My Granddaughter's Barbie went scuba diving in the aquarium!

[dave green]

One of our customers had this happen about a week ago, and I just read about someone whose daughter was doing cartwheels and knocked over his 10 gallon nano...

...and it got me to thinking...

There have GOT to be some remarkable stories of what has happened to our aquariums over the years... maybe they weren't so funny back when they happened, but hindsight having a sense of humor, we can look back and laugh at them.

Two of the quick tales I often tell include one of my wife feeding my 75 gallon back in the day... She took care of two betta fish, and when she fed my tank, instead of frozen food, she fed them the pellets that I had under the tank... only problem was, those pellets were PhosBan! D'OH!

Then there's the story of when I added a bunch of peppermint shrimp to the tank to fight aiptasia... my lionfish thought they had hit the "live shrimp jackpot!" :wow2:

Let's hear y'all's stories!

 

[jdavid]

The time I decided it would be a good idea to run a line straight from the RODI to the frag tank to top off and fell asleep. It's still not too funny to me though!

 

[declanisadog]

Just spent four days in the hospital . Got home and to find so much tank water had evaporated that skimmer ran dry and the pump died. Fortunately I got lucky and nothing died from the ridiculous change in salinity. That's the most recent one. I can't even fathom how many nights I've caused an avalanche after I've had a few drinks in me.

 

[jennm]

I've heard plenty of funny, and horrific stories, over the years.

Some of the worst:

Guy had a well-established tank - 9 or so years old. He'd heard/red that Rio pumps were notorious for failure, and he had at least one, so he changed it out before going on vacation, lest the Rio die while he was gone...

Well, the new pump failed. Person looking after his tank, didn't notice (!!!!!!!) He came home to a stinky, smelly, dead mess. NOT funny. Maybe if he'd left the Rio...

Another was somebody whose cat liked to sit on top of the glass lids on the tank. The person went away for a weekend or something... the lids gave way while the cat was on top, and nobody home. Person came home to a drowned cat and a dead reef. NOT funny.

I've heard tons of stories about kids putting all kinds of things in the tank. Some harmless, many not. Soap to give the fish a bath... a whole container of flaked food... pennies like a wishing well ... none of those ended well.

Another lady wiped out her 100 gallon reef with hand lotion.. after being careful not to touch the fish food, as she was watching the fish eat after feeding, she noticed a powerhead had popped off the glass (suction cups) so she reached in and popped it back onto the glass, not realizing. The next day, it was all dead.

None of the funny ones is coming to mind right now - most of them ended badly.

Jenn

 

[jennm]

Another customer of mine bought a cheap, poorly made acrylic tank from a now-defunct local manufacturer (if I'd known about that purchase I'd have warned him...). Moved the mature contents of his trusty 125 into this 200 or so gallon plastic nightmare. Other than the overflow boxes were too short for the tank, it seemed OK.

Customer went out of town for 2 weeks, we maintained/fed the tank while he was gone. No issues (thank God!)

About a week after he came back from vacation, his wife went downstairs and got wet feet... a seam had let go and the tank was about 3/4 empty.

Thankfully he still had his 125 so he set it up on the floor (the big tank was an in-wall display)... but he lost some fish he'd had for 8 years or so. Heartbreaking. He got out of the hobby shortly after that.

Steve Shindell (past-president, we still have meetings at his office building) - his 155 bow popped a seam overnight one night - I got a panicked phone call at about 6:30 AM. I was on the phone to a local distributor to get a replacement as soon as they opened, was on the phone with AGA while on the way to the distributor. Tank was 13 months old - had a 1-year warranty. AGA took care of it, they were faxing a credit to the distributor so all was good to go when I got there.

Meanwhile, about half a dozen ARC volunteers showed up at Steve's place to help save what they could, drain the bad tank and prepare for my arrival with a new tank. Jorge (then it was Aquarium Showcase) sent one of his staffers with plumbing kits, we plumbed it up on the tailgate of my truck, and with volunteers we moved the new tank into place.

Just as I was leaving, John Olson (former owner of) Marine Fish, and his son, Matt, were arriving with a tank full of new saltwater.

By 6:00 PM, Steve's tank was up and running again. I think he lost a couple of clams, but the majority of the livestock survived... and he got rid of the nasty plenum he had in the process.

That was a GOOD outcome to a very bad disaster. The ARC community AND the sponsors, came together to help someone in need.

Jenn

 

[rk4435]

On Easter morning I noticed a funny sound from my 29 Biocube. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the return had popped loose and was shooting straight up instead on out through the directional thingy. The wall, carpet and outlet were all soaked, a few gallons had sprayed out.

Sadly, the outlet was still hot, it should have tripped something and quit according to the electrical expert. He said I was terribly close to having an electrical fire in the wall, it would have been between my room and my daughters room.

A friend with an electrical license replaced the outlet and I was back in business quickly. Sadly the tank went a while with out flow while it was soaking the wall overnight. We soon lost all of the livestock and some coral. I almost quit the hobby after that experience.

 

[nickh06]

Worst thing that has happen to me so far was making an adjustment to the skimmer without keeping a close eye on it. Did my usual water change, noticed the skimmer hadn't been adjusted like I would have liked to I adjusted it. Just put an skimmate overflow on it a couple weeks before. Go outside for an hour or so and come back to a wet mess. Skimmer overflowed which overflowed the jug of skimmate which sent my auto top off into action. 6 gallons later...... luckily I was able to dry it all off before my hardwoods soaked it up and nothing died but sure was a wake up call. Needless to say I no longer have a skimmate overflow lol

 

[just josh]

Ohh jeez! I just got into this hobby with a biocube...I hope I dont have to deal with any of that mess!!!

Sorry guys I hate the bad stories!!!

 

[just josh]

Lol! Sux!!

 

[jennm]

If I had $1 for every preschooler that dumped copious amounts of food into a tank...

I'd be a gazillionaire.

Heck if I had $1 for every adult that had done the same, I'd still be a gazillionaire.

Once a customer left instructions for the tank-sitter to feed "1/2 cube, every other day". I had recommended using a pill reminder to put portions of food in the freezer, but she didn't have time to do that.

The tank sitter did not notice the blister-packs of food in the freezer. What she did find, was an 8-ounce frozen flat-pack of PE Mysis....

Tank was to be fed on Monday and Wednesday. On Thursday morning, my cell phone rang - I was out-of-state with another client. It was the tank-sitter, calling to let me know that the tank water was cloudy. A few questions later, I figured out that she had fed half of the 8 oz pack of mysis on Monday, the other half on Wednesday (!!!!) and now the rotting uneaten mysis was clouding up the water.

My ex-husband Scott (we were still married at the time) was minding the store and he was on his way to the airport to pick up a livestock order. Needless to say, he dropped off the boxes of fish at the store ... did not unpack them (they were fine for a bit longer)... grabbed 30 gallons of new saltwater, a big@## canister filter with carbon, polyfilter, a bottle of Prime and high-tailed it to the client's house. He vacuumed all the rotting mysis out, did a big water change, added the canister and a heaping dose of Prime.

The customer didn't lose anything, thankfully, but that tank sitter was never hired again

Jenn