# Your Biggest/worst Viv FAIL



## VivariumWorks (Feb 27, 2008)

Anybody who's been in this hobby has had one. Ya, you know you have. Don't kid yourself. 
Post em' and commiserate. 

I'll start:










I got this german ehime beauty for 300 bucks, top, stand and all. Then I covered it with foam, and carved foam to make the tree butress. But I was afraid the foam would make it want to float, so I covered it with about 60lbs (dry) worth of concrete. Looked decent too. But then in trying to move it with two body-builder friends of mine, we dropped it and cracked the hell out of the bottom. Too big to toss in the trash, so I had to take a hammer to it, piece by piece. I had to space out the pieces in the trash for 3 weeks as the trash guys couldn't take it if it was too heavly loaded with broken glass, concrete, and dreams. 

Moral: (everyone should post one!!)

Don't use too much darn concrete. And if its a big viv, go plexi!!!


----------



## Ziggi (Jan 23, 2009)

BUMMER! Hopefully someone will learn from your mistake  thanks for posting.


----------



## MeiKVR6 (Sep 16, 2008)

^^^ Wow that's an awful story. 

I was miserable after I ruined a 20G... We tried gravel instead of hydroton as a drainage layer & sorta dropped it down onto a shelf... (maybe a 1/2" drop) The bottom completely broke out - and it was a wire shelf so all the glass, gravel, substrate, plants etc were all over the tops of the vivs and lights below. (Thank god we don't have screen tops! haha)

Then again that was only a 20G - so it's not the end of the world.


----------



## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

MeiKVR6 said:


> ^^^ Wow that's an awful story.
> 
> I was miserable after I ruined a 20G... We tried gravel instead of hydroton as a drainage layer & sorta dropped it down onto a shelf... (maybe a 1/2" drop) The bottom completely broke out - and it was a wire shelf so all the glass, gravel, substrate, plants etc were all over the tops of the vivs and lights below. (Thank god we don't have screen tops! haha)
> 
> Then again that was only a 20G - so it's not the end of the world.


Careful now!!

John


----------



## massha (Aug 30, 2009)

I had a fail before I even started. I went down to Maryland to buy this used Exo-Terra 24X18X24, brought it home and figured I'm big strong and proud and can get it into my house all by myself. I can't lift the darn thing let alone carry it. I got it out of a car and onto my computer chair and wheeled to the apartment. There were two steps along the way - one from the parking onto the pavement and then another one onto the porch. Made it onto the pavement. While I was trying to move the computer chair (not smart! Not smart!) onto the porch, of course my new Exo-Terra went down. Wow it was a loud BOOM. Shards of glass everywhere. Funny thing, it didn't completely break into pieces, there were still about three-four panels left even though on two sides they were partially broken and so you had this standing contraption with big sharp knife-looking shards sticking upward on the sides. Still too heavy for me to carry to the dumpster! I had to ask the manager to help me throw it out.


----------



## Elf_Ascetic (Jan 31, 2009)

We rebuild an old lizard viv (you know, thin glass), and found out the front side leaked. We tilted the viv, so the water would stay in. It didn't: the weight of ground + 10 cm water broke the glass of the bottom, so we had to make an entire new bottom instead of just kitting one tiny hole..


----------



## calvinyhob (Dec 18, 2007)

Went out and found a nice tank at a local store thing was nice, 2x2x3 had a side opening door nice canopy on it everything. made it home in the back of the truck fine, g/f was so proud of the new tank she decided to carry it in.....WHAM right into the front door knob then drops it, there wasn’t much left of the tank other then a top a bottom some bigger pieces of glass stuck in the rim and the canopy, it was nice while it lasted.


----------



## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Awesome I almost have this great viv with drip lines and waterfall and woo hoo!!!!

Until it rolled down the stairs....



















Don't I look happy?










Nothing a little glass smashing for anger management can't cure!


----------



## boombotty (Oct 12, 2005)

I was waiting for yours Chris  That one was the first I thought of when I read this post.
Scott


----------



## calvinyhob (Dec 18, 2007)

UmbraSprite said:


> Awesome I almost have this great viv with drip lines and waterfall and woo hoo!!!!
> 
> Until it rolled down the stairs....
> 
> ...


Did only the tank roll down the stairs? Cause it could of been worst if it was you and the tank rolling down the stairs together!!


----------



## Morgan Freeman (Feb 26, 2009)

I love the fact someone was there just snapping away whilst you were struggling with the broken tank!


----------



## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

That's what girlfriends do....secretly enjoy your pain. 

