I am really starting to hate local forums

[ginger50]

I have to say, I hope this place can give me better advice than the last forum.

I was dealing with a local forum/*Removed~dc*

Anyway, I had an issue that I needed some help. The idiots on this site gave me some advice that nearly wiped my tank.

I guess in the end, you are responsible for what you put in your tank, but if you are going to give advice, at least know what you are talking about.

I will repost my issue here and I hope I can get some more founded help.

Glad I found this place. I hope I can find some people here that know what they are doing.

[sedor]

Sometimes people give bad advice. I have before and probably will again. At the time you don't know its bad advice until someone tells you otherwise.

I have a feeling you will like this forum a lot. There is a big diversity of people here, so you will get many different opinions, which is good because it gives you somewhere to start your research. You can always look into reefkeeping.com too, its an online magazine and you can search the archives and find tons of valuable information from experts.

Another thing that helped me a TON was podcasts. If you haven't checked out reefcast, you need to!

[skip2142]

So, what's the issue you're dealing with?

[GlassReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15456372#post15456372 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ginger50
... The idiots on this site gave me some advice that nearly wiped my tank. ... You'll probably get the most out of Reef Central if you make up your mind, in the beginning, to never consider people that you don't know to be idiots. Just my opinion.

[luther1200]

Why don't you tell us what happened, and we can try to help.

[davocean]

I remeber the old days when we had to actually read a book and learn for ourselves, and take responsibility for our own tanks.
First post calling people that tried to help you idiots, this should be interesting.
Oh, welcome to RC.

[ginger50]

I would rather not rehash it. I got some advice to add a few critters and chemicals that were wrong for my tank for an algea problem. One of the chemicals crashed my refugium and one of the critters destroyed my sandbed. I got some advice from my LFS that seems to be fixing the problem and have removed the chemicals and critters.

I guess I just need to be more careful when I take advice.

[ddinox64]

Advice on the web comes from all directions. Good thing is, you're sitting at a computer already, and then you can research what you've been told in an instant. Then follow the path that you think will lead you towards your goal.

[MAMGM]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15456514#post15456514 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by davocean
I remeber the old days when we had to actually read a book and learn for ourselves, and take responsibility for our own tanks.
First post calling people that tried to help you idiots, this should be interesting.
Oh, welcome to RC.

+1....Research, Research, Research

[Peter Eichler]

Not to worry, there's plenty of bad advice to be had here as well! :p

[snorvich]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15456811#post15456811 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Peter Eichler
Not to worry, there's plenty of bad advice to be had here as well! :p

+1 THAT is for sure.

[sedor]

Part of the fun is making mistakes and recovering from them, then you can be the one on here telling people what not to do. No one becomes an expert without first experiencing almost all of the mistakes a person can make. That's how they learn to deal with them and move on.

[100%hydrophylic]

read my quote. i agree with ryandlf

[DamnPepShrimp]

I don't go on my local forums because they are all to "clicky" if you know what I mean. Plus most think they know it all, when they don't. There is a lot better advice on RC, just make sure to get MULTIPLE opinions, not just the first one. Like previously stated, there is some bad advice on this site.

[dc]

[welcome]

first off I edited out the name of the other forum. We don't allow cross bashing.

Second, people do things very differently, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Don't take everyone's advice if they disagree on most things. Follow one line of thinking, and good luck.

[Gary Majchrzak]

adding to what Debi posted...
you need to learn how to sort out potential good advice from the bad. (I have to do this when on something like a household appliance repair forum or something else I know little about.)
Research the credibility of someone answering your question by checking how long they've been doing it, what their aquarium looks like (if possible) etc.
Get multiple opinions.
People do this with doctors all of the time.

[ser_renely]

best site on the net for forum info, bar none.

[ang_99]

I hear ya on bad advice, but its not just internet forums..

BOOKS that people pay good money for also give bad advice, I set my tank up totally wrong at first because of jackass authors giving stupid advice.

There is power in numbers though which is why I would gravitate towards an established internet forum over some random book that is ONE persons opinion.

Collectively we are a lot smarter than individually.

[BigCountryEsq]

So what was the bad advice that they gave you?

[jbird69]

You also have to understand that the advise you accepted may have worked for an identical problem in another system...or even multiple systems. It is very difficult to "guarantee" ANY action in this hobby.

There are some awesome experienced reefers here that are very willing to help even the greenest newby. But there is TONS of misinformation here too... Its just the nature of any open forum.

