What's the worst thing you've ever done for the hobby?

I just finished putting the third coat of marine polyurethane on the inside of my stand. I'm over 6' and it took hours of me sitting inside the stand sanding and brushing this sticky, noxious smelling stuff. The good news is that the stand will be much better protected now and it looks great. The bad news is that I still have to do the hood but at least that is smaller and easier to access once I turn it upside down on the floor.

So what is the most unpleasant thing you've ever had to do to support your hobby?

 

lol getting addicted to the hobby in the first place

 

Sell guns.

 

Empty a protein skimmer that hadn't been touched for two weeks. Or pry dried fish chips off of the carpet, both being our most expensive fish at the time(s). Or else, back in the day when I had to start siphons with my mouth...bleah. Or move a gigantic emerald crab from display tank to fuge...with my hand. Just remembering that gives me the willies I'd feel more comfortable touching my mantis than I felt moving that guy.

 

taking that first big whiff of skimate out of my new skimmers cup to see what everyone was talking about. i still gag at that wonderful memory.

~Will.

 

Mine too.. that was aweful.

 

lol I agree but I love it the beauty of the tank and the way fish and invers respond to you....prcieless....my girl is always like, "are you done yet" when were at our LFS but hey I guess I'm like that when were at the mall....There is no aquarium store there but o well.....






I'm sure in a year or so my regret will be losing my girl...lol.....anyone lost someone cause of the hobby?......that would suck

 

idk
probably when i was switching substrate. i was starting a siphon and i didn't pay attention and was still sucking probably swallowed 2-3 mouthfuls of dirty saltwater,
probably was bowing down to the porcelain god for a good half hour if you get what i mean.

or maybe the time i accidentally left out one of those rectangular bags of brine shrimp out, and for 3 days my room smelled so bad it made you gag when you walked in. had fans going and windows wide open. when i found it it was nice and soggy and it just had that nice rotting shrimp smell you know?

 

Oh good heavens. I could go on and on and on.

Fragged a soccer ball sized Seriatopa into a thousand pieces. (I was moving it and tripped over a bucket).

Stood in a 8 foot deep sump and had the drain to pop off. I was covered from head to toe in fish poop water from a system that held about 1800 gallons

Cleaned a skimmer I invented many times. We called it the poopmaster 5000. It's over 5 1/2 foot tall and it holds about 90 gallons of water.

Smelled phytoplankton that had died (and threw up)

Put about 3000 pounds of zoanthids, palythoa, proto-palythoa, etc. into quarantine. Reacted poorly to that amount of palytoxin. I had chills, diarreah, etc for over a week.

Gotten the turkey squirts from starting a siphon with my mouth.

Punched a shark and pulled a stingray from it's mouth. (Both are still alive to this day).

Took a tissue plug of a very large bat ray that wasn't in the mood to have a large plug of tissue removed. (He didn't like the antibiotic shots either).

Put to sleep and then filed the teeth of an 18 inch puffer and then prayed he would wake back up (he did).

Swam in a 5000 gallon tank at a public aquarium that was so dirty that Dissolved Oxygen dropped to dangerous levels. I had to nab a shark that was "drowning" and put him in a tank with clean water. He's still alive.

Helped a competing LFS stir up their Hydrogen Sulphide bubble in their mud filter. Then once we aired out the store, helped clean up that filthy mud. (
Even standing outside where the H2S2 quickly dissipated, you could still smell the rotton eggs and wanted to hurl).

 

I cant top the last ones... lol..

First time skimmate smell is a good one...

Or having stray voltage leak from a pump into my tank.. then sticking my hand in the sump numerous times to make sure I wasnt crazy. Then having to test it after taking that pump out.. luckly I wasnt shocked again.. but I had to buy a new pump