Top Ten "Worst Days" In Your Life As A Reefkeeper...

10) It's 11:00pm at night. I'm packed and ready to fly across the Atlantic to a week's vacation in the Canary Islands. The tanks have been cleaned, instructions typed, all is right with the world. UNTIL, my husband kicks the dog's bone down the stairs and BOUNCE - right through the side of my reef tank. 55 gallons of saltwater pouring all over the floor. Fish staring petrified as their environment gushes away! Luckily, I was able to stay up until 4am and throw together a backup tank, move all of the contents to the backup, say a prayer over the tank and leave for vacation. Luckily enough - everything made it through the week! How's that for good karma???
Deb Colella of Southeastern PA

9) My Midas blenny jumped out of the tank. I had kept it in a net breeder for five minutes. It seemed healthy and alert. I let it into the tank, and it darted right into a reef lobster's den. It was never seen again!
Lev F. of Ontario, Canada

8) You get pulled over on the way home from buying 20 tubes of crazy glue, a bunch of test kits, replacement 400-watt halides and a few dozen razor blades, and as the officer asks if he could search your car, you remember that you left out the 5 lbs. of unmarked kalk powder from that group order on your back seat...
fiftyfive of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

7) The day I found out those little feather duster things I'd been target feeding were actually hydroids!
Serk of Rowlett, TX

6) When I was at a playoff game in overtime with 30 seconds left to play, my wife calls and says, "There are a lot of things beeping, a lot of water on the garage floor where all your fish equipment is and nothing seems to be moving!" Yeah, i really enjoyed the game after that call and even less when I got home.
bergzy of The OC, Baby!!

5) I didn't have morning classes, so I decided to make a few gallons of RO/DI water for my auto-topoff. On the way home from work my wife called saying the apartment manager had a report of water leaking through the ceiling of my downstairs neighbor. The carpet cleaners extracted at least 50 gallons of water from the two apartments and sent me the $600 cleaning bill. There went the yearly reef budget.
pvtschultz of Milwaukee, WI

4) You finally finished the research on the anemone you were wanting for your clownfish. You located the most beautiful and healthy speciman at your LFS and brought it home. You made sure your tank was "anemone safe" and added him to your tank. The anemone acclimates well and life is grand, but that dead water spot just has to go. So, you put in a powerhead "just for the night." The anemone is "settled." When the lights come on your tank the next morning, the water is really, really cloudy. Needless to say you take a "sick day" and you spend the rest of the day siphoning out pieces of your precious anemone. Sad, but true.
Mommyfish6 of South Texas

3) About to walk out the door of my parents' house with my entire family waiting on me outside to leave for a five day Thanksgiving family vacation, and I notice as I ran out the door that my old reef that I set up three years ago has turned milky white, and most everything is dead or dying. No saltwater available for a water change, no time to do anything, and if I could do anything, it's already too late. Happy freakin' Thanksgiving!
Monti of Dallas

2) Any day there's a conversation with your wife that involves how much time (or money) you spend on the tank!
copps of Northern VA

1) My worst day was when a great friend GAVE me a 10-gallon tank, a N.O. light, heater and a rock. It cost me thousands to get it looking good!
MarksReef of Rochester, NY

Reefkeeping's next Top Ten for March: Top Ten Injuries You've Had That Were Caused By Your Reef... Our thanks go out to Scavenger for suggesting the next topic!

Honorable mention goes out to the following members for submitting 10 Top Ten reasons: Lev F., Poorcollegereef, Serk and copps. Thanks, folks!

If you have questions, would like to suggest a future Top Ten topic or place an entry, visit our online forum or hit the button below: