Share your water change accidents!!

Hmmm...I have better FW water change accidents than I do SW. Most of my issues realte to filling the topoff and mixing tanks. I run the water through a filter, and I'm filling a 110 gallon tank. So it's slow. I tend to start the water, then wander around, doing laundry, cleaning, etc. And forget that the water is running, until I happen to walk by the fish room....And whaaa....Hey! That sounds like running water! Oh crap! I've managed to soak the entire room.

But, I got a Screamer--one of those battery powered doohickeys that has a probe that creates a circuit when submerged, resulting a piercing, attention-getting shriek. So no more floods, right?


Wrong.

I use buckets to refill my FW tanks. I have 2 buckets, and usually have one filling while I trot a full one up and pour it into the tank. So, when I poured in the bucket, then decided to clean up a little algae from one corner, which led to pruning a plant, which led to rinsing the filter, which led to a soaked floor and about 30 gallons of water on the floor.

Sigh. Next house, the fish room will have polished concrete floors. And a drain.

I had a 5gal bucket full of water that I just removed drom a tank, in my bedroom (carpet), I trip on the bedskirt and the water flew over 15ft. all the way into the bathroom. :duh:

Kim

Well many years of keeping my salt water has left me a little bit wet . .

Many times leaving the RO on to fill my 55 gal salt mix drum . much soaked carpets.

Not paying attention to draining my tank with a syphon hose into 5 gal bucket and cleaning inside of the tank, watching one hand not the other . . much soaked carpet.

Filling my aquarium and not remembering to syphon out air of my overflow as I fill the tank through my refugium on the other side of the wall. . much soaked carpet.


Putting my RO hose into my tank to top off fresh water that had evaporated and then starting a movie and forgetting about it and waking up in a panic the next moring screaming, "OH MY! GOD OH! MY GOD!" running downstairs waiting to see everything perished in a freshwater dip of sorts just to find everything alright and not to far out of gravity, not exactly sure why *boggle* Thank the lord I have salt water on hand at almost any given second that is usually a little more salty than normal.. much soaked carpet.

My wall behind my tank is a bit worn out now on the bottom, almost looks like it has been eaten by termites thanks to my years of salt watery abuse.

I am with Orion, next house gets a drain and concrete or hard tiled floors around the tank. I hate stepping in water with my socks on! :rant:

Every once in a while I'll forget to close the valves on my canister filter, making it fill with air as I drain the water out of the tank. When this happens I'll disconnect the hoses and empty the filter out in my bathtub then I'll fill the tank back up and reprime it. I don't remember how it happened or why I did it, but I left the filter in the bathroom once and ended up draining at least 50 gallons onto my carpet. I'm sure I'll lose the security deposit for my apartment when I move out.

I flood my basement once a month making RO/DI water...

Draining water out of a tank and forgeting to turn off a power head that will be running dry if left on, rushed under the stand to unplug and got electrocuted... which broke the power head


You can guess I've made it almost impossible to get electrocuted, I now have a powerstrip that lays horizontally on the new tank, with switches in the front (outlets on the back) so water can't touch the outlets and I can turn them off with a switch... not by grabbing it.

1. heating the water in the bucket take the heater out to add more salt leave it too long put it back in ...... bang heater explodes (i've done this twice now).

2. Phone rings whilst draining tank into bucket .... forget .... wet carpet

(this next series of events happens in <2 seconds)
The hose I was pumping with jumps out of the tank, or it let go, and spills water over everything: the rug, the floor, the stand, the POWER STRIP!!!!, and the power strip has metal threads at the end of it, and I saw blue sparks coming out of the strip to the stand. So, I turned off the power at the strip, and unplugged it.

Click to expand...

Really? You never told me this...

Just last water change I forgot to dechlorinate, I just put some drops in the tank, everything worked out.

de-clor isn't as important as everyone is making it out to seem... its not a life or death situation.

Dechlorinating

It depends on the type of chlorination your municipality uses. Our county switched to chloramine about a year ago - there was much publicity in the papers for FW and SW fish owners to make sure they dechlorinate now because the chloramine is quite toxic to fish. I know some people who lost fish because they forgot.