was siphoning my tank with the python when I realized water was splashing out of the sink so I ran to the sink to check it out. At the same time I just throw the vacc inside the tank. Was fiddling around in the sink when I realized something is being sucked trough. I stopped the sink and ran back to the tank to realized I sucked out a few otos and loaches. Ran back to the sink to see If I can save any and realized the siphon was still going. Pulled the line - water on the floor, Stuck my mouth over the tube and blew into it and the Vacc end slipped off the tank and now water is all over the walls and carpet from me blowing back into it...

Totally panic in moment...


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## leaf (Jun 27, 2009)

Leaving the ball valve on my water change bucket open - during a water change.

/me 5 minutes into draining tank
"Hmm.. that's odd... I've drained the tank halfway yet the bucket isn't even half full."


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Definitely not one of the stupidest, but it's recent so sticks in my mind...

I tend to pre-fill my canister filters to reduce the time and amount of air they put out after hooking them back up.

I recently got my first Eheim Ecco. I filled it at the sink, then went to hook it back up to the tank. 

When I moved the handle to lock it closed, I got a face full of water.


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## yikesjason (Jul 2, 2008)

A seam split on my 125 gal. I was around when it happened and kept most of the water off the floor and most of the fish alive.


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

About half a year ago, i turned off my eheim 2217 classic and took the tubes off. Water came rushing down out of the tubes and straight out of the canister filter. I obviously wasn't thinking. :hihi:

Had water filled with fish poop and plant debris all over the inside of my stand. Thankfully it didn't seem to effect the integrity of the stand. (just made out of plywood)


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

I was setting up my CO2 for a 20 gallon tank I had. I went pressurized. I just prefer it. However, I was feeling particularly cheap when I was shopping for the parts, and I got a cheap-o regulator with no needle valve. To compensate, I purchased a needle valve online. After trying to attach it to the regulator and failing, I decided (I must have been drunk at the time) to install it in-line with my rhinox tubing (this goes CO2 tank, regulator, rhinox tubing, needle valve, rhinox tubing, diffuser, water).

This would be an appropriate time to mention that rhinox tubing is impressively tough stuff - but by no means is it indestructible.

The next day, I was on my laptop next to the tank, quietly minding my own business. Suddenly - from about 1 and 1/2 feet away from my ear - there came such a sharp and percussive explosion, that my ears were ringing for an hour afterward. My dogs were climbing the wall on the other side of the room, yelping and whining. I was yelping and whining, and clawing at the door of the cabinet to figure out what the hell just happened. CO2 was leaking slowly from the shattered hose, water was leaking from the other broken end. 

After getting everything mopped up, I spent an hour in my bedroom, rocking and sucking my thumb.


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

my dumbest moment in fish keeping history...

tried to raise my kh by adding crushed coral to my filter.
i have pressurized co2 with a ph controller. 
co2 dissolved more coral, which raised ph, which turned on my co2, which dissolved coral, which raised my ph, which turned on my co2, etc, etc.

i call it the crushed coral/co2 death spiral.
lots of expensive deaths


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## panther685 (Jul 27, 2009)

I built a python using a water bed attachment and my gravel vacuum. The only problem is that my gravel vac had a one way valve in it. Draining the tank was a breeze but then when i changed it to fill it that's when it happened. The line pressurized and POP water started squirting everywhere. It's like i sprayed a water hose all over my living room.


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## bigboij (Jul 24, 2009)

put a new diy co2 bottle in late in the day (didn't run a air stone at night at the time) woke up to a tank full of dead shrimp, a few climbed up on the edges of the tank they lived.




during a water change i removed my canisters quick release... forgot to un plug it first

during the same water change I turned the canister on before putting the quick release lever down.... yea they dont stay put without that lever locked.

what I learned there is an amount of beer that is too much when it comes to tank maintenance.......... I know who would have thought?


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## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

Attempting to water change, I got a blast of filthy fish water shot down my throat when sucking on the tube to get a siphon going. I was disgusted, gagged a bit, took a shot of vodka and rinsed my mouth with purple listerine....all at 10:30am.


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## Spork (Apr 27, 2009)

I have a few. 

Bottom of one of my 10 gallons tanks broke when I was taking a nap. When I woke up I saw the dog run out of the room that the tank was in and thought that she had pee'd on the floor but as I turned into the room I knew that a little dog could not produce that much liquid.

I took the end off my Girlfriends intake hose on her 2215 to clean it and 2 weeks later went to clean the filter only to find a Cherry Barb in the bottom, alive but thin and a little beat up. She swears that I tired to murder it. It is doing well now (3 weeks later).

On the same day I did a water change on her 90 at 11pm and after getting called to the kitchen to eat something (with the water going into the tank). 5 minutes later.....lots of water on the floor. Needless to say....not much sleep that night.

Lessons learned


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## elihanover (May 15, 2008)

krames said:


> just 2 days ago i went to setup a 55 my dad got me that had been sittin in the garage i brought it in put on the standputin some water and waited cause my dad said it could crack from warm watter cause it was so cold. so i waited over night the next day i washed of some rocks and was all pumped to set up the tank second rock i put in was a big one i ended up dropin it by accident right through the bottom of the tank i nearly cried


I'm sorry, but this made me LOL. This is the story of my entire childhood.


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## VincentK (Dec 16, 2009)

When I was young, my brother bred some sort of fish and kept the fry in these little fish bowls, not knowing what was in these bowls, I drank one and all of its inhabitants


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## topfrog007 (Dec 30, 2007)

Here's a new one:

Just about a week ago I was QT'ing a sick rummy in a 10G tank sitting right next to my 55G. After a few days of QT I decided that he looked worse and that I was going to put him back into the 55G. For some reason I decided to do this around midnight, when the lights in my 55G were off. Anyways, I put him back in, and then placed the net over the 10G while I went about breaking down the tank for storage. 

After a few minutes I took the net to the sink, rinsed it off and went back to breaking down the tank. 

When I finished breaking down the 10G I went to the sink to wash my hands, and there swimming in about 1" of water on one of our dinner plates was a 1/2" black molly. I couldn't see him in the net/tank because he's black and the lights were off. 

I immediately put him back into the 55G and he is fine now. Quite surprising considering he sat out of the water for a few minutes, then was dumped into a plate with food residue, cold water, and about 1" of untreated tap water on it.


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## Alpinist (Oct 7, 2009)

I can only think of two:

Used to work at a mom/pop exotic pet store in Oregon and I was doing a WC on the aquatic turtle tank. As you may know, 6 aquatic turtles in about 15-20 gallons of water, being fed goldfish make quite a mess. Well, that water change went in my mouth because I was starting the siphon by mouth. Regular fish water is sparkling clear compared to that stuff...

Incident two: I was on the back porch of my college house which I shared with other aqua-heads who worked at the pet store too. Well, needless to say, we had many types of aquariums all over the place, including empty ones in the backyard. As I sat in the metal folding chair on the back porch (rather intoxicated), I leaned back only to find that the back leg of the chair slipped off the edge of the deck. I go assoverteakettle backwards in the chair and the back of the chair strikes the corner of an empty 10gal smashing it thoroughly. If the tank had been positioned a bit differently, that would have been my back smashing the tank.


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## chaosmaximus (Sep 29, 2009)

back when I was little, say 15 years ago I had a 20 long community tank which was doing pretty well. My mother told me that we could go get more fish if I cleaned the tank and so I did... with a new sponge from 3M. This was apparently a new kind of sponge 'Now with Antibiotics!' When I got home my albino cat was still alive as was my beta, but the rest of the tank was dead. I did one or two large water changes but was unable to save the two survivors. I remember calling 3M's hotline and demanding to know what was in the sponge, but I am sure it wouldnt have helped to know. That said, the next set of those sponges I saw had a warning on them about aquariums. But still, it sucked pretty bad. 

More recently I had a 12 JBJ nano cube spring a leak, still not sure where because I was not at home. That, at least, had 100% survivorship because it was noticed early and the fish were safely in a pot with an airstone by the time I got home.


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## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

If you read my thread about a month ago, you have my story. 100 gallon tank broke, flooded my loft, ruined my hardwood floors, had to throw away 6 months of amazing plants growing under pressurized Co2, two discus passed along with one angelfish, 6 zebra danios and 2 rummynoses.... It was devastating.

I´m setting up the tank again this weekend, with renewed energy but with the fear of it breaking again... This is the worst dream of any aquarist


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## Green024 (Sep 19, 2009)

Probably happened to several of us. Doing a simple WC, along swims a small clown loach from under something. Noticed a blur or orange go in the end of the vacuum, but it was too late, he got folded like a piece of paper. I stopped the the vacuum, then he became stuck in the center of the hose. I Then had to put the vacuum head to my mouth and blow into it launching the poor little fish back into the tank. Didn't survive.


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## phan10ms (Sep 7, 2009)

blackandyellow said:


> If you read my thread about a month ago, you have my story. 100 gallon tank broke, flooded my loft, ruined my hardwood floors, had to throw away 6 months of amazing plants growing under pressurized Co2, two discus passed along with one angelfish, 6 zebra danios and 2 rummynoses.... It was devastating.
> 
> I´m setting up the tank again this weekend, with renewed energy but with the fear of it breaking again... This is the worst dream of any aquarist


Wow. Was it due to a tiny crack?


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## Chrisk-K (Oct 12, 2009)

My interest in fishkeeping started when my sons won 2 goldies at a school fair 2 years ago. I set up a 10g tank for them. I washed gravel and tank with soap every month because the tank water became cloudy too iften. Of course, I had no idea of the concept of cycling,


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## Mjc20 (Sep 8, 2009)

oh god, where to begin....

when i was younger...maybe 8 or so, i used to catch baby snapping turtles in the spring and keep them till the fall. well, one year i decided to add in some leopard frogs, thinking theyd be best buddies w/ the snappers. i was mortified when i came back from school and just saw a single leg floating in my snapper tank .

when i was 10-12 yrs old: i kept killing my guppies, but i couldnt figure out why....long story short: i was forgetting to add in the dechlor. that went on for a good 5-6 months or so .

and ive probably broken about 8 or so heaters by forgetting to unplug them or push them below the water line when doing water changes...


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

I had a cool clown loach. He usually hides behind the taller plants that I prune weekly.

I wasnt paying attention, but when i went to dump the snippings into the toilet...i saw the loach and it was too late cause it was flushing.

I felt bad.

I had the hagen co2 packets and co2 generator that you buy OTC. As you know they dont smell good when they ferment. Well i had it sitting "temporary" on top of my tank, it was dark and i wanted to put something in the tank. I lifted the cannopy and BOOM the bottle falls (its a HARD bottle) and start hearing things pour out. Then this awful gasly smell came out. It was all over the carpet smelling so bad making me puke.

I put 2 fans facing out the window, lit 3 candles and got some air freshner and slowly absorbed the carpet by hand. The smell remained for 2 days

At 3.30am its something that WONT make you sleep. Since then I done DIY co2 that smells better lol. I cried cause it smelt so bad.


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## bishop169 (Aug 14, 2008)

I moved a few months back I had my fish in one bucket and the plants in another. I set up the tank that i moved wet and took a lot of care to set it up so the fish could go back in with a 90% water change being the only ill effect but in the mass rush of moving my friend asked if he could put the fish in. I said "sure go ahead and dump them in" 

Ishould have picked my words more carefully as my friend who has never owned fish turns the bucket over and dumps all the fish in kicking up the soil and plants the water was brown and getting all the fish out was next to impossible lost more then half my fish 

Its true it's hard to find good help


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## flyjsh (Jun 2, 2008)

Three low notes of 35 years of fish...

In the early days, on an "expert's" advise, I kept a penny in the filter: "puts copper in the water to keep the fish from getting sick."

First tank I repaired, I used bathroom caulk to seal it. It had a chemical to keep mold from growing. After several weeks of fish dieing, I figured out the propblem and junked the tank.

Had a 50 saltwater with fish most of which I had collected. I got into a spring cleaning mood the same day I did a water change. While the water was draining, I cleaned my bathroom. I went back to the tank, scraped some algae, moved a rock or two, and added the water. Came back an hour or so later to find everything in the tank had turned white. All inhabitants, save one clown, were dead. I watched him die a few minutes later. My best guess is that a chemical (I'm guessing chlorine) I used to clean the bathroom had soaked into my skin, so even though I washed my hands, there was probably enough still in my skin to poison the tank. After that, I took a few years away from the hobby.


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## Airphotog (Aug 21, 2009)

Back in the 80s I had a 130 salt tank. It had about 8 or 9 expensive fish like a Clown trigger big angels and others. It was in the summer and it was warm out. My power heads got plugged with salt build up and quit aerating the water. I was gone for less than an hour and when I came back they were all dead (suffocated). The dollar loss was pretty big but the loss of the fish’s life is what really sucked. 
Here is another one. I had a 55 plumbed into my 130 a couple of years later. The 130 was now a complete reef tank with a six foot skimmer and large home made sump. The tank won first place awards in The Seattle and Kitsap aquarium society’s salt tank contests. Anyway the 55 had a mated pair of snowflake eels they were big and very beautiful. If you know anything about them you know that they will crawl out of your tank if it is not covered. I was starting new job marketing @ air shows and would be gone for up to three weeks at a time so I gave them to a friend who was starting a wholesale salt shop. He did not cover the tank one night and they decided to take a stroll. When he came to work in the morning to two dead eels. I was quite bummed when I found out.


