Whats your worst Reef Experience??

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How about this one...Freshwater related though:) I use to pull the yard hose inside to fill up the tank. Well one day, I pulled the hose in, and in the process the hose snagged on something outside which made me trip and shoot water all over my bed, TV and VCR! So much for needing to dust!:lol:
 
Well this one is sorta reef related. I have a big hole in one of my fingers. Bristle worms make blisters on my hands, and make my fingers swell up real bad. (I know use gloves, I know, I know) LOL
I was doing plumbing on a setup. I got a big drop of glue in a fresh hole in my finger. It felt wonderful.

Or how about this one. The new growth edge on a clam can be very sharp, like a knife almost, or this one was anyway. I was cleaning the glass for a customer and my hand slide along the edge of a clam that has grown a bunch. It used to fit perfect. LOL It cut me.

Or how about this one, I have a customer that has steps everywhere. I was setting my brute half full of dirty water of the porch steps and set one of the wheels down on my toes. It felt great too.

Or this one is good. For some reason it seemed like a great idea to put my 4 step folding ladder in my water change bucket. I get it to my truck and sorta pull it so the wheels come up on one end to get off the sidewalk easy. The ladder falls and whacks me in the forhead.

I've got more, but I think I will shut up now. LOL
 
LOL...Or carry around a video camera and start your own T.V show, "Reefing bloopers!" I'll even contribute a few of my great moments:lol:
 
This happened to me yesterday, I turned off my main return to change out my filter bag. In doing so i shut off the valve from the intake. I changed the bag and plugged in the pump and went to go start my car to get ready to go to night school. I come back in from the garage like 20 seconds later and i had my own home made waterfall in my room. The water was pouring out of the top like crazy. i quickly reached under the tank and open the valve. my sump had like 10 gallons in it when i plugged the pump back in. By the time i opened the valve my pump was about to start suckin air. I figure i lost anywhere from 5-8 gallons of water. MY WORST FLOOD YET!!!!
 
The best made plans of mice and men . . . .

Last fall I noticed the usual increase in heater related problems, so I decided to try and improve my setup. I have two external containers that are part of the system: a refugium and a sump. Since I believe that one of the major contributors to heater failure is its constant turning on and off, I figured that, if I separated the heater elements from the sensors, I would reduce the problem. So, I put the sensors in the sump and the heaters in the refugium to test things out. Surprisingly, things worked exactly as I had hoped – with the heaters staying on longer and then staying off longer. After ensuring everything was working well, I went out for the afternoon. Probably the moment I started the car, the main circulation pump stopped. Yes, that’s right: sensors in cold water keeping the heaters on, while the heaters, in now hot water, just keep on heating, and no water moving between them. When I got home, the water in the refugium was so hot I could not put my hands into it until I put in large quantities of ice from the refrigerator. I do not think the former inhabitants would have called it a refuge after that.
 
Kitteness said:
I learned the hard way why to always ground the tank.

Did you ground the tank, the sump, or both? Or does that have the same effect.

On the other hand, had you had the tank grounded, you may never have found the problem.
 
Got a couple of good ones. First, flooding the room with skimmate by leaving the drain valve open after cleaning, smelled great, wife not too pleased.

The second was potentially more horrific. While getting ready to go out one weekend evening, I started to smell a smoky, burning plastic type smell. I knew immediately to head to the fish room. I openned the door and the smoke hit me in the face. Turns out, one of the controllers on the Won heaters just melted and a tiny flame was buning the casing. The Controller was almost totally melted, the wall scorched and the room filled with the smoke of burning plastic, which is actually toxic. The other bad thing is that the fishroom and viewing room are next to my master bedroom and we currently are using that room as a nursery for my , now, two year old. He was about 1 at the time. I hate to think what might have happenned had this occurred three hours later. Needless to say, I yanked those heaters adn actually have no heaters on the tank right now, don't need them, ironic. It took about a week for the smell to dissapate entirely. Suprisingly, my wife did not say a thing. She didn't have to by how stunned I appeared.
 
Went on vacation in Florida and left my tank for 3 days. I came home to a blown circuit breaker and 100% losses. A snail clogged my U-tube, pump kept pushing water from the sump, water on the powerstrips, etc... So, thankfully, the circuit did in fact trip. Sadly, I have not setup a tank since...

Once school loans aren't my only source of "income," I will give it another go...

Take er easy
Scott T.
 
OKay this is not as bad as other stories here but....

I Was moving from my second floor apt to a house.
My 75 gallon saltwater tank was clearly comming with me. At this point i was only 3 months into saltwater (had fresh water forever)
Now when i say Second floor apt i mean the steepest narrowest flight of stairs to the second floor.

So the game plan (since i needed to be out in 1 night) work all day on furniture do fish tank last.

So its 2:30 in the morning, me my 2 buddies and the fiance(well she was just laughing at us) get to work.
I had a 35 hex waiting at my new house (we used this to save as much water as possible) We had 4 five gallon jugs that we were filling and driving to the new house (a good 15 min away) when the 35 was filled we filled up the 4 jugs and loaded the 3 fish and 1 hermit crab into them. Rushed them home and put them in the 35 hex

We then ran back started empting out the rest of the 75 gallan tank
Got it down to the sandbed (with some water left) and now it was time to move it. Well 3 guys that were moving stuff all day were pretty damn sore and tired. We start getting it down those narrow steep steps. Of Course the steps were so narrow there was only room for two people. So naturally i was coaching my two friends. Well half way down one slips the other falls back, i use my weight to keep him from falling down the steps the tank crashed onto his knee (thank god) sand and water give my buddy a nice shower LOL. I thought for sure it was over right there, Luckly the tank was okay (his knee wasent but hey priorities first)

Long story short (to late) we got it to the house, set it up, and moved the fish right as it looked like we may lose them. Since then i still have that Yellow tang (i sold the other 2 damsels but they did survive) and the hermit grab did pass away sometime later (reasons i was not sure of)

If i ever move again PROFESSIONAL MOVERS will be hired LOL
 
I've spilled GALLONS of water on my floors, shocked myself many times, and during the setup of my 20g nano, I ran a won bros heater overnight and the probe lost suction and came out... Needless to say the water got VERY warm. I didn't lose all of the snails, but did lose some. I can't believe how much life is on my rocks because of this accident. I have sponges, zoas, feather dusters and coralline all over the place. Nothing major, but that's my story.
 
I noticed there hasn't been a reply to this one yet so here is my take on it. Saltwater is a good conductor of electricity so if your sump is grounded you should be ok. Anyone else have an opinion?

Tim
 

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