what is the worst problem you've had

[phoenixhieghts]

my worst problem was when i added a flame angel to my system. Everything was going fine, until the dreaded white spot started to appear. Everything i did would not get rid of it. I ended catching one of the easiest fish to catch and taking him to my lfs.
The diagnosis was oodinium! I had to slowly watch every fish die. then i had to wait at least 6 weeks before i could stock again.

[amcarrig]

Thanks Jim.

[KOgle]

My number one problem has been the hair algae I'm still battling. It's been 6 months since I've been working on it.

Second biggest problem has been taking Otty shopping with me. I don't know that I've had any money since.

Oh and +3 on the AEFW.

[wastemanagement]

My worst problem was on a 48x24x24 I had way back in OZ I decided it was time to DIY some acrylic HOB Skimmer it lasted the most of a week.
I came home from work to find a huge salt lake in my rented apptment hehe! the carpet was a mess and the tank half empty. My lack of experiance with acrylic was my undoing the ass dropped out and the rests history.
had no tank losses just a moral drop!!!
The stupid thing is that back then I had a huge sump with more spare room in it then you could poke a stick at !!!!
But no internet back then for checking great sites like this one for good info.

[Notturnia]

Originally Posted by Diver_1298

I believe it is a Brown Hydroid Myrionema.

Jim

yup

it was the myrionema amboinensis if i remember right..
brown .. and damn /&%%/%/%& :-D a bad guy in a reef tank.. will cover all the stuff it will touch.. and usually will kill any corals..

it's a soft coral.. not an algae.. it has the same requirement as LPS and SPS..

light.. good water quality.. but wont die under bad water quality.. just reduce the growth..

and nearly no fish will eat it..

[rocketmandb]

Originally Posted by cuttingras

Very recent, still recovering(cycling again) Son ran the ro/di and didn't shut it off, overflowing and they lived for a few days with 0 salt. lost snails and worms. Other than that huge hair algae outbreak.

Something similar...

I used to have a 180 built into the wall in the office reception area. This was a holdover from when I owned the company and could do what I wanted with stuff in the office. After we got acquired they weren't too forgiving with "incidents."

The first was an overflowing fresh water makeup tank. I'd always put my RO/DI makeup water into a 45 gallon cylinder. I'd occasionally forget to turn it off overnight and come in to 10-20 gallons or so on the floor. Not a huge deal... until I forgot to turn it off on a FRIDAY! Wouldn't have been so bad, but our office was on the second floor. Ouch.

Ok, so I talked my way out of that one, then...

My skimmer had been acting poorly so I did a really dumb thing. To help make up for it until my new skimmer arrived, I put a hang-on skimmer on the tank temporarily. The first problem was that it overflowed. The second problem was that I was away on a business trip for a week when it happened (the office mgr took care of the tank while I was gone and she actually knew her stuff). The third problem was that the power strip used to power the hang on skimmer was directly underneath it. A lot of smoke and a little bit of melting ensued and, needless to say, the tank in the office didn't survive that one.

So the takeaways from this one are:

1) ALWAYS have an overflow mechanism for RO/DI. It's not a matter of if you'll forget to turn it off, it's a matter of when.

2) DON'T USE HANG ON SKIMMERS. PERIOD.