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## Whiskeyfox (Oct 16, 2009)

I had a party at my house last year for the work people... They got drunk, got a hold of the boss's daughter's cell phone, put it in a zip lock bag they found in my kitchen, and hid her cell phone in my aquarium... All of this happened without me even knowing about it until she was freaking out about her cell phone being in my aquarium.


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## [email protected] (Sep 28, 2009)

*thanks*

OMG!
Every time I read this thread, I start to panic and check things on all my tanks! I have come SO CLOSE...and not even realized it, until I read about the disasters (yes, I used to clean the outside with WINDEX!!!! OHHH NOOOO....but nothing happened, lucky me)

Actually I have laughed a LOT and been very sad for the losses. I have learned a lot already from the mistakes posted here. 
Thanks to everyone who has been willing to post their heartbreaks for the rest of us.


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

oh man, i had a great one, a friend of mine setup a 45g cichlid tank in his office with a eheim 2217 and a fluidized bed filter... plugged the eheim into a power strip that was on a 6 hour a day timer, every day he killed the bacteria in his fluidized bed filter, killed everything!


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## elihanover (May 15, 2008)

http://failblog.org/2009/12/04/friday-rewind-weightlifting-fail/


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## xmas_dude (Apr 5, 2009)

Disaster#1:
Last summer, one of the 2 heaters in my 55G suddenly malfunctioned and when I came back from work, I had tank temp touch 95+. Lost 20 harlequin rasboras, 1 neon tetra and 2 angels in single day!!!. Amazed that remaining juvenile angels and Otos and Platys survived this broth!!.

Disaster#2:
2 years back, I was fishsitting a breeding pair of angels for my friend and they had just spawned in my 10G breeder tank. The tank was in fish room in garage. One morning I find both angels floating!!!. Realized that one of the workers (had home remodeling work going on at that time) had unplugged the heater and used the power point to plug in his electric tool. He forgot to plug the cord back (was not aware what he had unplugged). Lost one of the healthiest breeding pairs of Angels I have had and all the eggs as well :-(.

Disaster #3:
Had setup small container pond on my deck last summer with some goldfish. One morning I find that the container is almost empty with no water and not a single fish. Deck is dry too!!. Container was intact... almost as though someone drank 10-20 gallons of water from it. This was real mystery/shock to me since I had checked water the previous night. The only clue I had to this mystery loss is that some animal (neigbors cat or racoon) had managed to knock the fountain head to side of container (directing the fountain water out of container and out of deck) when trying to sip water or catch the fish. This caused all the water from tank drain out of the container through the fountain and what was left behind was a tasty snack of 3-4 goldfish.... This is the freekiest incident I have had. Imagine watching pond full of water+fish prior night and next morning have exact same container dried out with no fish and the sound of a fountain motor running dry.


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## Adam79 (May 6, 2009)

Had my fair share of fish water cocktails, fish sucked up into powerheads/filters, water on the floor, and so on. I have two disasters that stick out in my mind.

One evening I was doing a water change in a 30 gallon tank and somehow managed to submerse a non-submersable heater. Seemed to be fine, so I put in back in the tank. The next morning I awoke to a 103 degree tank and about 80 bucks of cooked fish.

This is the classic. I used to live on the second floor in a one bedroom apartment. Late one night, I don't recall why, I decided to open the hood of my 125 gallon tank. As I opened it, I heard a loud crash and all the lights in my tank went out. The lights in the tank were the only lights on in the room. It's pitch black and I hear rushing water. You can imaging the panic that occured. I ran for the light switch, end up running into the vacume, tangled up on the floor. I got up and managed to find the lights. I franticly searched for the leak in my tank, while water was rushing from somewhere. I looked in back to see my overflow box on the floor and water siphoning out of the tank. I killed the siphon after about 20 gallons ended up on the floor. It turns out, I forgot about a painting I layed on top of the hood. When I opened the hood, the painting fell behind the tank, breaking my over flow box and pulling the cords to my lights that in turn pulled my lights out of the mounts. All four bulbs shattered in the tank. I cleaned as much of the glass I could, did daily water changes, and spent 80 bucks on a new overflow. The next day my landlord ask me why water leaked into the resturaunt below, ruining a bunch of food. I told him the float in my toilet had stuck and flooded my bathroom, but I fixed the problem out of my own pocket. He offered to pay for the parts, but out of guilt I declined.:iamwithst


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## Kittysnax (Dec 8, 2009)

When I was about 14 I had to go away for a couple of months, only to come home to all of the fish in my saltwater preadator tank gone...HUGE lionfish, Polkadot grouper, large Snowflake eel, etc...."Your lion fish died and poisoned all the others..." says mom. I think they just forgot to feed/clean them >_>

After that incident I got a Oscar. He got to be about 9" and one morning around 5am I heard every curse word under the sun being projected throughout the house........he had jumped from the tank into my dads work boot. (I forgot to put the brick back on top of the glass lids)

edit: oh and i sucked up a "bubble eye" goldfish, popping the bag under the eye...as well as a oranda....causing him to swim sideways the rest of his life.............Both ended up "taking a trip to the farm" and I felt bad so now I try to stay away from goldfish now in general >_>

and I got finned by a 19" Plecostomus because i picked him up and his dorsal fin split right up my hand...fail


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## connordude27 (Jun 14, 2008)

i left my retainer cleaner tabs by my tank and my sister (2 or three at the time) decided to put it in the tank.... the betta lived though

my food was also left out and she dumped it all in the tank (the same betta also lived through a small tank with a ton of food

thats really all i can remember but this morning i almost blew up my diffuser lol


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## Nue (Dec 27, 2009)

Canister filter broke, and dumped half my 55g on the carpet.


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## amcoffeegirl (May 26, 2009)

My 1st batch of molly fry i didnt know what to do- i put them in a 2.5 gallon with a whisper filter it was set on high- i didnt know i was adjustable. they swam for there lives all night long. and the the morning i realized this couldnt be right. found the adjustable water flow. poor mollies.


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## non_compliance (Dec 1, 2009)

African cichlid tank. 40% water change. No prime. Killed 15 of the 30some fish. Weird thing was only the tanganyikans died. In fact, it was specifically brichardi. Rest of the fish were doing their thing, acting normal while the brichardi were swimming loop-d-loops


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## bishop169 (Aug 14, 2008)

Small children and fish dont mix
I put a 10g in my kids room with some guppies and a small bushy nose my lil girl at about 2 fed them one evening not thinking about it I woke up went to work then came home to a cloaded white tank full of left over flakes and a bunch of dead fish.... 

a year later the same child asked if she could take some pictures of the fishies. "thinking whats the harm" I handed her my cam and went back to doing what i was doing then i hear what every parent fears 
"OOOPS" 
go into the next room to see my girl on a chair and my cam on the bottom of the fish tank


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## fishiesramazing (Dec 6, 2009)

I've also sucked fish through siphons, but usually caught it in time. One place I worked had the siphon out the back door and I believe I sucked up an otto or two. Oops. 

Also with the siphon sucking: if you put the siphon in the tank and fill most of the tube then pinch it to retain the pressure, then put the empty end in the bucket and release the pinch, it should start. It takes some practice, but after that it's really easy. Never have ended up with water in my mouth (everywhere else probably though). 

Cleaning my Fluval 205: Dumped the water and contents out into my tub (usually where I do the cleaning...it's a place for washing, isn't it? Haha). Went out and came back in to find my missing male cherry barb in the tub. He was alive still, but looked a little crushed. Tried to save him, but he didn't make it. Dunno how he got in or how long he was there or when exactly he got crushed. It was odd. 

Another fish story: Had new hatchet fish (never kept them before). I think some die early. Then I went away for a weekend break from school. I felt fully confident with my automated tank. However the back was partially uncovered for the equipment going in and out of the tank. Came back to find my last hatchet had jumped out, flopped from the tank, through the bed room, and had died in front of the bathroom. It was like he was making a break for the toilet or something! So sad. Haven't kept them since, but maybe my new 20H set-up is okay, with a fully covered glass top! 

I've broken my heaters, but don't know how. Now I just don't use them. Fish seem perfectly happy without. Keep the house pretty warm as is. 

That's all I remember for now!


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## ermaclob (Nov 30, 2009)

bishop169 said:


> "OOOPS"
> go into the next room to see my girl on a chair and my cam on the bottom of the fish tank


LOL was the camera expensive........ and more imortantly did you make her sleep out side for a week or something?

OK, on my ten gallon non planted (2nd tank) i put this fist sized sea shell, it was pretty. one day i notice one of my snails disappeared, it didn't seem bad it normally vanished. 3 weeks pass no sign of it, but did notice nasty smell coming from shell also gunk coming out of it. so i shake the shell like an hour die snail came out. put the shell back in a week latter my favorite fish in the tank goes missing (dwarf Guramis) no where tobe found, the hole day paranoid about were the fish went........ turns out the shell "ate it". ...........................now heres the funny part. i got so mad at the shell i tried to brake it with a head butt. did not end welll for me, turns out those shells are as hard as they are pretty. hert my head bad, even blead a little :icon_cry: 

one of my biggest FAILS in a wile


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## bishop169 (Aug 14, 2008)

yea it was like a $400 cam back when digital cameras were new in the public market 

no I think she got time out chair time for a long while so daddy didn’t’ kill her children have the very affective cute defense its hard to get around 

If i remember right to make up for it she drew my a picture of my fish tank with the cam on the bottom still


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

bishop169 said:


> If i remember right to make up for it she drew my a picture of my fish tank with the cam on the bottom still


 cute... but lmao


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## CichlidFL. (Oct 13, 2009)

lol i have gotton multiple mouthfulls of water. my worst fish related moments are the moments when i find out why things are named as they are. ripsaw catfish, bucktooth tetra ( exodons bite!). i also was cleaning a tank w about 15 corys in it, i was using the net for somthing and accidently nabed a cory. i stupidly tried to scoop him out and got most of his dorsal fin in my thumb. i know this is supposed to be fish related, but i have to add this : i probably shouldnt be allowed near fire. i was making bananas flambe, and stupidly had it on the back burner. theres a huge black spot on the wall where the drywall got torched. :icon_mrgr


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

My girlfriend just called and let me know I had my worst aquarium mishap...

I think I lost 10 fish. I left for the holidays and accidentally unplugged the heater. Our landlord turned the heat way down, and it killed my apistos and ember tetras. The CPDs were the only ones left.


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## gi_jess (Jan 28, 2010)

About a year ago I sucked a danio through my siphon tube side ways. He came out all bent and mangled but I just couldn't bring myself to euthanize him. The funny thing is he recovered... he's now kinda permanently bent but he's as happy and as mobile as all the other danios.
On a sader note, another mistake I made was trusting a cheap digital thermometer. Before going away one weekend I thought my heater must have been on its way out or something cos the temp reading was down. To compensate I turned the heater up and went on my merry way. Came back on the Sunday night to find all my precious yoyo's and bn's cooked 

Also can't tell you how many glass tops I've set aside while doing water changes only to forget about and stand/sit on :/


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## zavikan (Jan 5, 2009)

I remember when I was 6-7 I dumped a container of flake food in a 10 gal tank. Terrified, I hid it from the parents all day and night hoping it would just go away.


Honestly? My story into planted tanks is pretty FAIL...

38 Gal Craigslist freebie. w00h00! My underwater College Get away!

Set tank all up. Total cost - $40 (fish and filter media from petco)

3 months later - View planted tank at LFS...OMG I WANT THAT! "well you need better lighting"

ok... -Purchase $200 light from them. Purchase $60-70 in plants

3 days later - OMG ALGAE EVERYWHERE!!!! "well you need co2 injection"

..............*wtf*.................-purchase co2 injection for ~$400 greenleaf-

3 weeks later - My tank still sucks......hmm.. "Oh, you need ferts"

"dude are you f-ing serious??" :icon_neut

Oh, the HOB bio wheels wont work with co2
........buy eheim 2217

Replace all plants at this point as they all went to crap.

Try vainly to grow HC in petco gravel for a few months (costing approx $50)

Purchase 5 bags of flourite.



If I had thought it through in the begining, I would never have done it...

Not saying I dont enjoy it NOW...

James


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## barbarossa4122 (Jan 16, 2010)

I forgot to check the ph after setting up my 10g hospital tank. One of my goldie had ick and I gave him a salt treatment . He started to act very strange , almost died. The ph was around 5. I added baking soda and saved him. He's back in the regular tank now and he's very healthy.


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## tyler79durdan (Jan 23, 2010)

Plugged in canister with out the hoses re attached, full of water!

Air line connections to gang valves became "weakest link" on DIY co2(in my sump for steady warmth), needless to say I started using zipties ALOT

Moved some slate around and covered one of my fish... he was white with anger the next day, and had to be buried

Had slate balanced against eachother, which fell on one of my plecos 

Had ex-girlfriend who didnt like my attention on the aquarium, and enraged squirted dish soap in the tank... 75 gallons of death... OOOO STILL FURIOUS 6 YEARS LATER!!!!