WELCOME! by the way.

[rendogg]

^Good point, Jay!

[otrlynn]

Just one further thought--before you totally burn your bridges to your local reef club (unless you have already) they are the guys who will offer to help you move a tank, or loan you a piece of critical equipment at 10 pm on a Sunday night. I'm a fairly new member of a local reef club and it amazes me the extent to which members help each other out.

Be aware also that there are many issue where there are no "right" answers, just differing opinions...

[Tadashi]

I have visited many of forums and some are not too bad but I always end up back at RC. :D We all may not agree but we get along and it will give you several view points to choose from. There is no magic formula, what works for some will not work for others. This hobby changes/evolves quickly. I am amazed at some of the changes in the last 5 years. Anyways welcome to RC.

[aquaman67]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15463581#post15463581 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by otrlynn
Be aware also that there are many issue where there are no "right" answers, just differing opinions...

Exactly...

Have a deep sand bed. Don't have a sand bed at all.

Use red slimer remover. Never use red slime remover.

You must do water changes. Never do water cahnges.

Have a sump. Go sumpless.

Have a skimmer. Don't have a skimmer.

Use sandsifting cleanup crews. Never use sandsifting cleanup crews.

Your temp must be above 80. Your temp must be below 80.

And that's just off the top of my head.

I'm pretty sure who ever tried to help you didn't intend to crash your tank.

They suggested what worked for them and wanted you to have the same results.

I've used red slime remover and thought it worked great. Others tried it and swear it crashed their tank. Who's right?

Both.

[serpentman]

Many means to many different ends in this hobby. Every tank and every tank owner is different.

BTW, bleach works wonders on algae (...very bad advice)

[jadeguppy]

I hope that the advise wasn't on the local forum in my part of Florida. However, whereever it was I suggest you nicely let them know what happened. That is how we learn from each other. I know that locally there is no shortage of people that would offer you all types of macro algae to restock you fuge. I tend to do things a little different than many, but it works for me. I try to emphasis this when giving advice. There may be a few people on a forum that you don't care for, but there will also be those that you "click" with (have similar philosophies and get along) and it is those that make it worth being on local forums. As mentioned, locals are the ones that often help with manual labor and tank problems in the middle of the night.

[xtm]

I think the best way to get good advice is to actually visit a local reefer's house and check his system stability. If his tank looks very healthy, then you can feel more confident with this person's advise. People will have differing opinions and not every process work with every system. You have to weigh your options and hope for the best.

[lkeffect]

I obviously mostly lurk on this forum based on my number of posts. I figure there are many people with more knowledge than I on here. I only started putting in my two cents recently and I had my first tank in 94.

Take all advice with a grain of salt particularly based on how long they have been in the hobby, what their tank looks like, if they've actually dealt with the problem etc etc. Advice is merely people's opinions. Some of them more knowledgable than others. I'm sure the advice given wasn't done with malice. Almost all local reefers I know would do anything to help. I give out free frags when people come to my house and two new reefers. I would share with your local reefers what happened and try to make amends IMHO.

[jenglish]

even folks that have been in this hobby a decade don't always agree on how to do something best. Most of us only know what has worked in our own tanks. There is plenty of good and bad advice out there in RC and in your local forums. THere is just more of both on RC :lol: I see folks give advice I disagree with and I merely post my opinion on the topic and why I think of it the way I do.

[Whys]

Imagine a vast treasure of coins, bills, and property deeds. You won't always no the value of any particular coin, bill, or deed. Sometimes one might mistake a confederate for a Benjamin, or a Benjamin for a confederate, and some deeds look good on paper, but turn out to be a chemical clean up site. The total value of this treasure is sure to exceed the thousands, but many are just pennies for your thoughts. ;)

Welcome to an adventure of valuable discoveries. :D

[Sk8r]

First of all, be very wary when anyone suggests that dumping a chemical (other than sea salt, calcium, mg, and buffer) into your tank will fix a problem. Chemistry in a small tank reacts by oscillating, quite often, and it's just not a good thing. Water changes and perfection of your water quality is a good answer to most situations. Strong skimming is also adviseable whenever you perceive a dieoff. And lastly, if you see your tank is definitely crashing, removing the survivors asap to clean salt water is one of the best emergency measures, rinsing them first in a bucket of salt water and not retaining any that are truly on their way out. Leave those in the original disaster zone, as they will at least have a chance, and with less bioload, will have a better chance than they would have had.