[afishionado]

Innovation. Unfortunately, those two quotes you quoted are true, not false as you imagine ...

Sure, there are a few top notch, highly informed/educated/skilled reef aquarists in this hobby and on this board ... However, the truly quality ReefKeepers are few and far between and this board, our interesting hobby in general, is mostly made up of wannabes and careless/selfish individuals who falsely think/believe they are more informed/educated/skilled than they really, truly are ...

It is these people who impractically/impulsively make purchases which they have no business making, whatsoever, and who constitute the bulk of those negative statistics related to our industry ... Along with careless/uninformed noobs, who are IMO essentially one in the same with the aforementioned group of morons ... That place the proverbial black eye squarely on the face of our hobby and will inevitably cause the restrictions that will ruin things for us truly advanced, thoughtfully informed, skilled ReefKeepers !

We need to stop bickering amongst ourselves and band together against these wannabe reef aquarists who make our hobby look bad with their selfish/careless, uninformed, impulsive, moronic decisions/purchases ... It's about time we took a legitimate stand against these jokers, in order to save our hobby from their inevitable destruction ... I've been standing up for what I believe in for years now, and recently "fired the employer" on a consultative/reef system design position as he was the epitome of a wannabe reef aquarist who's a completely selfish, moronic idiot with no self control when it comes to making the worst impulsive purchases/decisions I've ever seen in all my years involved with the many facets of this "hobby" ...

This nincompoop purchases Blue Linkia Starfish (<1yr old "bare bottom!" DT), Hawaiian cleaner wrasses (guy can't even correctly pronounce wrasse), Potters Angels (to place in his disgusting/impractical QT tank that I personally wouldn't house freshwater danios in for future "use"), and to top it all off WILD Acropora colonies (when he cant even keep LPS colonies alive for more than a couple months max) ... All AFTER being EXPLICITLY told/informed that they would not fare well in his current half in the can wannabe reef system ... ALL the above, multiples of some, bite the dust quickly, as unfortunately expected, and they're either replaced AGAIN and/or made LAME, idiotic excuses for why they died on him as if it was their on and/or the suppliers fault ... None of said lame excuses due to anything he did, naturally. Guys a complete/utter TOOL. My expertise was initially requested/seemed out when one of his tangs (in a small footprint 90G) was rapidly diminishing from HLLE ... Went over a few variables of why this could be occurring, on of them being from over/misuse of activated carbon. "No, of course not, it's fine" (classic wannabe reef tool response) ... Yet, come to find out, the first time I went there in person to get to the bottom of the issue I discovered 2.5 "LBS" (yes thats pounds) of activated carbon in a media bag designed for public aquaria usage ! "Oh that, oh I was using more than what was needed because I was trying to reduce my nitrates" ... You realize activated carbon doesn't reduce nitrate levels, right (I get a deer in the headlights, followed by a deer who is a shameless BSer) "Yea, they're not really that bad Im just trying to keep them in check". So I instantly ask where the NO3 test kit is hiding, turns out NO3 was >150, it maxed out the damn test kit ! The above was just the beginning and looking back, over the course of the couple months I "attempted" to help this self righteous/unknowingly contradictory/hypocritical idiot, it was soon overshadowed by increasingly worse decisions/purchases/excuses he actually thought were flying. All at the expense of helplessly dependent reef animals, which lost their LIVES!, their existence in this World, at the hands of an uninformed, careless/selfish wannabe tool ...

It's guys/people like this that we all need to work together (all of us that care about our hobby) to call out and give them the hint that their BS isn't welcome ... Whether its this aforementioned despicable/wannabe tool I was talking about here or someone similar that you know, whether on here, in your local reef club, wherever.

We either take it upon ourselves to cleanup/self regulate our hobby, thru peer pressure, or I can personally guarantee you (from my many years in Marine Biology) that the FEDS/Conservation societies WILL clean it up/regulate it for us, in the form of RESTRICTIONS ! It's not far off either ...

Wake up everyone, help out ! We need to self regulate these selfish/careless, fake wannabe toolbags, lest they ruin it for all if us advanced/knowledgable/skilled reefers !