EDIT oh and the FULL old cigarette ash tray in the snake head 40 long


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## zavikan (Jan 5, 2009)

whoa dude. dishsoap? really?

Neighbors would of been calling the police on me.  

I think its illegal to squeeze a bottle of dish soap down some ones throat if they dont give consent....


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## cat4wisson (Feb 20, 2010)

Several things come to mind,

When I was young my brother and I used to keep tropical fish, We kept our wc water in used jugs of various types. One time during water change my brother grabbed a jug of vinegar by accident and didnt' notice until he had put the entire jug into the tank.(never saw fish turn white so fast) We lost all the fish except one placo that lived another 10 plus years.

Last year during a 3 day power outage I used water jugs of hot water to keep my salt water tank warm. The first time I floated the 5 jugs in the water I neglected to take out any water, overflowing the fuge. It took me a while to notice it since I was working by candlelight and it was pitch black otherwise. 

Great thread,


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## Olskule (Jan 28, 2010)

I've swallowed fish water, dropped the water level and broken heaters, had fish fed by "helpful" toddlers, forgotten to close valves before unhooking my Magnum, dropped lights in the water and grabbed them before thinking (Is there a certain number of times the Universe will let you get away with this, or is it that we only hear the survivors tell about it?), but a few stories reminded me of my worst disaster:



flyjsh said:


> ...Had a 50 saltwater with fish most of which I had collected. I got into a spring cleaning mood the same day I did a water change. While the water was draining, I cleaned my bathroom. I went back to the tank, scraped some algae, moved a rock or two, and added the water. Came back an hour or so later to find everything in the tank had turned white. All inhabitants, save one clown, were dead. I watched him die a few minutes later. My best guess is that a chemical (I'm guessing chlorine) I used to clean the bathroom had soaked into my skin, so even though I washed my hands, there was probably enough still in my skin to poison the tank. After that, I took a few years away from the hobby.


 


cat4wisson said:


> ....Last year during a 3 day power outage I used water jugs of hot water to keep my salt water tank warm. The first time I floated the 5 jugs in the water I neglected to take out any water, overflowing the fuge. It took me a while to notice it since I was working by candlelight and it was pitch black otherwise.


I know just how flyjsh and cat4wisson felt; when I lived in FL, I personally collected all the fish and invertibrates for my marine tank. One night, about 2 or 3 am, a drunk driver took himself out, along with a power pole that resulted in the whole town losing electricity. I woke up around 6am and realized all the pumps were off and the fish weren't looking too spiffy, with some starting to hang around at the top, and others were very lethargic. Being young, with a newborn baby and an extremely limited budget, I had no battery operated air pump, so I netted the fish in the worst shape and rushed them back to the beach (with reef) where I had collected them, and hurriedly did a rush job at acclimating them, due to the lack of oxygen in the water they were in. I kept making trips, hoping the power would come back on before I had to release all my pets, but it was several more hours before the power was back on, and I lost most of them back to the reef, and a couple didn't make it at all. When my wife (at the time) told her sister about it, her sister replied, "Well, at least they weren't fish he had PAID for."  As anyone who collects their own fish can tell you, those fish you collected mean alot more to you than fish you pay for!

Another "disaster" was with a 55 gallon I had just replaced the bottom in, and was arranging on the lower level of a metal stand. The tank was about half full of water, and I had a large, heavy rock I was placing. My wife decided that she knew better how to place it, and proceded to attempt to take it from my hand while IN the tank. I tried to tell her to let me set the rock down, but of course she didn't listen and in jerking the rock from my hand, it knocked against the front glass of my freshly repaired 55 and broke it, with water going all over the carpet.:angryfire She got that "Uh oh" look and then decided she didn't want that rock after all. I didn't scream or yell--just walked away-- but I did let her work on cleaning up the mess all by herself (which she didn't complain at all about doing!:hihi

I still have that same 55 gallon tank, but not that particular wife. (Hey, you can almost _always_ fix a bad tank, but a bad _wife_...?:tongue: )

Olskule


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## mikeb210 (Oct 17, 2007)

I was in the process of moving and was siphoning my 65 into buckets when I got sidetracked with something else. Remembered about 30 gallons later. I went back to the apartment about a week later to finish moving and the floor was bubbled up about a foot. Strangely the landlords didn't say a thing. Guess thats one of the few pluses from living in a $380 per month apartment.


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## Bill W (Jul 10, 2009)

Burning the back of my hands on 175watt MH bulbs while cleaning a tank. Using the wrong kind of scrubber pads on my old 120 I scratched the hell out it.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Drinking aquarium water from a siphon. Fish food dumped everywhere. Getting six adult Convict Cichlids for a 20g aquarium.


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## enjo (Feb 23, 2010)

Hi all,
New to the forum, not to fish keeping 

Thought this might be a nice icebreaker...
In trying to remove a panel from an old tank, I broke it.

I wasn't wearing leather gloves (Stupid).
The panel was snapped as I was pushing against it (Stupid).
This meant my hand ran over the fresh snap (Ouch).

The result was 4 hours in A&E on a Sunday evening, 9 stitches to the lower half of my thumb, a chunk missing from the top part of my thumb and a consultation with a plastic surgeon. 

That was three years ago now and my thumb still looks like this...










Please wear leather gloves and take care when around glass!


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

i zap'd my self a few times. NEVER EVER EVER try to plug things into a power strip with wet hands!


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## topfrog007 (Dec 30, 2007)

Jeez Enjo,

That sucks! You still have full mobility right?


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## enjo (Feb 23, 2010)

topfrog007 said:


> Jeez Enjo,
> 
> That sucks! You still have full mobility right?


I do, fortunately. I also have a nice picture - they left me alone after injecting the painkillers - before the stitches were put in. I could link a pic once I've posted enough, if you really wanted some gore.


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## crossbow (Nov 29, 2009)

Purchasing blue gravel.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Hi everybody, long time aquatic gardener, first time posting here.

Has nobody else plugged the end caps to a Coralife 2-Lamp Electronic Ballast Kit wrong and fried it? I am still mad about that one and I did it like 8 years ago. 

Last week my "D"H decided the aquarium was making too much noise so he went into the other room without telling me it was noisy. A tube had come off the pump and water was spraying all over the place. Most ended up back in the sump but plenty flooded the bottom of the stand and down the tiled hall.


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## kyle3 (May 26, 2005)

Syris said:


> This is embarrassing but I'll share.
> I had a reef tank a few years back and was putting some new coral frags in the tank. For those that don't know its a common practice to use super glue gel to glue coral frags down. But my glue cap was stuck so I put the cap end in the side of my mouth to hold it with my teeth while trying to turn the tube. Well I heard a pop so i quickly took the glue out but not before getting a big glob in my mouth:icon_redf My tongue was instantly stuck to my teeth and my mouth glued shut. I was able to get my mouth and tongue separated with my wifes help (after she was done laughing) but it took a good week to chip off the superglue from my molars:redface::icon_roll


OMG i've totally worried about doing this when fragging at the store! major bummer dude but what a story!

cheers-k


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## kyle3 (May 26, 2005)

i too have expirienced not getting my mouth off the siphon tube fast enough. tho i must say the muck from the bottom of a reef tank is way ickier than any fresh water taste I've ever gotten! plus there's no danger of eating a bristle worm with FW.

once i forgot to turn my filter back on after a water change and didn't catch it until 2 days later! that was long ago when i had only a couple durable fish; so light stocking combined with hardy fish saved me from killing anyone.

I've totally dropped light fixtures into tanks to many times to count- that hasn't shocked me yet tho bad heaters have zapped me on many occasions.

another time i happily started scraping away at some algae on the glass on a service tank only to realize after a little while that i was using a metal scraper on an acrylic tank :O :icon_redf Not Good.

one of the worst i think I've done is overfilling a tank and not realizing that the glass lid was in contact with the entire surface of the water. so no gas exchange. i figured it out when it was pointed out to me that all the fish were gasping at the surface. I looked and saw all the fish at the very back of the tank where there was a tiny gap between the glass lid and the back of the tank.

I tore the lid off and ran to get a power head and air line tubing so i could rapidly aerate the water. I felt SOOOO guilty while all the poor fish gasped and gasped trying to recover. they all made it fortunately.

once when trimming my tank after letting it get extremely overgrown I unknowingly threw away a cory that was tangled in some plants i took out. the only reason i figured it out is because my cat pulled her out of the trash and chewed her tail off when i found her she was still alive- she was too badly damaged to make it and i had to put her out of her misery. I'm still crushed that i let that happen to one of my pets. :icon_cry:

I'm sure there are more that i can't think of. but this is a long posst now so i'll leave it there.

cheers-k


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## blondeyny (Feb 20, 2010)

I can't say I've really had any terrible mishaps being that I've learned from everyone elses first I guess LOL However I feel that I will probably be jinxed just by reading this topic LOL


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## blondeyny (Feb 20, 2010)

enjo said:


> I could link a pic once I've posted enough, if you really wanted some gore.


I think I'll pass on that one! LOL


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## nvision (Feb 6, 2009)

i've recently had an Eheim canister gave way and leaked several gallons of water in my upstairs bedroom, tarnishing my 15yrs faith in canister filters and the popular brand. i've since retired all my units and replaced them with Fluval submersible filters instead. no more risk of flooding, ever.


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## paludarium freak (Jan 26, 2010)

When I set up my first tank, I got 2 guppies and 1 snail. So a couple of days after, I go back to the LFS and get 1 snail and 3 neon tetras. I get back home and put them in their new home. The next day, the first snail I had died so I threw it out and did a WC and put my 1 snail, 2 guppies and 3 neons in a temporary tank. After I was done, I went to pick up my neon tetras but they where too fast. So I decided to force them against a wall of the tank and by accident I squished on of my Tetras between the rim of the net and the wall of the tank. I quickly released the net!!! The fish lay there on its side at the bottom of the tank for 2 seconds before it got up and started swimming. After 15 minutes of strugling, I managed to get all the fish in the tank, alive.

The next day, I wake up to see the Tetra dead and on the gravel. I did not do anything right away because I had to catch my bus to get to school. When I get home from school, I did not find the fish anywhere and I thought the snail had eaten it. Three days later, I find the fish on the ground again with "fungi" growing all over it!!! I quickly take him out and flush it.

Two days later one of my other Tetra died without any obvious reason. So now I have 1 Neon Tetra and I never found out the cause of death of the second fish.
BTW: This happened in the past week!!!
PS: Sorry for the long post


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## Ptack1 (Feb 9, 2010)

Ive done the water in the mouth siphon thing. Now I fill the siphon and tube, plug the tube with my thumb, then turn it over underwater it siphons with no water in the mouth side effects.

I had my tank non-planted at first, had a good group of fish (1 cory, 2 dwarf guoramis, and a couple other small fish) that were doing great. I did a big water change due to algae issues and forgot to dechlor the water. They all died in 3 days, the guoramis were doing the best.


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## urbguy (Sep 24, 2009)

AlgeaFix and thats all I'm going to say lol. Poor guppies...all 30 of 'em...


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## Rich976USAF (Mar 27, 2009)

Syris said:


> This is embarrassing but I'll share.
> I had a reef tank a few years back and was putting some new coral frags in the tank. For those that don't know its a common practice to use super glue gel to glue coral frags down. But my glue cap was stuck so I put the cap end in the side of my mouth to hold it with my teeth while trying to turn the tube. Well I heard a pop so i quickly took the glue out but not before getting a big glob in my mouth:icon_redf My tongue was instantly stuck to my teeth and my mouth glued shut. I was able to get my mouth and tongue separated with my wifes help (after she was done laughing) but it took a good week to chip off the superglue from my molars:redface::icon_roll


I have a reef tank and use superglue on a regular basis, but this is the funniest thing ever.


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

i moved a cichlid tank from the bottom rack that only had about 5 gallons and some sand and rocks. well i asked my mom to grab on end so we could move it to the other side of the room and we lifted and got half way there and the bottom busted out! thank god the fish were out but i got my foot slammed by one big rock and broke 2 of my toes. oh and as the water went every where i slipped and fell on my butt into the water. all mom did was cover her mouth laughing and ran for towels. I STILL HAVE MY TOES THOUGH!


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

I can't really think of anything awesome right now, but I was netting my 5in Sarasa Comet from the bucket, and as I was going to put him back in the tank after a nice water change he jumped out of the net, smacked into the rim of tank and flopped onto the floor. So he had a small hole in his head for a while, but it grew back. Now I bought bigger net and keep my hand over it.


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## itrack4u (Nov 16, 2009)

I've just had my 1st nightmare; I dropped my light into my tank.

I took it partially apart to dry. The bulb goes off and on. Is it repairable?

I feel likle such a jerk...:eek5:


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## Olskule (Jan 28, 2010)

itrack4u said:


> I've just had my 1st nightmare; I dropped my light into my tank.
> 
> I took it partially apart to dry. The bulb goes off and on. Is it repairable?
> 
> I feel likle such a jerk...:eek5:


No need to feel like a jerk, just join the club! I don't think you can truthfully call yourself a "fully-vested" aquarist without either dropping a light in the tank, dropping the water level low enough to break a heater or letting a large amount of water overflow onto the floor (the more expensive the floor, the more points you score). If you haven't done any of those, you simply haven't invested enough time in the hobby yet.

