A little research goes a long way

[Tswifty]

Hey guys... due to some of the question I've been noticing on here I wanted to make a little post/rant.

Anyway, here goes...

A little research goes a long way... especially when it comes to livestock. At the very least, take the time to "google" the name of the item you are contemplating purchasing ahead of time. Even if you find yourself in an impulse buy situation. Any LFS worth their salt (no pun intended) will hold a fish or item for you for 24hrs.

Even online fish retailer sites, although not ideal... if you browse through enough of them, can begin to paint a picture of that animal's care requirements, adult size, etc... and alert you to potential issues.

I personally use Wet Web Media when I find myself questioning a certain item. Especially fish. While their information may not be 100% accurate, it certainly provides enough information in my opinion to make an informed decision. Also, if I'm looking into a particularly difficult item, I seek out information from fellow hobbyists who I know have had "successful" experiences housing whatever I am contemplating.

I personally am a lot more willing to help someone out who has done at least some research on their own. It's one thing to not understand the information you have read, or question if it is accurate. It's certainly another to go "Hey I purchased this ______ , now what do I do?"

While there are instances where I completely understand a "HELP!" post, and do not mind spoonfeeding information.... at some point you need to put down the bottle and begin feeding yourself.

Here is another good link with some recommendations regarding a particular aspect of the hobby that is all to often overlooked.

Building a Proper Marine Aquarium Library








Rant over.

 

[Tswifty]

Now feel free to chime in, add links that you've found helpful.... or tell me to go stick my head in my sump.

 

[bigmatt1992]

ive just been useing google latly and reading multiple surces. I say you cant go wrong with google. and after that i dont understand i post it on here.

 

[Masterderrull]

Amen brother!

 

[cloakerpoked]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14598671#post14598671 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty
Now feel free to chime in, add links that you've found helpful.... or tell me to go stick my head in my sump.

And risk damaging that gorgeous line you have? No way. Go stick your head in the QT tank with the Undulate and that should get you what you deserve.

I agree with your rant though. My personal rant is more geared toward people who go out and buy mandarines to keep them in the tank with no pods for 3 months, and when they die, just buy new ones. Now that really burns MY muffins.

 

[Misled]

You also can look at the other fourms here. The internet is a pretty cool place. It's amazing how much info is here and is free.

I'm also a Mod on another aquarium website. Same thing happens there. All the info is there, but folks just aren't willing to put out the time to look.

TJ, I'll add something else to your research. Planning. The tank I have now took almost two years of building and planning. (If you want to see it pm me and I'll get you a link). You'll see some of the things I thought about worked, some didn't. But because I didn't just jump into anything, it went very well.

My thought is the faster you try to do things in this hobby, the more trouble you'll get into.

And don't use damsels to cycle your tank. You're gonna have to tear the tank down later to get it out. Let nature take it's corse and go slow.

 

[cloakerpoked]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14599035#post14599035 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Misled

TJ, I'll add something else to your research. Planning.

+1

Planning is a very crucial step, but one that I think pretty much everyone skips the first time they do it. I know I did. That's why I'm going through this whole mess to update my plumbing on my tank...because it was thrown together so haphazardly that it is really a fiasco.

A lot of times, a good way to get into this hobby is to get an old system from somebody that was working great for them, they just needed to move or to upgrade/downsize. That way you can be sure that the skimmer/lights/pumps are sufficient for the type of system they were running.

My journey to reef keeping from FOWLR started probably 3 years ago when I converted a 20 gallon I had to a nano reef with some GSP, zoas, palys, sun polyps, etc run by a 24" 2x65w PC. After 6 months or so, I unexpectedly converted a 120 FOWLR into a softy reef when pennys had fell (unbeknownst to me at the time) into my nano and leeched copper into the system. It was an 8x65w PC and still softy reef. A year later, I bought the tank I have now, and upgraded to MH lighting, but didn't go SPS until 9 months later except for a slimer and monticap frag that I got right around the same time as the tank. I'm very happy with the progression I took, because it gave me a lot of time to go slowly to adjust to the discipline it requires to maintain a reef tank, and to get a routine down to maintain good parameters. By the time I've gotten to the point I'm at now, I feel confident that I can control all of my parameters very effectively, and my SPS is thriving as a result. RC, other online readings, several books, and countless hours talking to people far more experienced than I am are the reason why I am where I am today. That and patience. You MUST go SLOW!!!!! Even now, adding 20 small fish in a short period of time could shock my system and crash everything. There is NEVER a time where going slow isn't the only way to go in this hobby.

