new idea

[fishesRdelicious]

ok, i was thinking about how challenging this hobby must be as a newbie. there is a lot of research that has to be done to find out all this info.

so i have decided to write a series of articles to be put on the site entitled "The Basics". I will explain things like plumbing, lighting(maybe sanjay can do this one), water chemistry, what kind of water do i need(ro). all of the articles would be easy to read and talk to the reader like they dont know anything about the hobby. i want to just give a general overveiw so the reader doesnt get overwhelmed with the info and stop reading and loose interest.

i think these articles could be very useful to mo. we could print them out in bulk and hand them to students that win tanks and give them some good info to start out with. i would also provide links where you could go to check out the more indepth details.

so guys what do you think any suggestions on topics
also if anyone else has any ideas like mine then please post even if you dont plan on doing it yourself we can put it on the list of things to do.

 

[spoon25]

wow, thats hard just tryin to look back when i first started and the types of questions i had for people, i remember noone had the same answer and i traveled from pet store to pet store to find out the best way to do something...so i basically just took everything i heard with a grain of salt..ididnt know about reef central...i didnt even think to look online for aquarium salt forums....it wasnt untill after i had gotton a bigger tank cuz everything was growing so well and i was afraid i would run out of room, then when everything died due to cycling i didnt ask around and try to find someone who knows what the heck is going on...so my idea would be to get some sort of PR to the people, let people know where out here to help....ya know if we did something with the newspapers i bet we could really do some damage with the local pet stores...i think a question answer type thing would be best...so if we can PR reefnest somehow that would save you lots of paperwork and time....i know all the questions i asked i wanted to know about each and every coral and fish and compatibilty, let alone types of lighting and types of food for each critter in the tank..i wanted to know the engineering of equipment and everything....i bought alot of stuff i didnt need b/c i listened to these pet stores...so u have a good idea aboout a step by step process for each newbie...but i think you could save lots of time and money on paper printing out this stuff...just think for a second if you posted an ad in the shopper and sun gazette about free info guide to salt aqariums....i bet after 30 minutes of talkin with the more experienced they will be hooked and questions will be pouring out like crazy for you and i and the rest of us to answer...just think back when you started, was anything just a general overview of something in this hobby....not me it was complicated and i asked millions of questions, and im still askin lots of questions....i think its a great idea though what you wanna try and do...its gonna be hard and timely but your gonna have to go find lots of researchable sites for the newbie to read...cuz ya know knowlegge is half the battle...its what we all want...good idea, ill do some research for ya when you get things going...good luck

 

[fishesRdelicious]

i know it will be hard, probably what i will do is write the article really fast with the knowledge i know and if i have any questions ask mo and then post the final draft here and let everyone critique it. then it can go to the site, saves me from editing

 

[zooqi]

How about a subject like
aquariums different between 1970 and 2006

 

[scissorsfishors]

great idea FRD. I can definitely help, since it seems like not long ago I was asking all the questions. I am sure the JG will have some ideas on good topics. Maybe I can even help write one! And you should be doing the proofreading and editing- We aren't taking composition with Lamont!! haha

I think everyone's ideas so far are really good. this is a good thing Aaron. I will work on getting the pictures together from when we set up my tank. we still need to do a diy on that.

Enjoy your day off tomorrow. I will let you know how the new goby and hawkfish are doing.

 

[fishesRdelicious]

that would be a cool topic, only thing is i would have to do research and i like writing about what is in my head
Carolyn- you can do this one

 

[scissorsfishors]

well thank goodness that we can take everything in your head as the absolute truth!!


I would be glad to write an article. however, there will be no criticism allowed. especially from you!!

 

[zooqi]

I'm not sure if I really want to read everything in your head I know what you mean so go for it. How about and idea of your water filtration (RO/DI) it looks interesting.

 

[Critter]

A month or so ago I was going to post on NCPARS that it would be nice to put something together for new people so that they can come to the group forum and do a one stop shoping kind of thing rather then have to weed through all of RC. I thought about it a bit and decided I didn't want to open a can of worms because there is more then one way of doing things... Regardless, my thoughts were to have a list of equipment (maybe with pics), that the begining hobbiest would want to make sure they got up front and what stuff they could hold off on while the wallet had time to recoop... and maybe what brands.. This could also be made in a top down type of order of importance.. (3 years later and I still don't have RO/DI though plan too soon). Also, I was thinking that it should be noted if the item is just as effective if you get it used or if you should be new.. ie light bulbs.. better new. protien skimmer could be used if in good shape. For example, if I knew about what cheto was going to do for my phosphates & nitrates, I would of got it early on instead of 3 years later. Its amazing what you can miss thorugh all the banter in the forums. Anyway not sure if you were already planning this or not, just thoguht I would mention it.

 

[MOX]

you could also provide places that are sponcers to RC that one could purches items such as the RO lighting and ect....

 

[fishesRdelicious]

good ideas so far,
i already got a good start to 2 articles and will post them when they are done.
i do plan on putting a list of good sites and most are rc sponsors anyways
there is a whole bunch of ways you can set up a successful tank and i wont be hinting too much towards which way i think is good, but the articles will be very basic and just cover what you need to know that no newbs know. one of my articles will be on refugiums too

 

[bmac]

FRD you could do your first topic on.......Anemone's for the aquarium..........lmao.....

 

[zooqi]

bmac, you still up ? that tank looks really nice and those who did not win it will get a second chance to attend and might win it.