According to my experience and that of several other experienced aquarists who have posted in this thread, you may not have retrieved your light fast enough to keep it from being damaged. It seems that if you immediately reach into the water and grab the light, the water doesn't have time to soak into it, but if you take the time to unplug it first, as any rationally thinking person would do, the water has more time to invade the light and possibly ruin it. So if you grab the "live" light while it's in the water and yank it out quickly, it survives; the down-side to this is that although your light survives, you may not. But then, if you don't survive, you don't have to worry about replacing the light, either, so if you're the suicidal type, it's a win/win situation. (Legal disclaimer: I'M JUST JOKING! NEVER, EVER reach for the light in the water while it's still plugged in!)

Is your light repairable? It's always repairable- at worst, it's just a matter of figuring out what to replace, but it sounds like something just may not be completely dry yet. Unplug it and set it in the sunlight from a window for a few days, maybe with a fan blowing on it. I've dried electronics with a space heater or hair dryer blowing on it for a few hours (set to low or medium-don't get the item too hot), then let it cool, then do it again. The thing is to evaporate the water, then give the moisture vapor time to escape. If it's closed up tight, gentle heat (like the sunlight) over time will likely do it. Try to heat it too much and you may have another post for this thread, about how you warped the plastic parts of an expensive light.

Olskule


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## itrack4u (Nov 16, 2009)

Olskule, thanks for your advice and soothing my ego. I took it apart as much as I could and am letting it dry more. I'm gonna use the fan as you suggested.


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## flyhawk (Jan 5, 2010)

taking off my hood, dropped it

the lights cracked in half, shattered and fell into the tank

it killed one fish(tetra) and sliced me!!

it was i asilly idea to try to take that hood off!!!

i was cleaning glass out of the tank until i took it down and put it back up


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Olskule said:


> No need to feel like a jerk, just join the club! I don't think you can truthfully call yourself a "fully-vested" aquarist without either dropping a light in the tank, dropping the water level low enough to break a heater or letting a large amount of water overflow onto the floor (the more expensive the floor, the more points you score). If you haven't done any of those, you simply haven't invested enough time in the hobby yet.


 
So I am not a "full-vested" aquarist yet? Thank goodness! :icon_smil


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## Olskule (Jan 28, 2010)

JakeJ said:


> So I am not a "full-vested" aquarist yet? Thank goodness! :icon_smil


Careful, Jake, you may have just jinxed yourself! :hihi:


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## Scottso (Oct 2, 2009)

The worst thing I've ever done is add API stress coat to a tank that had Seachem purigen in the filters. I had added purigen during my filter cleaning and then had a gourami scratching on the heater wire in the tank. So I added some stress coat to see if that would help his itching. The next day I went to add ferts to the tank and noticed every single shrimp in the tank dead, 3 rainbows dead and 3 tetras dead. I immediately did a 75% water change. I had no clue why they all died.

Turns out if you add anything that has amines to a tank using purigen, the purigen will release chloramines. 

http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Purigen.html

According to Seachem and their FAQ this will only happen if chlorine gets to the purigen, but I beg to differ, unless their Prime product doesn't work as advertised. If you are using purigen, DO NOT ADD API STRESS COAT. You are risking your tank's livestock.

In any case, now I stick to Seachem only so I don't have to worry about cross-vendor issues like this.


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## londonloco (Aug 25, 2005)

I've done it all...ajaxed my fish to death (it was the 70's, I was in college, had no idea!), broken heaters, mouth of water from python, forgotten levers on canisters, leaving tanks while filling them up, did ya know toooo much baking soda will kill all the peppermint and cleaner shrimp in your tank? But I have two really stupid moments:

10 years ago I purchased a 125g african cichlid tank complete with new marineland canister filter. Never used a canister filter before. Didn't know what those silver round things with screws were for. The next morning, I had 6" of water left in the tank, some of the fish were pretty big and on their sides, trying to stay in the water column. No one went to school until water was back in the tank. We filled it up with pasta pots from my kitchen. My hubby was helping me hook the canister back up. "Hon, where are the hose clamps"...I swear he saw the light bulb on the top of my head blinking "stupid is as stupid does". I now keep a supply of plastic and metal ones in my fishroom...I also went out and bought a python.

But my biggest blunder was trying to rescap my 120g reef. Mushroom corals loved my tank, and were taking over. I was trying to remove them from various rocks to sell. I found it's easiest to remove the rock and pry the mushroom off the rock. I had just gotten my nails done and didn't want to ruin my manicure so I got a small dull knife to edge the mushroom, finishing up with my hand. There was one huge mama of all schrooms on this rock. As I started to remove it, my hand slipped, and I poked the mushroom right in it's meatiest area. A gush of water hit my eye dead center. At the time, I didn't think a thing of it, a little salt water splashed in my eye was no big deal. Fast forward 20 mins later, my blood red eye wouldn't stop watering, and the pain was increasing with every blink. Long story short, dam mushroom was defending himself, and squirted 50 or so microscopic cannon balls which embedded themselves in my eyeball. Two trips in three days to the eye doctor for eye scrapings, and many pain pills later.... my eye is fine, no loss of sight, but I have new found respect for those pretty green striped schrooms.


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## Agreen (Apr 9, 2009)

Before going to bed, I mixed up 5g of saltwater, checked the salinity and added a powerhead to oxygen saturate overnight. 

Next morning I did a 5g water change in my planted freshwater tank.


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

Let's see...

I put my hand through an old ten gallon when I was trying to clean it up...

Fish water in the mouth

Thought my baby featherfin had died, and never found the body, months before dismantling a tank during a move. I took all the decor out of the tank, drained most of the water out, then realized there was the featherfin, trying desperately to stay under the water.

I had a five month swordtail baby survive under a UGF his entire life (had no idea he was there). When I went to change out the airstones in the pipes, he came floating up one of them. I removed the top half of the pipe and let him come out on his own, replaced it. Probably the oddest thing that ever happened to me...

I had a pleco completely disappear on me. Never found a body, never found the fish. For some reason, my tanks seem to eat my fish :eek5:


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## LiquidSmoke NYC (Feb 7, 2010)

Captivate05 said:


> I had a pleco completely disappear on me. Never found a body, never found the fish. For some reason, my tanks seem to eat my fish :eek5:


+1
Phantom fish. I am still stumped where my pleco could have gone since October 09. I still can't figure it out.


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

Agreen said:


> Before going to bed, I mixed up 5g of saltwater, checked the salinity and added a powerhead to oxygen saturate overnight.
> 
> Next morning I did a 5g water change in my planted freshwater tank.


lol you just made my day...  thank you!!!


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## limeslide (Jan 27, 2010)

Agreen said:


> Before going to bed, I mixed up 5g of saltwater, checked the salinity and added a powerhead to oxygen saturate overnight.
> 
> Next morning I did a 5g water change in my planted freshwater tank.


LOL! :hihi:
Ditto to SkyGrl.


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

theblondskeleton said:


> I was setting up my CO2 for a 20 gallon tank I had. I went pressurized. I just prefer it. However, I was feeling particularly cheap when I was shopping for the parts, and I got a cheap-o regulator with no needle valve. To compensate, I purchased a needle valve online. After trying to attach it to the regulator and failing, I decided (I must have been drunk at the time) to install it in-line with my rhinox tubing (this goes CO2 tank, regulator, rhinox tubing, needle valve, rhinox tubing, diffuser, water).
> 
> This would be an appropriate time to mention that rhinox tubing is impressively tough stuff - but by no means is it indestructible.
> 
> ...


That's friggin great! I laughed my *ss off.


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

Syris said:


> This is embarrassing but I'll share.
> I had a reef tank a few years back and was putting some new coral frags in the tank. For those that don't know its a common practice to use super glue gel to glue coral frags down. But my glue cap was stuck so I put the cap end in the side of my mouth to hold it with my teeth while trying to turn the tube. Well I heard a pop so i quickly took the glue out but not before getting a big glob in my mouth:icon_redf My tongue was instantly stuck to my teeth and my mouth glued shut. I was able to get my mouth and tongue separated with my wifes help (after she was done laughing) but it took a good week to chip off the superglue from my molars:redface::icon_roll


LOL! I read this and all I could think about was the glue scene from American Pie 2.


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## shoteh (Nov 13, 2007)

I. 3 year old niece poured over half of my h2o2 bottle into my tank killing all but one tetra and most of my plants.

II. Broke a few glass diffusers by trying to move it to a different spot. Got probably over 15-20 small glass pieces in my 10gal from this.

III. Betta jumped over the divider into another betta's home and I was not able to come home in time.

IV. Needle valve/solenoid malfunction and overdose in C02 killed everything.

V. Accidentally dropped a plain male feeder gup in my breeder female endlers tank while feeding my oscers . Did not see it until a few days later when I notice a very active and freaky 'female.' I was more pissed off than anything.....grr...


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

not buying a PYTHON! Just got one today and I dont know how I lived without it!


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## Bill W (Jul 10, 2009)

One of my favorites is the unresearched fish. Your perfect pleaceful tank ruined by a colorful demon fish. I've learned this lesson in reef tanks and planted tanks, once had to spend almost a whole day taking all the corals, rock and water out of a 240gal reef, just so I could catch one 3" basslet and have more than one fish in the tank. Beautiful fish, but mean as a junk yard dog.


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## sean117Ply (Jun 28, 2009)

Getting an auratus, these fish are complete psychopaths.


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## marcus0655 (Feb 24, 2009)

Having a African cichlid destroy my planted tank because it wanted to rescape the tank to their liking lol


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## neoh (Sep 2, 2009)

time to resurrect! 

mouthfull of fish water, check.
heater broken from being left plugged in, check.
canister filter overflow, check.
broken tank with water everywhere, check.

I made a DIY auto-doser, and had it attached to a T , one side of the T was CO2, one was the auto-doser, both going into a DIY CO2 reactor. The CO2 reactor shoots water out of the intake attachment if nothing is plugged in, which has been a problem on more than one occasion. The first time the auto-doser turned on, it created a back siphon. Even with a check-valve attached. Luckily I had the timer set to 15 minutes before I wake up, so I came in to feed my fish in the morning, and noticed a lot of water missing. Looked on the floor, nothing, looked around, couldn't figure out where the water went. Then I started to hear drips, and sure enough the tub I had the auto-dosing mixture in was just starting to overflow. 

Another time I changed out the tubing for my co2 injection, and forgot to add a check valve to the line. Water came out of my co2 reactor, down the pipe, through the regulator and into my CO2 tank! No damage to the tank, or regulator for that matter.

Another problem with a check valve and the co2 tank, was I put the check valve on wrong, turned the tank on, couldn't figure out why my output pressure was building, turned it up a little higher and the tube exploded. Output pressure was down after that.

Oh, and never put a fish in with a fully grown leporinus, unless it's bigger than he is.


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## nerdyjon (Sep 12, 2009)

Dropped my light in the aquarium and then put my hand in there to turn it off and safe it. BAD IDEA.


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## wespastor (Dec 20, 2009)

Olskule said:


> I still have that same 55 gallon tank, but not that particular wife. (Hey, you can almost _always_ fix a bad tank, but a bad _wife_...?:tongue: )
> Olskule


I got rid of one of those .. I think I got me a real keeper now. She's with me in me avitar.... BTW ME tanks commin along.


My worst mishap is buyin a sad and sorry tank .. thinkin I could fix er up ... only to find I have spent more money in the fix with less than mediocre results than I would have if I would have jusr saved up and bought a new tank.


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## Squawkbert (Aug 21, 2008)

Great thread!

Couple new ones:

My dad (40+ yrs ago) had inherited a Piranha tank from uncle - the last of a shoal of RBPs in a metal framed 26g tank - he got to be 9-10" long and ate about a dozen feeders every other week. My dad wasn't all that much of a fish guy so he figured a 90% PWC every 6 months was adequate. During one of these, the fish went carpet surfing in front of someone...and my dad tried to return it to the tank. Problem was he picked it up by the tail, fish whipped around and took a nickel sized bite out of the base of my dad's thumb!

My first job was working at a LA fish store. They had the (then) usual racks of fish tanks w/ painted plywood facade all over the place. To get into a tank, you'd flip up the hinged plywood section over a tank (or 3) and secure it with a spring clamp. About twice a month, one of these clamps would let go, get bumped or fail for some random reason and the facade would flop closed, smashing a tank (or 3). People were very quick to get buckets to catch fish etc. - unless one or more of the tanks housed lions or mantis shrimp, then it was pretty much :eek5:_RUN!!!_

As to sm. children and tanks not mixing, I documented my own DIY yeast "incident" on another forum thusly:









+








=










after 3-4 85% PWCs, and some thorough plant rinsing it was fine. (my niece had tipped my DIY yeast brine over)


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## daversa (Mar 24, 2010)

Just had a good one at work! 

I took my DIY C02 home to rinse out but left the tubing in the tank. Somehow a siphon was created and it emptied about half the tank contents onto the floor. I was lucky to have some fast thinking co-workers who were able to figure out what was happening without completely panicking. No deaths (fish or computers) so it was good . 

TLDR; Make sure you pull DIY C02 hoses out of tank if you are cleaning the container!


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## born2lovefish (Dec 29, 2006)

Back in high school I use to have a 70 gallon drum in the finished basement for water changes. Long story short, I floored the basement 3 times and my parents had to get new carpet...


