My Top 10 Beginner Mistakes - Page 16

Rmm226 · #**151** (**permalink**) 06-22-2010, 03:25 PM

Great stuff is the worst to get off your hands. When I say I covered my hands in it i mean it. Didn't think i needed gloves because i was better than everyone else and it was easier to work with. Well it was a week and a half until i got all of it off and it was a painful method of removal.

frogfreak · #**152** (**permalink**) 06-22-2010, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rmm226

Great stuff is the worst to get off your hands. When I say I covered my hands in it i mean it. Didn't think i needed gloves because i was better than everyone else and it was easier to work with. Well it was a week and a half until i got all of it off and it was a painful method of removal.

Acetone or nail polish remover will take it off no problem.

Mitch · #**153** (**permalink**) 06-22-2010, 11:05 PM

Covering my Great Stuff background with silicone using my bear hand, then not getting it off 'till it dried. Good times...

Steve25 · #**154** (**permalink**) 06-22-2010, 11:23 PM

lol when dealing with fruit flies. I thought the white worm like things inside were bugs/mites so I threw a couple of my cultures away. Not realizing those are larvae haha.

Haha. other include GG/ GS on my hands,

Good times

tclipse · #**155** (**permalink**) 06-23-2010, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frogfreak

Acetone or nail polish remover will take it off no problem.

"no" problem

davecalk · #**156** (**permalink**) 06-24-2010, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frogfreak

Acetone or nail polish remover will take it off no problem.

Actually acetone / nail polish remover (acetone which smells better and is more expensive) will remove Great Stuff only in it uncured form. Once it sets up and cures fully you are removing skin cells with a kitchen pot scrubby to get it off.

frogfreak · #**157** (**permalink**) 06-24-2010, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davecalk

Actually acetone / nail polish remover (acetone which smells better and is more expensive) will remove Great Stuff only in it uncured form. Once it sets up and cures fully you are removing skin cells with a kitchen pot scrubby to get it off.

Ok, let me refrase that. If you gets it on your hands use acetone to remove it while it is still uncured. It works well.

Better? I figured people wouldn't be going to bed with it on their hands.

The better option would be to wear disposable gloves.

Mapp · #**158** (**permalink**) 06-24-2010, 06:51 PM

I am still a begginer, and continue to make more stupid mistakes, but the biggest mistake I've made so far is puting a pump in, hiding the wires and tubes, putting in the false bottom, the substrate, and actually plant the tank, and then decide you don't want a water feature. Pretty stupid of me, I know. (I guess my mistake was not making it easily accesable.)

cin_cindi · #**159** (**permalink**) 07-23-2010, 12:37 AM

I would like to thank everyone who posted on this thread - you saved me untold heartache and grief, and I thank you all.

I got my first frogs (2 unsexed Cobalts) in April and the only mishap I've had was to have one disappear under the false bottom where I'd very cleverly adhered a drainage tube...little bugger got down in there beside the tube, so I tore some things apart and found him safe and sound...I really don't think he could have gotten OUT of there on his own with nothing to climb...and put it back together again, sans drainage tube. Now we (meaning me and the frogs) would have to move a hefty clump of moss to get access.

Thanks again everyone!

RarePlantBroker · #**160** (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 12:54 AM

Three + years and a dozen vivariums later--why am I still making stupid mistakes?

I have a vivarium with a drip wall. When I first tested said drip wall, after one "off cycle" the pump kicked into overdrive when coming back on. I tried to repeat this quirk, and couldn't replicate the issue--and continued to build the tank with the same pump (note: I have a box with 7 other small submersible pumps of various sizes in the garage...).
After totally finishing above vivarium, I moved it into place on my new custom built oak shelves--and plugged in the pump--guess what happened! Suddenly this pump is now rocket-propelling water out of the small vent holes in the front of the Exo-Terra... I shut the pump off and on--no problems, and once again I can't get the problem to replicate.
Fast forward 6 weeks. I've now had my two auratus in the tank for about 10 days. I come home from work today to find water covering the shelf, the "sump" area dry, two light fixtures shorted out (on the shelf below), and a dry drip wall.
Tonights project is no longer doing epoxy work on another new vivarium. I've just finished replacing the light fixtures, and am preparing to catch two green and bronze rockets (if I can coax them out of their newest hiding places), and fishing a pump electrical supply through a piece of pvc--all because I thought that the pump malfunction was "a fluke, and wouldn't happen again".

Moral of the story--if a $10-$12 part isn't working perfectly, throw it out and buy another one--or it may cost a lot more....like your sanity!