what is the worst problem you've had

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.

 

Thanks Jim.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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..

 

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.

 

I went on a week long camping trip with my dad, in modoc county, about 9 hours from home and left detailed instructions for my wife about reef tank. There was no phone reception in the area, came back 7 days later to find out tank had overflowed, burnt out main return pump, and emptied sump, that was no big deal, but during the whole week the heater had been inside rubbermaid sump with acrylic. Long story short my wife and little chiwawa got very sick. My dog stoped eating, within one day he was having seizures, my wife took him to emergency vet and they kept him four days. He is back to normal now. My wife called the LFS and a friend came to temporarily fix tank and found heater. The tank is ok, but I dont think I will be going on any vacations soon.

 

My worst problem is I am a bit stupid at times...for instance instead of using a turkey baster to start a siphon I did it the old fashioned way. dumb!

 

Twice my tank over flowed causing minor electrical fires. My lesson here was to think through carefully every possible scenario how things could go wrong and prepare or revise my design for accident prevention. The third time through no fault of mine the electrical chiller developed an internal leak. The unit shorted then sparked and flamed away. The room was filled with thick acrid smell of burning plastic with the shrill of the smoke alarm in the background. It was tough sleeping in that room for an entire week. Luckily it happened during the summer so we kept all windows open. My lesson here is to keep away from cheap equipment. Especially, don't skimp on quality chiller. Also, avoid submerging electrical devices as much as possible.

 

I would have to say my worse problem my wallet...there seems to be a hole in it. and coincidentally money happens to fall through that hole whenever i get something new for my tank!!! It's odd...anyways, i would have to say my worse problem ever was that bad case of slime algae and hair algae i had over the summer...i really hope it doesn't come back...