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## jargonchipmunk (Dec 8, 2008)

I removed a DIY Co2 setup from a 20gal in my old apartment's living room. Hooked it all up to the new tank the plants were going in and got everything all moved over and was in the process of dragging the python around the apartment to the different tanks to do water changes.

Drained the 75, drained Jamie's 20 in the bedroom, drained the little 10g on the desk in the bedroom, then proceeded to fill all those up before moving on to the living room where those tanks were.

Then I hear from the living room as I'm finishing up, "James, did you already drain this one? Why didn't you go ahead and drain the other one while you were in here?" I found this odd, but I finished filling the last bedroom tank and went in there to see that the tank I removed the DIY Co2 setup from (all but the actual Co2 line that was still attached to the minifilter's impeller inside the tank, with the other end hanging out of the tank on the carpet) was half empty. I still thought I had drained that tank with the python and didn't remember it. I went to start filling it again and there was a knock on the door.... 

...from my downstairs neighbor.


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## nonconductive (Jan 29, 2010)

Ok, I'll add one. I used to put the intakes of my canisters nearly all the way to the substrate. My wife has cats that _used to_ sleep in the aquarium cabinet. One in particular always found a way in despite barricading the open back.

I stayed up late one night and did a 70 gallon WC after rescaping the tank, then went to bed after filling it to the tippy top. Woke up in the morning to get ready for work and heard water running. I thought nothing of it. I went down stairs to see that my 125 was missing about 90 gallons of water. My jaw dropped. I knew I filled it back up. So where did all that water go. Just then I felt my socks getting wet, standing about 15 ft away from the tank.
I then rushed to the cabinet and found a canister filter with the tubing dislodged and a wad of wet black cat hair.

Now I use heavy duty hose clamps and curse cats.

It would have drained even more if the cat had dislodged the other canisters tubing. The running water I heard was the output of the remaining canister splashing water. I guess I’m lucky the motor didn’t burn up from running dry.


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

wow thats awful


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Ive dropped a tank and broke it, cooked fish with the heater, spilled 40g of water on the floor from a blocked overflow and numerous other things but my worst mistake ever was telling my five year old that she was the new head fishkeeper in charge. I woke up saturday morning to my 7 yr old going "daddy, whys your big tank red?" 2 lbs. of flake food will do that you know!


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## James4226c (Dec 8, 2009)

Dumped a bottle of Quick cure in my tank here http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/105977-help-dumped-bottle-quick-cure-my.html


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## Coral Keeper (Sep 14, 2007)

Don't buy any tanks that are made in China. Had a 180 gallon reef tank, had is set up for almost a year, then one day, boom, 28 inch crack, from the very bottom all the way to the top. :icon_sad::icon_frow


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## orktank (Dec 17, 2009)

First time I started my 29 gal.,second hand tank, I was really on a budget. I used gravel from cement dept. of Lowe's. I poured it into the kitchen sink, and dust rose in a cloud. I should have suspected something, but rinsed the gravel a few times and dumped it into the tank! opaa!!!Then I put the water in. The aquarium took 6 days to clear!! I started over again, same gravel, only rinsed about 10 times. Pretty much the same thing happened, but it cleared more. So I bought some fish, put them in there, and waited. The water remained somewhat cloudy, so I changed the tank, 50%, and BOOM, everything died of course.
The second time I tried to start my tank, I bought some kitty litter and just dumped that in (REALLY cloudy this time!) When that settled, sort of, I bought some blue and white clown puke, and in it went. Not such a nice tank. Didn't buy lots of fish this time! 
Gave up for awhile. Did some research (?!!), discovered the forum, and tried again, this time with living plants. Now my tank is moving along, but oh BOY did I make some boo-boos.


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## critter333294 (Jul 29, 2007)

I went on vacation for a week and had left filter floss in my canister. It slowed down the flow to almost nothing and when I opened it up there was black motor oil all over my media....luckily everything was okay but it was a very scary experience.

I also had a malfunctioning heater, its temperature control stopped working and it kept overheating my tank. It almost got up to 88 degrees at one point.


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## orktank (Dec 17, 2009)

You're apparently a hands on, er, lips on kind of girl!


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## orktank (Dec 17, 2009)

Enjo, We know you won't do it again! You can call that your "oops" scar!


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## ClPat (Apr 30, 2009)

I was cleaning a 5.5 gallons with a few rocks still in it. I tilted the tank to remove some dirty water (I know, stupid...) and well, let's just say my plans were somewhat ruined lol. 
Also once I bought a betta and since I wasn't going to be home for a few hours while at my aunt's I decided to put him in a vase in the mean time. I left her unattended in the vase under flowing water from the tap and I still don't know how she could've fallen down the drain through the tiny opening in the sink. Unless she jumped out, landed on the floor and got eaten by a dog...And once my beautiful male betta (bettas must hate me) got sucked in my HOB filter because I had omitted to put the protected inflow tube. I saved him but he lost his fins.I cared for him well so he survived for quite some time though, although admittedly he didn't fulfill his entire lifespan...


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

A while ago I put my betta into a small food bowl when I was redoing his tank. A few hours later when I went to wash my hands in the sink I noticed something wiggling in the strainer. It turned out that my dad inadvertently thought there was only water in the bowl and poured it out.

He survived despite drying out in the sink for many hours. He's still with me today. Amazing little fish.


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## SkyGrl (Jan 7, 2010)

lol @ ^^^^

i had one of my betta jump out of my holding cup... he must have thought he would get away by getting down the drain of my sink... poor little guy.. i had him for almost 4 years too... 

Amy


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## HEINEKEN357 (Feb 10, 2006)

Well last week was doing a WC on my 24g tank which is on the second floor had the python vacuum hose clamped on the back overflow which I THOUGHT was on there good want to the bathroom and turned on the water and seen the hose fly out of the tank and was hanging over the balcony I turned the water off run down stairs and seen the water hit my 60in lcd screen on the wall and receivers next to it . Good thing I had everything off I let them all dry for 2 days and nothing is broken thank GOD. Will never do that again hehe


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## Superluminal (May 28, 2010)

I'm rather new to the hobby (just under a year), but I've been pretty lucky so far. I've done the tank water into mouth. I'm also overshot my tank a few times while doing water changes with a pot.

I used to run my 29G open top. One time I was on my computer and my yoyo loaches must have been fighting. Needless to say, a yoyo loach landed right on my keyboard and just stared at me. 

I've had a zebra danios jump out of the tank onto the floor right into my walking path. I squashed it barefoot, then jumped like a girl.

Another time, when I first started, I thought it be fun to feed some feeder shrimp to my tiger barbs and loaches. Of course they're not fast enough to catch them and they ended up jumping out of the tank, one ended up in my hair. 

I kept 3 yoyo loaches and some other fish temporarily in a 2.5G on a shelf above my 29G I was setting up. Well I finished setting up the tank, and went to get something. I came back and 2 yoyos where in the 29G swimming happily. I sat there for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out if I moved them or I just forgot. They both ended up making a successful jump into the 29G. 

I conclude that loaches are very intelligent interesting critters.

I also don't know if any of you have done this, but I always set my glass aquarium tops in bad places and end up sitting or stepping on them. I've broken the glass on all three aquariums this way.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Olskule said:


> No need to feel like a jerk, just join the club! I don't think you can truthfully call yourself a "fully-vested" aquarist without either dropping a light in the tank, dropping the water level low enough to break a heater or letting a large amount of water overflow onto the floor (the more expensive the floor, the more points you score). If you haven't done any of those, you simply haven't invested enough time in the hobby yet.
> 
> According to my experience and that of several other experienced aquarists who have posted in this thread, you may not have retrieved your light fast enough to keep it from being damaged. It seems that if you immediately reach into the water and grab the light, the water doesn't have time to soak into it, but if you take the time to unplug it first, as any rationally thinking person would do, the water has more time to invade the light and possibly ruin it. So if you grab the "live" light while it's in the water and yank it out quickly, it survives; the down-side to this is that although your light survives, you may not. But then, if you don't survive, you don't have to worry about replacing the light, either, so if you're the suicidal type, it's a win/win situation. (Legal disclaimer: I'M JUST JOKING! NEVER, EVER reach for the light in the water while it's still plugged in!)
> 
> ...


He cursed me. My fixture took a dunk into my tank last water change. It was OK though....


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Doh!:icon_bigg


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## mountaindew (Dec 10, 2008)

Didnt dose iron for 3 months.
Lost 2 mature aquascapes 
For me that was dumbest ever!
md


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

Leaving my tank in the care of my uncle while I was on the other side of the planet for 3 weeks... lost $500 worth in plants and livestock :/ This was before I realized that you could leave fish and shrimp alone for that long without feeding them and that plants usually don't completely die from lack of ferts.


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## ridewake210 (Jan 12, 2007)

Emptied a whole 55 gallon once on my bedroom floor a few years back....


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## Vancat2 (Jun 23, 2010)

Holding it with one hand, I rested my new empty Oceanic 58 gal tank on my leg while I shut the minivan hatch....my nephew, holding the other end, moved, and I scrambled to keep the tank from falling. The corner edge of the tank traveled down my leg from up top to my knee. (OW!) I had the WORST black & blue (purple really) the entire top half of my leg for weeks. I was just glad we didn't drop it.


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## monkeyfish (Jul 5, 2010)

Great thread. I'm still newly back in the hobby, less than a year. The worst thing I've done so far is while drip acclimating some tiny amano shrimp I left the room. I come back after 10 minutes or so to find half of them missing, WTF? Cat? No, she's afraid of my tank. They had climbed out and made a break for it. Found one in a nearby shoe, 2 more clear across the room, one never to be seen again, and one crushed from me stepping on it. On a side note, I also stepped on a pet gerbil I had when I was like 6, I cried and cried that day.

Oh and my first mistake was leaving a power head with sponge filter in my tank with freshly laid MTS capped with pool filter sand. Left it while I went to work to clear up the cloudiness. Came home and it had fallen, blown a big crater in the substrate, and my tank looked like it was filled with chocolate milk. 

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk


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## im2smart4u (Dec 7, 2010)

I haven't read them all yet, but my favorite is the guy that glued his mouth shut. Ha ha :hihi:

My biggest mistake was trying to treat my 25 gallon for BBA with Hydrogen Peroxide during a water change (after taking water out but before putting new water in, so as to use less H202). I accidently overdosed the tank and watched my golden ancistrus die in minutes. (I later learned that the ancistrus is more sensitive to this than most fish) I let the tank sit half filled for 30 minutes to an hour. The other fish appeared to do fine at first, then some of the green neons and ottos started gasping. I got scared and dumped a couple of buckets of treated tap water into the tank (I figured I would be dilluting what was in the tank, which would help the fish). Well, apparently it stirred up something, because all the rest of the fish in the tank went belly up in the next 5 minutes. :icon_frow I am still not sure what exactly happened. Maybe some of the H2O2 was hanging out at the bottom, and got stirred up??? I do remember that it bubbled like crazy.

This one didn't happen to me, but to my old roomate. He went next door to help a neighbor carry a 55 gallon tank up stairs. A few minutes later, he comes in and his face is all white, and says that the guy carrying the other end of the tank (a friend of our neighbor) dropped his end while going up the stairs, and when trying to catch it cut his finger off. It was hanging by a little skin and they rushed him to the hospital. :icon_eek: I never heard what happened to him.


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## Tamelesstgr (Jan 11, 2008)

Burned fingers on heaters, swallowed tank water trying to get python going, Didn't put foam support under my 55 resulting in a split seam, glued fingers together. When I was young I used scotch brite to clean everything.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Made a quick stop with pickup and new 90 gallon tank slid to the front and shattered.Never even got home with it.


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## PaulG (Oct 10, 2010)

Burnt clothes accidentally turning heater on before I added it to the tank.


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

i pulled out a crypt with a huge root system in my 5.5 shrimp tank and when i did so it exposed an old root tab. It caused an amo spike and it killed all of my RCS even tho i quickly reburried it and did a massive WC


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

Letting my fish spawn.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

Not knowing I needed to "de snail" my new plants and infesting my aquarium with pond snails. Ugh.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

I fell asleep on my couch while filling the tank with a python a couple weeks ago. Luckily the Niagra Falls sound track woke me up quickly. I put maybe 5 gallons on the floor by my estimation.


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## huhu89151734 (Jun 29, 2010)

I am kinda stuck on where sould I start with... 
Souldn't start with a 5G AGA tank? ....No
Souldn't spant 90 bucks to DIY a light?....No
Souldn't have bought the Zoo Mad filter?....No
Souldn't thought of stat with low teck setup?...No

Uhhh....here it is: I souldn't thought of turning my betta tank to a planted tank in the first place!


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## nikonD70s (Apr 6, 2008)

asking my 19 year old nephew take care of my tank while i was away to houston for 2 months....came back losted all my roseline sharks...and algae everywhere.