I had left it out for the paint on the outside to dry and leaned it against the stairs (lesson learned) and the mailman bumped it....boom boom crash!

Luckily I was able to move the landscaping and waterfall to a new exo....just cost me.

Chris


----------



## VivariumWorks (Feb 27, 2008)

I was building into an 8'long 2.5' deep and 3' tall wooden aquarium for a guys small crocs. I used foam layed up with concrete and then covered the concrete with POLYESTER resin. The polyester resin, after fully cured didn't harm the crocs or release anything toxic, it did however, due to the costic lye in the concrete, begin to delaminate and turn yellow. Like puke nasty yellow. So the entire thing went from looking nice, colored and cool to a peeling yellow nastyness. Needless to say that was the last time I ever used polyester resin for anything.

Moral:

2 part Epoxy. Its the only thing you should ever use.


----------



## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

*Normal Fail*

Had just gotten all my vivs and was going to go the foam route in some and foam/fernroot in others. I got 2 component foam, which decided not to come out in its 2K glory (even though i followed the instructions to the letter) and the majority of it never cured. Had to rip it all out and start again. 

80 euro in foam wasted...
147 euro in fernroot wasted....

Spent much more than this in the end buying a bunch of fernroot panels to cover the walls, to fix said screw up.

*Worst Fail*

I managed to get frogs infected with chytrid and had to throw everything away half a year later and start everything fresh, now jobless . :|


----------



## VivariumWorks (Feb 27, 2008)

Wow the chyrid infection takes the cake in my opinion. That sucks! How'd you get it?


----------



## cheezus_2007 (Aug 20, 2009)

i overslept a garage sale and missed a 150 gal tank that sold for 25 bucks..... i'm still pissed about that.... but thats nothing like the stories above... i feel for all of you....


----------



## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

VivariumWorks said:


> Wow the chyrid infection takes the cake in my opinion. That sucks! How'd you get it?


I am still trying to figure this one out to this day. :/ Unfortunately with chytrid it is one of those things which shows no signs until too late. The infection was highest in one room of my house so I imagine it came in with one of those groups of frogs, but there is just no way to know unless every frog is tested as it comes in and no other frogs are purchased during this. 

After all of this I can safely advise people that every frog that comes in should either be tested for it or treated as if it had it.

I only wish i did this, sadly i assumed since it was not so high where I lived that i would be fine.


----------



## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

Did you wind up successfully treating any of them?


----------



## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

i had a tank built 4 foot tall 8 deep and 2 foot wide got it up my ladder to my loft room and layed it down layed a tube of slicon on the front and bang turned out they missed a part and the entire front panel was not only not supported but the top vent acted like a hinge and it exploded now its sitting in the corner while i wait to get the glass replaced as the company refuse to deliver since i picked the tank up myself. all in all it has put me off a new tank and onto exos
makes a hell of a storage box though


----------



## tikifrog (May 11, 2004)

I was setting up an 18 tall with a waterfall and cut a nice piece of bark to size. The bark went from side to side and was to hold back the leca and substrate behind it at a higher level to create a pool in the front. I put in the pump, the leca, siliconed together a lace rock stack for the falls and waited for it to dry. Couple days later I added water to check the plumbing and it was working great; until the bark absorbed water which caused it to expand far enough to crack the glass!

John


----------



## LRobb88 (Dec 16, 2008)

Set up a nice new Zoo Med 12 x 12 x 18 that I'm really happy with and the frogs seem to be doing great in. Assumed the bottom of the tank and below the lid would be sealed, now every time I mist I get a steady flow of water onto the floor.

There are ways to fix it, but it's a bummer. 

Moral: Silicone the ____ out of everything and always plan ahead and for the worst. I now work on the assumption that everything someone else did before me was wrong so I should double check/fix it.


----------



## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

When I was way younger I used to throw together tanks without much thought- no drainage layer and very little thought on what plants would do well. I would make beautiful tanks that would survive (at least the plants) for around a month before the roots would start rotting out. It wasn't until the last five years that I finally understood the nuances of getting a vivarium to thrive long term. So to answer the thread, all my vivs failed long term (it was before I kept dart frogs) no one worse than the rest. Its all part of the learning process. 

Still have plenty of stuff I plan on trying that I may very well crash and burn trying. Kitty litter walls, GS backgrounds, are all stuff I havn't messed with that I plan on trying in the near future. Failing at this kind of stuff doesn't bother me. Dropping\breaking a viv would make me soooooooooo angry at my self. Definately a different kind of failure.


----------