 

[Paul_PSU]

I agree 100%! Way back when I got into saltwater and had a FOWLR system I read up for about a year and went around and bugged the crap out of all the LFS people and got to see things in person. Every mistake I have made since switching over to a reef has either been from not reading enough or not having enough patience. There are many fish that I do not have because of reading and asking questions first and realizing they were not compatible in my system.

I think your last comment about asking questions before you act is spot on.
It is always better to ask for help by saying , "I'm THINKING of doing this, what do you think?" than saying " Help!, I DID do this, now what?"

There are many threads on hear with sketches about "what if?" and you can see how the OP changes his/her entire setup from the beginning to the end of the thread based on responses.

 

[superstein61]

Re: A little research goes a long way

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14598666#post14598666 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty
A little research goes a long way... especially when it comes to livestock. At the very least, take the time to "google" the name of the item you are contemplating purchasing ahead of time.

I personally am a lot more willing to help someone out who has done at least some research on their own.

Amen !!!

There is a wealth of info in these forums, especially those in the general forums section that can really help folks who take the time to check it out

 

[Stray32]

When I started this hobby I had:

1. Canister Filter - crap
2. Seaclone Skimmer - double crap
3. UV Sterilizer - useless
4. One of those rotating powerheads - crap
5. CF lighting - sufficient, mostly crap

I bought because I thought they were "cool looking"

1. Flame Scallop - starved to death
2. Horseshoe Crab - starved to death
3. Bicolor Angel and Coral Beauty at the same time - had a death match within hours. Got rid of one, the other died a few days later
4. Scissortail Goby - cool fish, but with no cover on my tank, I discovered him days later behind my tank on the floor after my girlfriend asked, "What's that smell?"

General Rookie Mistakes that I made:

1. My salinity was too low...so I poured salt directly into the tank (I still can't believe I was dumb enough to do that)
2. I am on my 4th light in two years (CF- two T5s- 4 T5s- 6 T5s)
3. Took the advice of my original LFS as gospel and that caused many headaches. The guy had limited knowledge on saltwater.

And probably many more than I can't think of right now, its only 8 a.m. lol.

Research, Research, Research
Plan, Plan, Plan
Patience, Patience, Patience

 

[o0xerog0o]

I feel lucky that I was brought into this hobby by a guy who had already been into it for at least a decade. He helped me set up all my tanks, starting with my 5 gallon hex from Walmart. If I ever had any kind of concerns about a certain fish or coral, I could go to him and get his opinion on it.

Now, along with having him to give help, I've got this forum as well as all the wealth of knowledge from reputable sites that I've found through link on this forum includine Wet Web Media and Garf. Definitely no reason for anyone to completely ruin their system due to lack of knowledge...

 

[ironwill723]

My biggest regret....BIO BALLS = Nitrates = Algae (lots and lots of algae). I wish some of the LFS would stop selling these to unsuspecting new hobbyists. I spent so much money 10-15 years ago on pretty acrylic sumps with bio balls and crappy skimmers.

 

[cloakerpoked]

One of the problems is that technology and the way we keep reefs is constantly in flux. It used to be that bio balls were the way to go, and honestly, compared with what was in common usage at the time (undergravels) they were a very good innovation. Now we have the Berlin method, which I still highly subscribe to, with a slight modification of using my deep sand bed. I've read that DSB's are not good for longevity purposes, and when I move my tank (hopefully for the last time) this fall, I'm seriously considering getting a huge skimmer, and nixing the whole DSB idea all together, just in case old tank syndrome and toxic sandbeds are actually real. In the mean time, I have a relatively small skimmer for my tank, a lot more LR than I need in a system my size, and a DSB, and haven't tested a nitrate in over 2 years, so obviously they're doing what they're supposed to do for now.