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## Imzadi83 (Dec 28, 2010)

This is a very theraputic thread

Worst thing I ever did was kill my goldfish. Accidentally of course. I'm disabled with chronic pain and let the tank go too long without cleaning. They died of nitrate posioning. None of the goldfish books I had read had mentioned the symptoms to look out for. Thought Danny had had a stroke till months later Aiden had same symptoms. Looked online and found on Goldfish911 what had happened. I rushed and put her in a hyperberic chamber filled with cloraphil but didn't save her. It still makes me wanna cry. I loved them a lot. I was trick training them too and they were catching on well. I bought a new test kit with some guppies and plan to work hard to be a better fish keeper this time around. Also bought a Eco-Bio Rock and am hoping that helps too.

I also made the mistake of having my new baby parakeet on my shoulder and working in the aquarium. He tried to jump onto the lifted up flap and coulddn't get ahold and fell in! I sreamed and reached for him. He was floating and trying to paddle and started to drift back under the light. I was terrifed and made another grab for him and got him out. He didn't sputter so I guess he didn't swallow/breathe in any water. Took years off my life though. He's been skittish of the aquarium ever since and hates water. I always keep him in his cage now when I work on the tank. I still have nightmare though.

I've spilled more water than I can being to count every time I do a wc.


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## regalesse (Dec 18, 2010)

well, i was moving across town and waited till the last day to move a 30 gallon tank fully stocked with two sets of mated paired parrot fish, and five sun cats 1 adult and four under 3 inches long. i left that evening, the heater was fine and the temp was 78. the next morning at 7 the temp in the tank was 100. the catfish were all dead but incredibly the parrots were all alive, just barely. but at the end of the day the stress had killed all but one of the female parrots.

my other mishap happens to be reoccurring. I have a ten gallon planted tank that I have named Exile and its inhabitant is a crawfish named Napoleon. He is ever the escape artist and has to date escaped three times. no matter how many times i seal the holes around the wires, he still manages to make a hole big enough to get out of.


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## ridewake210 (Jan 12, 2007)

wkndracer said:


> Letting my fish spawn.


roud:


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## dubvstudent (Jan 10, 2009)

Worst mishap, probably a tie here.

1. Similar to squwakbert, tipped over a DIY CO2 generator inside the stand and didn't notice until hours later and half the 2 liter had back-siphoned into the tank. More or less ruined the 55, had to take out everything and start over with new water and rinse the substrate.

2. 55 was apparently on unlevel surface, over time the center brace weakened. A fight broke out in my house one night (ahh, I miss college) and the next day the center brace was broken. The tank held however but with a scary amount of glass deflection. Luckily I happened to have a spare 55 gallon in the basement (old school 3/8 inch glass.. nice) to perform a swap. Lesson learned here: Too much boos and rowdy friends = not an aquarium safe enviornment.


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## Rizz22 (Jan 24, 2011)

When I was around 10 years old my mom took me to the pet store and told me I could pick out a fish tank and three fish to go along with it. I chose a two gallon tank and three Bala Sharks...

My biggest mistake EVER was letting my friend borrow my SUV unattended while he was moving last summer. For some reason he thought it would be a great idea to move his fish tank while it was still 3/4 full of water. Surprise, surprise, the tank cracked in transit and all water and inhabitants filled the floor of my vehicle. Needless to say I had a very stinky SUV for awhile...


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## kendrid (May 15, 2010)

wkndracer said:


> Letting my fish spawn.


X2. I thought it would be cool for the kids. Why did I think 20 guppy fry would be cool??? :icon_neut


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## Waterpeter (Jan 27, 2011)

*My share*

1.Since 15 years ago i had this passion, and two 50 liters aquariums, since then i had moved got married, 3 years tank-less , wanted to get back on the horse and built myself a 65 liter tank, with 4mm glass it was 30cm High, filled it, planted it, started to populate it, one day i looked at it from the side and freaked, on a 60 cm length, the frontal glass curved about 3,4 mm, the very same day, i drove to a store and bought one of about 80 liters but with 6mm glass, i don't wanna think about what would have happened if the first would have exploded.:eek5:
2. had Ich first on my neon tetras, isolated the school, in tank with added green malachite, only to fishes survived, because i took them out of the death quarantine tank, later i've learned the neons would not tollerate g.m. :icon_redf


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## familyman03 (Jun 16, 2010)

Bought Birchardi cichlids for a community tank.... needless to say they have their own tank with about 100 of them in there.


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## TRD_Power (Aug 6, 2010)

Exodons... Nothing else needs to be said.


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

Went to parent's house for a 3-day weekend visit. Cleaned my aquarium and did a 1/3 water change before i left. My tank was pristine. When I came back my tank was completely covered with algae and my plants were in horrible shape. I couldn't figure out what had happened until I noticed that my light timer was set to ON instead of AUTO. The lights had been on for 72+ hours straight.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

Apparently my worst mishap is allowing my mom to do anything without supervision. *insert sound of teeth grinding here*


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## Java Moss (Jan 17, 2011)

Went all out, figuring I'd build the ultimate planted 55. Bought four bags of Eco Complete, broke everything down, set everything up, put new plants in, cycled for a couple of months...added 6 danios - all were dead within three weeks. Plants, fish - everything shot. Funky blue-green algae-type stuff started growing on glass and was next to impossible to clean off. 

Drained, took everything out and kept bare for about a month. 

Put in regular gravel, added new plants, cycled with platies - great success! Picture posted in this form is the result. 

So much for "eco-complete".


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## meowfish (Jan 5, 2011)

When I installed my first canister I "fitted" everything and forgot to screw the output valve back on. Primed the filter, started it up, and got a faceful of water. That was a bit of a shock lol! The wife apparently thought it was pretty funny, I believe she almost had a heart attack from the laughter...


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## seandelevan (Sep 24, 2006)

Tried and (successfully) moved a 125 gallon tank by myself. 

But felt like I was hit by a train for the next 3 days.


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## Scyry (Dec 16, 2010)

Olskule said:


> No need to feel like a jerk, just join the club! I don't think you can truthfully call yourself a "fully-vested" aquarist without either dropping a light in the tank, dropping the water level low enough to break a heater or letting a large amount of water overflow onto the floor (the more expensive the floor, the more points you score). If you haven't done any of those, you simply haven't invested enough time in the hobby yet.
> 
> Olskule


Been there, done that, and have the T-shirt: 

Was rearranging a tank that had a 6" Jeripari in it. He was real tame, he'd eat from my hand or come over to get 'scratched' when I had my hand in the tank. Anyways, something freaked him out and he rocketed into the heater and broke it open. My hands were in the tank. Damn that hurt, but luckily I had a GFI circuit for the tank and all the fish survived. 

ALWAYS have a GFI circuit for your fish tank. A regular ground outlet doesn't do it.

I really miss that fish...


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

I can't believe I started a thread that's been going for two + years. Too bad it started from a hole I burned in my rug, and not something cooler. Oh well, I'll take what I can get. I certainly have enjoyed the reading in this thread.

:icon_smil :icon_smil :icon_smil


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## blacksheep998 (Jan 16, 2011)

1) As most here I've had the filthy fish water shot into my mouth while priming a canister filter.

2) I've had a filter thermostat short out and cook my danios with 90F+ degree water. The beta also in the tank was perfectly fine with the temperature though.

3) I put dwarf livebearers in my 50G guppy tank. For those of you unfamilar with the species they're very timid. They still hide when I walk by the tank. I was actually worried at the time about the guppies killing them. Well the joke was on me because by the next morning every single guppy was missing at least 75% of it's tail fin, with chunks taken out of their other fins for good measure. Surprisingly not a single one of them died and they all regenerated their fins just fine. But needless to say the dwarf livebearers now have their own tank.

4) The mistake I regret the most though was one of my oldest. back when I was a kid I had a large tank with a small turtle and two african water frogs. While cleaning the tank I had them in a 2 or 3 gallon bowl. We had this crazy red iron water from the tap where I grew up so I collected rainwater to refill the tank, and like a silly kid I was running back and forth from the gutter drain spout with a little 1 gallon bucket and waiting for it to fill up each time. I come back with a bucket and there's the cat, licking her lips, having just finished off my largest frog.

I'm not sure to this day if the frog jumped out on its own or if she fished it out, but either way it was a rather traumatic experience.


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## Hobbes1911 (Mar 2, 2009)

When I was little I had a 10 gal tank that I was tearing down to redo. So I took everything out, including the gravel and washed it (I had no idea about the beneficial microfauna.) When it came to dumping the gravel back in, I put the opening of the bucket on the rim of the tank and poured. It went all in, except for a small amount that stuck to the wall of the bucket. So in all my intelligence, I gave the bucket a good knock to get all the gravel out and managed to split the tank in two. Well that was an amazing accomplishment I have to admit. My parents were unhappy and I had to go buy a new tank from my allowance which meant I had no money since I had to spent my savings and future 2 months allowance. 

One learns though. Now I always make sure to knock the bucket when it's not close to the tank :hihi:


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## feafur (Mar 29, 2010)

I just want to thank the guy who started this thread, as I have learned alot and have had quite a few good laughs and ALSO feel SO MUCH BETTER about all of my mistakes! I too have made so many that I'm sure I can't remember them all. The funniest one I made was quite some time ago though....way before I had a python. I decided that the quickest way to fill my 55 gallon tank would be to use the hose and my 7 year old son to turn it off when the tank was full. When it got about in inch from the top, I hollered at him "TURN IT OFF NOW" He said, okay, WHICH WAY? Well, I started to panic because I couldn't remember which way and since I knew I had turned the thing "almost" completely on that either way he turned would go...so I just said, just turn it OFF. hahahahah Of course, by now, my tank was overflowing and I didn't think of just kinking the hose....so I grabbed the hose and ran as fast as I could to the window! hahahahahha It was an AWFUL mess! Water was on the ceiling, on the floor, on me....but, now it is hilarious when I relive it in my mind! Thanks again for the fun!


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

I once thought that leaving my fish in the bags over night (they were bagged that same day, came back from the auction at 12:00am though and was pooped)...all five fish in the bag died 

I also had 15 guppys go into a uncyled tank and didn't know better, they all died.


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## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

feafur said:


> I just want to thank the guy who started this thread, as I have learned alot and have had quite a few good laughs and ALSO feel SO MUCH BETTER about all of my mistakes! I too have made so many that I'm sure I can't remember them all. The funniest one I made was quite some time ago though....way before I had a python. I decided that the quickest way to fill my 55 gallon tank would be to use the hose and my 7 year old son to turn it off when the tank was full. When it got about in inch from the top, I hollered at him "TURN IT OFF NOW" He said, okay, WHICH WAY? Well, I started to panic because I couldn't remember which way and since I knew I had turned the thing "almost" completely on that either way he turned would go...so I just said, just turn it OFF. hahahahah Of course, by now, my tank was overflowing and I didn't think of just kinking the hose....so I grabbed the hose and ran as fast as I could to the window! hahahahahha It was an AWFUL mess! Water was on the ceiling, on the floor, on me....but, now it is hilarious when I relive it in my mind! Thanks again for the fun!


Haha I am sitting here picturing that and LOL'ing cause that's exactly how I'd react too!


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## Aquahollics (Feb 1, 2011)

seandelevan said:


> Tried and (successfully) moved a 125 gallon tank by myself.
> 
> But felt like I was hit by a train for the next 3 days.


And you have a lingering hernia that you haven't yet noticed =P

I fortunately haven't made any huge mistakes (yet)... But I can recall a while back when doing a WC I had forgotten to flip the switch on my power strip, when I refilled the tank and the cold water hit the super hot glass heater... Well just use your imagination =)


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## boringname (Nov 11, 2010)

I learned something from this thread. I always wondered why I couldn't get gravel vacs to work by following the instructions. Now I suspect everyone who gets them to work is using the mouth method.


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## ddiomede (Feb 21, 2011)

I've been rather fortunate to not have any big mishaps aside from when I was a child a got my first HOB cheapo heaters that I don't even think are made any longer, and did a water change without unplugging it. You can imagine what happened! Never happened again. The worst thing that I did was my dad bought a 125gal saltwater aquarium with this expensive wet/dry, UV, etc. and he was paying me to set it up and maintain it for him. Well I adjusted the overflow and set it a weeee bit too low. The power went out when he wasn't home and came home to a saltwater flood on a parquet wood floor! I got an earful. Moral of the story is to make sure to simulate a blackout and make sure that the filter doesn't overflow. Lesson learned! Will never happen again! Well not on my tanks anyway! LOL!:biggrin:


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## cblwry (Sep 15, 2010)

This is the best thread. I just found it today and have really enjoyed it. On my end, my daughter had a betta in one of those small "betta tanks". While she was gone to camp I took the fish out to clean it. I put him in a small cup. When finished I got the cup and he was gone. I looked on the floor, on the cabinets and in the sink and no fish. She would be devistated. So, trying to spare her feelings, I went to the LFS and bought another one. While cooking supper that night I noticed a noise coming from the sink. Shined a flashlight into the garbage disposal, and there he was....still alive. Now we had 2. Eventually I had to admit why we ended up with 2 twin bettas. Several years later she still kids me about that. :redface:


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## malaybiswas (Nov 2, 2008)

Sucked up my cardinals during wc. Was multi tasking and left the hose in tank and got it almost drained. Thankfully none perished. 

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## TetraLover (Aug 6, 2011)

Oh wow, this is a great thread...truly some cringe-worthy moments here...

