Stupid Tank Maintenance Mistake!

I am posting this because what fun is life if you can't laugh at your self. So I have been keeping tanks a long time and have a few small tank misshapes along the way, but never one like this. I bought a new canister filter last month. It is on a 75 gallon and is rated for a 125. The tanks has been established for about 5 years. This month my water perimeters have been off and the water has been getting cloudy. I have been staying on top of water changes and really couldn't figure out what was going on. I assumed that sand substrate would have enough beneficial bacteria to make up for a new filter. I figure the canister just needed time to get the good bacteria. Well after about a month of constant water changes I figure this Saturday I would take apart the canister to see if it needed to be cleaned out.

This is where it gets funny. I open up the canister and pull the trays out and much to my surprise all the filter media is in its original plastic packaging lol. So that was the reason my filter wasn't doing a very good job. The water was very dirty in the canister so it was doing something but not as good as it should be. I honestly sat there laughing at my stupidity. I do remember my three little ones really wanting my attention the day I set it up and wanting to "help" with water changes so I am guessing that is why I was so distracted.

Anyone else have funny moments like that? I cant be the only one.

I actually did that too and my wife was pissed cause I didn't move the clean clothes basket like she had asked. Got caught up in an episode of Andy Griffith lol. Then I started hearing water splashing.

chopsteeks said:

Thanks for proving that plastic is indeed not a good bio media !!

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HAHAH no problem any time.

greenterra said:

Always check the internals. Many canisters come with very little bio media and need extra to fill them up. Lesson learned though so I dare say you'll never make that mistake again?

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I actually did take it apart to check but got distracted and put everything back together. When I came back I just hooked it up. I hope to never do that again but since it wasn't intentional I cant promise .

brich999 said:

I did a dumb one when I was setting up my old 500g. Wanted to test the reeflo hammerhead pump to see what kind of flow it had. I quickly threw together some pvc pieces for an in and out and plugged it in. Water blasted the unglued pvc right off the end and I had water shooting every which way at almost 100 gallons per minute. Not my brightest moment but funny to think back on.

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LOL kind of a funny picture.