Two incidents springs to mind:

--I had 2 dwarf african frogs in an uncovered 10 gallon tank with a HOB filter. Somehow, they both climbed out. I noticed they were gone one day when I went to feed them and couldn't find them. I found one frog hopping (kind of) on the carpet a few days later, covered with lint. He looked like a mummy. Didn't survive. I felt so crummy (nothing compared to what he must have felt like, of course). 

--I have a DIY CO2 injection system on my 46 gallon. I turn off the powerhead at night. Well, one night after I changed the batch of yeast solution, I went to bed. I was awakened around 1 AM by my elderly downstairs neighbor knocking on the door (I live in a walkup apartment). 

The plastic tubing connected to the yeast bottle slipped off the top of the bottle...because the bottle was sitting on the floor, it started to suction and drain water from my tank...I'd say about 15 gallons was drained by the time the neighbor alerted me...

He's Chinese and his English isn't great but believe me, we figured it out. The front of his pajama top had a big wet stain on it. _Apparently he was laying in bed and my aquarium water dripped down through the floor and his bedroom ceiling and right on top of him._

He was (justifiably) POd but overall, much more polite than he could have been. 

I mopped up the water (fun...thank God I have hardwood floors) and left a "Sorry" note on his door the next day...

Guy actually saved my bacon...if I hadn't been alerted, probably 90% of my tank water would have been drained by the time I woke up in the morning...yikes!


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## TetraLover (Aug 6, 2011)

Sharkfood said:


> I fell asleep on my couch while filling the tank with a python a couple weeks ago. Luckily the Niagra Falls sound track woke me up quickly. I put maybe 5 gallons on the floor by my estimation.


Is there anything that haunts an aquarium-keeper's nightmares like the pouring sound of water hitting the floor? ROLF If I think I hear water dripping or draining anywhere in my apartment I run to check. It's totally panic-inducing. 

Also, I have a little 2.5 gallon betta tank on my computer desk. I love it; it's very relaxing to watch him swim to and fro. However, in the back of my mind, I can't shake the thought that...if the tank ever breaks...I am F*****, man...the water would get into my PC and stereo and desktop printer...


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## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

TetraLover said:


> Is there anything that haunts an aquarium-keeper's nightmares like the pouring sound of water hitting the floor? ROLF If I think I hear water dripping or draining anywhere in my apartment I run to check. It's totally panic-inducing.
> 
> Also, I have a little 2.5 gallon betta tank on my computer desk. I love it; it's very relaxing to watch him swim to and fro. However, in the back of my mind, I can't shake the thought that...if the tank ever breaks...I am F*****, man...the water would get into my PC and stereo and desktop printer...


Yep, my 5g betta tank sits on top of my entertainment center which holds my TV, cable box and dvd player.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

I guess my worst is about 5 years ago I had a 29 gallon fully stocked tank in the living room. It was late, like 10 or 11 at night day before Thanksgiving. My g/f and I decided to move the tank from the LR to the DR. Figured we could slide it across the hardwood floor...I've done it that way a few times. So we are sliding it and the stand, made from 2x4's, catches on something. Well...the stand stopped, tank did not. Forward momentum caused too much force against the legs and the screws holding everything together gave out and in super slow motion, the tank went crashing down. 29 gallons of water in the middle of the living room and fish flopping all over. Luckily I had a brand new empty 75g tank in the dinning room so I quickly gathered the fish, threw them in a bucket of water (conditioned), filled the 75g tank and got things running and threw the fish in. Lost one fish during the crash and that's it...rest made it through.

Next biggest mistake, not QT my fish very recently and ended up loosing 22 out of 27 of my fish and the plants in my tank.


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## karatekid14 (Jan 16, 2011)

nubster said:


> i guess my worst is about 5 years ago i had a 29 gallon fully stocked tank in the living room. It was late, like 10 or 11 at night day before thanksgiving. My g/f and i decided to move the tank from the lr to the dr. Figured we could slide it across the hardwood floor...i've done it that way a few times. So we are sliding it and the stand, made from 2x4's, catches on something. Well...the stand stopped, tank did not. Forward momentum caused too much force against the legs and the screws holding everything together gave out and in super slow motion, the tank went crashing down. 29 gallons of water in the middle of the living room and fish flopping all over. Luckily i had a brand new empty 75g tank in the dinning room so i quickly gathered the fish, threw them in a bucket of water (conditioned), filled the 75g tank and got things running and threw the fish in. Lost one fish during the crash and that's it...rest made it through.
> 
> Next biggest mistake, not qt my fish very recently and ended up loosing 22 out of 27 of my fish and the plants in my tank.


o.o


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## Legion (Sep 7, 2011)

This one doesn't compare to some of the horror stories on here - but here is my worst:

A couple of years ago I had I had ordered around $250 worth of Wild Oscars and Caribe Piranha to go in one of my larger tanks. Loved these fish to death if for no other reason than the reaction they would illicit from my friends when it was feeding time. But more than that I just loved studying the behavior of them... The fish came in and went into the tank and all was well for about a few months. I decided to go on vacation with my wife - we were planning on being gone for 5 days. I went and bought hundreds of feeder fish and dumped them all in the tank right before we left and gave my house keys to a friend so that she could come check on the fish while we were gone. 

Two days into the trip she calls us back and says that all of the feeders have been eaten and she would need to go get some more. Suffice it to say that when we got back off of vacation - the tank needed a very good and thorough cleaning and a decent water change. I dropped the water level to about 1/2 of normal to do the water change and clean it ... got side tracked doing something else in the middle of this and forgot that I hadn't filled the tank back up over the heater. I was away from the tank for maybe an hour and a half... The 14 - 15 degree temperature drop in the tank killed every fish I had in there. Nothing quite like watching hundreds of dollars of fish that you love swimming sideways and upside down, trying not to die.

Haven't let that happen since though... lesson learned.


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## treasy (Sep 9, 2011)

In the very beginning, I bought my girlfriend a 10 gallon tank. It had 1 male swordtail, 2 platies, 1 molly and a bristlenose pleco. Her mom had a habit of criminally overfeeding the fish because they always looked hungry, so the little tank always had grime all over it, on the decorations and the filter. We decided that it couldn't be healthy for the fish to live in such filth (who likes to live in filth, honestly) so we took out most of the gravel, all of the decoration, the carbon and biomedia from the filter and rinsed it all off in tapwater. We put everything back into the tank and expected the fish to be very happy that their home was now sparkling clean. Instead they all sat at the bottom of the tank motionless and the molly died a few hours later. 

It's sad, but that's how I really delved deeper into the hobby. I found out about new tank syndrome and spent hours reading about aquariums and how to properly care for them.


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## astrosag (Sep 3, 2010)

Knock on wood, nothing huge yet. 

When my GF and I first got the tank, she wanted newts in it (i believe fire belly are the ones we got).We got 2. We noticed one swimming up to the corner of our half-moon tank. We didn't think he could get out.

Next day, we only had 1 newt. We looked everywhere for hours..nothing. Next day after work, her mom calls and says she threw out a lizard...except it wasn't a lizard. Poor guy.

So I built her a mesh canopy for her tank. It fit fairly well with few openings for the heater and the filter intake/outtake. We figured all would be well.

Next day, we have 0 newts. Looked all over once again..nothing. One week later, whilst cleaning the bed in the guestroom - used by her dad at the time - she finds the newt. It had been crushed by her dad's buttocks. Poor thing


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## SeaSlug182 (Apr 1, 2011)

I'm not even gonna go into my reefer days. But since I got into freshwater my biggest f-up (so far) was when I was setting my 100g, I put the posts for my crossbar in on the wrong sides, and had to drain, remove the hardscape, tilt the tank and stand on its side then re shim (40 shims) the tank. luckily i had not yet added soil to the tank.
oh, and I dropped my camera in the tank last week lol


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## genomer (Mar 29, 2011)

-I accidentally dropped a small strip light straight in my 10 gallon fry tank (plugged in); I instinctively reached in and grabbed it out without thinking. I'm lucky I'm here writing this.

-I've made other stupid mistakes in the past, usually because I used to rush when setting up a tank rather than taking my time and planning EVERYTHING out thoroughly. Nothing all that notable, though...just palm to the face moments we've all had.


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## astrosag (Sep 3, 2010)

I recently bought a fan to keep the tank cool in the hot CA summer. I thought the fan could rest on the top frame....about 5 mins into the fan's first operation, I hit the tank and the fan begins its slow motion fall into the tank.

It reminded me of when helicopter blades hit the water....water sprayed *everywhere* but fortunately I grabbed it before it was completely submerged. Very stupid idea.


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## TetraLover (Aug 6, 2011)

_about 5 mins into the fan's first operation, I hit the tank and the fan begins its slow motion fall into the tank._

This.

I think there should be a word in the English language for that particular emotion you have immediately after you've made a mistake (and you know it), but before the consequences of the mistake are made clear. That "OMG I can't believe I just did that--WHAT NOW?!" feeling. Like the above description from astrosag, or the second you pour a gallon of water into your tank and suddenly realize you forgot the de-chlor. 

"Facepalm" is good, but not quite specific enough.


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## CakeHunter (Sep 11, 2011)

Not knowing what MTS meant, and throwing a bunch of moist soil into my tank, dead shrimps(let), dead mollies, but no dead plants. 

Dropping my light into the tank, fishing it out.

Hugging a 5 gallon bucket filled to the brim with dirty water, and for some reason, my bf decided to make a joke. Laughing, and drinking dirty fish water is not fun, and it spilled all over the floor.


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## kayjay (Aug 19, 2011)

My worst wasn't really catastrophic, just mighta been. When I got my 2 dojo loaches, I started to drain off a bit of the water in the bag before floating it. That always worked fine with fish, just hold it over the sink, get a firm hold, pinch the corner firmly and let some water trickle out. Well, I hadn't planned on dojos being super fast and slippery. One just popped out of the sack, down into the disposal, bloop! I freaked out! Reached into the disposal but couldn't do more than touch his tail. Tried again and again, no way. So I went running into our shop yelling "I need a pipe wrench!" My husband and son looked startled but I didn't give them time to ask questions, just went running back indoors with the wrench. When they came in I was under the sink dismantling the disposal, hoping all those stories of dojos surviving for days after jumping out of a tank were true. By the time I got the disposal off, shook out the dojo and dumped him into the QT tank, they were laughing so hard they couldn't talk! Now anytime someone mentions an in-sink disposal, one of them's sure to tell the tale. (And YES, the dojo made it just fine!)


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## orchidman (Dec 15, 2010)

liking snails! had soooo many!


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## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

Nubster said:


> I guess my worst is about 5 years ago I had a 29 gallon fully stocked tank in the living room. It was late, like 10 or 11 at night day before Thanksgiving. My g/f and I decided to move the tank from the LR to the DR. Figured we could slide it across the hardwood floor...I've done it that way a few times. So we are sliding it and the stand, made from 2x4's, catches on something. Well...the stand stopped, tank did not. Forward momentum caused too much force against the legs and the screws holding everything together gave out and in super slow motion, the tank went crashing down. 29 gallons of water in the middle of the living room and fish flopping all over. Luckily I had a brand new empty 75g tank in the dinning room so I quickly gathered the fish, threw them in a bucket of water (conditioned), filled the 75g tank and got things running and threw the fish in. Lost one fish during the crash and that's it...rest made it through.
> 
> Next biggest mistake, not QT my fish very recently and ended up loosing 22 out of 27 of my fish and the plants in my tank.


Hmmm...yeah, that's the worst, no doubts. Any more worst, it would be a 75g tank, instead of 29g.


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## wendyjo (Feb 20, 2009)

orchidman said:


> liking snails! had soooo many!


Hahahaha!


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## driftwoodhunter (Jul 1, 2011)

never thinking a QT tank was important enough to have...
lost over 20 fish in a 55g in 5 days, due to columnaris showing up the day after introducing celebes rainbows...and wasting close to $100 in meds, rather than buying a QT tank! (I have 2 now)


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## Sherminator (Aug 29, 2011)

I had the weridest thing happen to me last week....I was in the process of cleaning out my cabinet that my Biocube is on since I'm moving in a couple weeks. I got rid of stuff that was going out of date etc....I started pulling out paperwork that was in there...and I saw I had a dried up dead Bee Gobie stuck the paperwork! 

I have no idea how it got in there, the only thing I can think of is that it accdiently stuck in the net when I was fishing out something else and I didn't see him


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## theemptythrone (Sep 5, 2011)

we were bonding a hole in our kayak inside, we leaned it up against the wall to dry, 
about half an hour later, i hear the most horrible round, plastic scraping against the wall and to sound of my 55 gallon saltwater tank exploding 

55 gallons of saltwater makes your carpet crunchy and smell funny for a while


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## In2wishin (Aug 10, 2011)

Had an African Clawed frog in a 3 gallon and he looked lonely so I got him a dwarf frog as a buddy (didn't know they were different). Well, Froggy liked his buddy: I looked into the tank just in time to see him stuff the buddy in his mouth


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## scapegoat (Jun 3, 2010)

In2wishin said:


> Had an African Clawed frog in a 3 gallon and he looked lonely so I got him a dwarf frog as a buddy (didn't know they were different). Well, Froggy liked his buddy: I looked into the tank just in time to see him stuff the buddy in his mouth


sounds a little x-rated


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## rgr555 (Jul 31, 2011)

Failing to fishless water cycle properly for 2 months. Problem after problem.


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## LNaccs (Sep 29, 2011)

Lets See.

I was attempting to convert my 20g tank into a rimless tank and when I was taking off the rim I pulled the front sheet of glass on my tank right off.

Done the Heater from warm water to cold water to electrocuted...that was a fun day.

First time I tried doing a planted tank with Peat I capped it and the put all my plants in, woke up the next morning to my tank upside down (peat was the first 3" of the top of my tank)

When I was new and never researched if fish species would get along with each other I had a tank of guppies and yellow labs and bala sharks....oh that was a massacre.

One that I am not proud of is I was cleaning out my 55g tank outside and I had put it on the cement (which was flat) but what I didn't see were little pebbles everywhere, I filled the tank and because it was to big to lift up and drain the water I simply sunk in a bucket and emptied it that way....well I went to push the bucket into the tank and hear "CRACK"...the tank emptied pretty damn fast...


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## Fishguy8558 (Jul 22, 2011)

I didn't knew about cycling and i just threw a bunch of fish in there and observed all the many pretty fish in the tank. Most of them died and then when i went to NJ i had my family looking after my fish and it wasn't properly cycled and probably overstocked, and all the fish died. It's sad but funny because each day they would call and say another one died, etc. Also just recently i figured out that the reason why some of my fish were dying because of my low PH after all this time was just the rocks i got from outside.


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## psalm18.2 (Oct 16, 2010)

Wow, what a nice, funny, sometimes sad, and eye opening thread.
I have done most of the things listed except glue my mouth shut or have a mushroom attack my eye. Yikes!!


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## comet (Jun 10, 2006)

First 10 gallon tank; became overridden with pond snails; got "aggravated'' :icon_evil and decided to break down the tank. Put too much pressure on the substrate with the scoop I was using to remove the substrate and cracked the bottom of the tank......Make note to self, Avoid pressing down on bottom of tank...


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## n00dl3 (Jan 26, 2008)

This is a funny and sad thread... I like it!!!

here are my mishaps...

1. My heater stuck in my breeding zebra plecos group and cooked 11 full grown adults.... ouch...
2. Flooded my basement multiple times during water changes because I forget to turn off the water... wife doesn't like that at all... One time I left the water on for 6 hours and had like 2 inches of water... every long clean up that day!
3. Killed all my fish in my 180 gal show tank with over 250+ fish and 1000+ RCS because I made an adjustment to my CO2 and didn't monitor it. I had a lot of floaties and dried fish on the ground the next morning.
4. I got a shipment of 100+ bristlenoses in, it was late when I received them. So I just threw them into a few tanks... I should've put them all in a quantitine tanks but I didn't. Next day, I had ICK all over my fish room. I lost 1/2 of my fish, it probably cost me a few thousand $$$$.
5. One time, I was too busy working and didn't come down to my fish room for a few days... That one time... My air pump stopped working, fish and shrimp didn't like that at all. Lost a bunch of fish and shrimp.

Those are some of my most memorable moments...


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## deleted_user_12 (Aug 21, 2011)

Bill W said:


> One of my favorites is the unresearched fish. Your perfect pleaceful tank ruined by a colorful demon fish. I've learned this lesson in reef tanks and planted tanks, once had to spend almost a whole day taking all the corals, rock and water out of a 240gal reef, just so I could catch one 3" basslet and have more than one fish in the tank. Beautiful fish, but mean as a junk yard dog.


im in that situation right nowi got some paradise fish for my community then found out every other fish i have doesnt get along wiht it and now im taking it back


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## CrazyCatPeekin (Aug 15, 2011)

Great thread! I've got a couple.

I accidentally whacked a 55 gallon with a hammer while assembling the stand.

Sucked up fish water...let's just say more than once.

Forgot to check the sealing ring on a used Eheim before hooking it up and starting it...Leaked everywhere...opened it up and the ring was totally shot.

First time I opened up my 2217 after hooking it up, I closed the hose valves and disconnected the filter. I then proceeded to pull on the top for about a half an hour, swearing and straining, before it occurred to me to open one of the valves and let some air in. Of course, after I did that I pulled too hard...the top came flying off and water splashed everywhere.

I'm sure, in time, I will have many more mishaps.


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## monkeyfish (Jul 5, 2010)

CrazyCatPeekin said:


> First time I opened up my 2217 after hooking it up, I closed the hose valves and disconnected the filter. I then proceeded to pull on the top for about a half an hour, swearing and straining, before it occurred to me to open one of the valves and let some air in. Of course, after I did that I pulled too hard...the top came flying off and water splashed everywhere.


This made me lol, did it myself, it's a great moment when you realize you could pull on that top forever and never get it off with the valves closed. 

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk


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## LNaccs (Sep 29, 2011)

Well, lucky me I just had a new one.

When you are new to sumps, don't EVER fiddle with the pumps or overflow before you go to bed, or you will wake up to your tank drained about halfway on the floor


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## billm90 (Jun 19, 2008)

6 months ago. I was a moron being learned.

I took my 100 gallon acrylic tank outside to remove the light blue painted on background. I power sanded it off. I painted it black and put it in my garage. Everything was great. went to home depot and picked up 80 bucks worth of plumbing pieces to re do my overflow.

next weekend I popped my garage door and did some yard work. The sun must of hit my tank just right. I look at it and it is cracked, and feels warm. The black paint and sun!!!!

I get weld on 3 and 16 and fix the crack. I get the novus polish system and polish it back to clear and pretty. I put the tank on a wheel cart long ways up (5 feet tall) and take it over to the hose and wash out all the polish with soap and water.

I wheel it back to the garage where it will spend the night. the wheel on the cart hits the cement crack. The tank falls forward. I have nothing to grab, and I cant get around the tank because of stuff on each side of me. I just watch it fall and crack all the way around. There was a blue spark when it hit. It cut my extension chord in half.

So I pick it up and cut myself. and as I look at the front I spent polishing, it is all those micro acrylic cracks now.

I allready ordered up a new glass 100g tank.

I will recylcle the acrylic tank into a few projects I want to try.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also had my air pumps mounted below my tank. I had the line come off one of the air stones, which siphoned about 50 gallons of water on my floor. I spent the next day with a rug doctor cleaning that up. Good news. the carpet did not get ruined. no one died.


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## lurrch (Jul 5, 2011)

This thread has been very therapeutic after my recent mishap. I tried to fastcycle a tank while severely jet lagged. When I came to a couple days later, I found all the fish dead. Apparently the cycle didn't take or the canister I hooked up had too much mulm in it for the smaller tank. 

IMO, this should be a sticky thread.


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

lurrch said:


> This thread has been very therapeutic after my recent mishap. I tried to fastcycle a tank while severely jet lagged. When I came to a couple days later, I found all the fish dead. Apparently the cycle didn't take or the canister I hooked up had too much mulm in it for the smaller tank.
> 
> IMO, this should be a sticky thread.


Glad it helped! I never thought my longest lasting thread would come from a story about something I messed up. I think this thread is longer than my tank journals, haha. Glad to know we are all human! 

I'm sorry about your fish! Hope you get more soon! 

Freddie


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## traxiii (Jun 20, 2012)

*Toxic Water after Moving Tank*

I moved in with my then girlfriend and moved my 50g tank. No problems at first, with fish in 5g food service buckets w/air stones and heaters. Filled tank with what turned out to be a toxic spewing, old vinyl garden hose and ran the system for 2 or 3 days with the old gravel, old filter materials and everything was great, the water checked out perfect. That is until I started pouring in fish. The loaches seemed to be fine, but my poor Roseline Sharks were going crazy bouncing off the sides of the tank so fast there was no way I could catch them and within a minute they were all dead. I was able to quickly scoop out the loaches, and they are still around to this day, a year and a half later. 

Called my LFS and he asked about the hose. It had the funny smell from slowly breaking down sitting in the sun for years. So, I did a total water change, filling the tank using a 5g food service bucket. Then ran a huge bag of charcoal in the filter for 2 weeks before trying again. That did the trick and the hose in question went in the garbage, replaced by a nice rubber hose, that won't kill my fish.


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## causemisahastheeyes (Feb 28, 2010)

Oh man where to START.

How about with fish that weren't mine but I took care of, when I worked in a small aquarium.

1. The past keeper never did water changes, so doing a 20% water change led to super stressed fish. He also had air stones in every tank, which the head keeper hated, so I pulled all four of them out of the 'large' SA cat tank. Casualties were both 15 inch common plecos, a full grown lima shovelnose, and 8 hand-sized silver dollars.

2. Doing a water change on the feeder goldfish tank, not checking the water coming from the sink, and cooking every last one.

3. Sucked up a clownfish with the Python water changer.

4. Boss had me move 3 full grown redbelly piranha into a rocky 55 gallon tank. They had no room to even turn around, and gravel vaccing was dangerous. So I merely water changed and kept feeding as usual. They all died from the waste buildup.

5. Cleaning a Magnum filter, either forgetting to put the outtake guard back on, or it fell off, and sucked up the front end of a baby catshark.

6. Our five foot long marine moray eel found the one single crack in his lid and I found him dead on the floor come morning.

7. Not cleaning off salt buildup on a power bar and almost burning down the entire building.


For my own fish....

1. Not QTing fish from Petsmart and losing all of the new rubbernose plecos, otos, and some of my tatia cats.

2. Not QTing fish from Aquabid when purchased from two different sellers. That means 2 different Qt tanks, stupid! Lost all my tatias save one, and 2 of my juvie L260 plecos, back before they were legal to import.

3. Deciding to sell my tatias that were left, rather than move them to a species tank, and they bred for the guy who bought them less than six months later.

4. Buying multiple shellies at different times, giving up after they never bred, despite being in species-only tanks: they all went Duggar wild with making babies for the new owners.

5. Not separating my hoplos when the large males went into breeding frenzies and killed each other/the disease from stress and being beaten killing the rest.

6. Spilling meth blue in my bathtub. $15 of bleach later the tub is mostly white again.

7. Overdosing on Melafix. Twice the standard amount.


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

1) Didn't understand cycling. You can probably guess what happened there.
2) Husband picked up a heater. You can probably also guess what happened there.
3) Doing a water change with a small diameter hose and almost sucked out my one goldfish's eye. He looked like one of those bubble eyes for a day or two and I thought he was going to lose it, but it went back to normal and he's been fine now for months.
4) Sucked up a different goldfish with the gravel vac.
5) Made a custom little "drip bar" for an AC20, only my betta (Mr. Fish) decided it looked like a nice place to hang out. Couldn't find him anywhere and thought he had jumped and one of the dogs ate him. Finally saw a bit of fin sticking out one of the holes. Luckily he was fine.
6) Same betta jumped out of his tank at feeding time and landed on the floor. My husband felt terrible and thought for sure he'd killed my favorite fish. He hid for a few minutes and then was perfectly fine. I think he has 9 lives.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

Well, sort of fish related....We have a propane heater 1.5 feet from the tank and use it to heat them sometimes when it will be on for a few days, unplug the tank heaters. I had gotten my new jacket wet and forgot to toss it in the dryer the night before for work. Woke up and remembered, thought the propane heater was off and placed the jacket on it. I've done this a million times and with the small room heaters, too. But then I got distracted, smoke filled the house, alarms went off, 85% of the jacket melted on and into the heater....

Luckily, after I let it cool down and harden again, it came off with a razor w/o hurting the paint on the heater...

At least the house didn't burn down...


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## lurrch (Jul 5, 2011)

fastfreddie said:


> Glad it helped! I never thought my longest lasting thread would come from a story about something I messed up. I think this thread is longer than my tank journals, haha. Glad to know we are all human!
> 
> I'm sorry about your fish! Hope you get more soon!
> 
> Freddie


Luckily most of my fish were still in the main tank (I was setting up a temp tank for moving). 

Keeping fish is tricky, and unlike a dog or cat you don't need to screw up much to kill them. I think everyone appreciates this thread because it lets them know that others have screwed up too (and they can't have done worse than some of the people on this thread).


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## jbrady33 (Jun 7, 2012)

biggest mistake ever - trusted an old boss I had that brought a tank into work, asked me to set up in the reception area. 45 gallon tall on a basic iron stand that he said "was fine, been using it for years".

Basic set up, natural gravel, HOB, rocks, fake plant or 2 (this was 25 years ago), 4 fire mouth cichlids. 

Turned out to be really cool fish - one day over a weekend the heater broke "on", tank got very warm and 2 of them mated! new heater, removed the other 2 fish and watched the parents start to raise a HUGE brood 

Fast forward - bunches of little fry in the tank with parents. Come in one morning to an empty tank that had burst seams at the base, very wet carpet covered in very dead little fishes 

Not sure what to learn from that, but it makes me suspicious of stands with an open middle that only supports the tank edges.


PS: boss turned out to be a class A jerk too - small company, stole all the profits, screwed the customers and suppliers, shut down one day leaving the employees short on paychecks and jobless. My favorite - just before that he had a meeting telling us how disappointed he was that stock (expensive restaurant equipment) was 'disappearing' from the warehouse during a time when the company was struggling financially. Later it turned out that he was 'disappearing' it to sell on the side after he shut down. Found out later that his wife divorced him and cleaned him out


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