I don't mean this as a negative contrast to the other thread, rather reading it and agreeing with the very valid points that thread author made, this thought occured to me remembering my experiences when i first got into the hobby.
When you're first starting out, or even after you've been doing it for a bit, you'll eventually (hopefully) stumble onto discussion forums such as this one. Now as discussion is just a nicer way of saying argument in many cases, you'll surely start to see that there's several methods of going about pretty much anything, and you'll see folks politely (see British Parliment polite sometimes :tongue
disagreeing over which method, or which coral, or which fish, or which tank, etc etc is the "BEST" way of doing anything.
Being a natural cynic, as soon as I noticed this I took a distrust to any of the "new-fangled" methods of doing things; from vodka dosing to high end corals to algae turf scrubbers and so on, for as many things that there are in this hobby, there's always at least two sides to any one of them. Instead of getting excited to try new things out, I stuck in the same rut and got burned out in the hobby. It was discarding the cynicism, especially from others, that got me back into the hobby and excited again. When I spent a lot on a zoa that someone else said was silly, I finally was able to say "to heck with it, I love staring at this thing and that's good enough for me!" From there my passion for the hobby really reignited and now I get so much more excitement out of it than when I tried to follow the "proper" path.
As a beginner, the worst thing you could do is get caught up in these arguments, or start to think that the passion going into the discussion should discourage you from trying out something. You like a coral that's being sold for $500 for a 1/2" piece? GO FOR IT! Who cares what it's "value" is, if you like it enough and would like to get it, it will become your most prized piece, and motivation for you to continue through the hard parts that come with the hobby.
Similarly, you want to try out the natural system of an Algae Turf Scrubber, but don't like being lumped in with "the crowd" who represents it (not casting any stones here folks, just talking purely in loosy goosey hypotheticals)? Try it out anyways, see if you like it-if not, guess what, you just got smarter about something that may help you down the road, so all the "hype" that got you to try out this other system gave you invaluable experience.
Same for Vodka Dosing, or Bio-Pellets, Granular Ferrix Oxide (GFO) or any number of things-we're all trying out different means of accomplishing the same goal: Keeping a healthy thriving reef tank that WE enjoy, not that THEY enjoy.
In short-if you're starting out and feeling overwhelmed but get excited by something-GO FOR IT! Research the thing that got you excited to know it's inherent risks or drawbacks, but don't be discouraged from any negative hype and let it overwhelm your positive hype-there's a really good reason that we as people get excited about stuff, it's what allows us to put up with the bad so we can get to the good and enjoy the H-E-double-hockey-sticks out of it!
Just my .02 dinares
When you're first starting out, or even after you've been doing it for a bit, you'll eventually (hopefully) stumble onto discussion forums such as this one. Now as discussion is just a nicer way of saying argument in many cases, you'll surely start to see that there's several methods of going about pretty much anything, and you'll see folks politely (see British Parliment polite sometimes :tongue
disagreeing over which method, or which coral, or which fish, or which tank, etc etc is the "BEST" way of doing anything.Being a natural cynic, as soon as I noticed this I took a distrust to any of the "new-fangled" methods of doing things; from vodka dosing to high end corals to algae turf scrubbers and so on, for as many things that there are in this hobby, there's always at least two sides to any one of them. Instead of getting excited to try new things out, I stuck in the same rut and got burned out in the hobby. It was discarding the cynicism, especially from others, that got me back into the hobby and excited again. When I spent a lot on a zoa that someone else said was silly, I finally was able to say "to heck with it, I love staring at this thing and that's good enough for me!" From there my passion for the hobby really reignited and now I get so much more excitement out of it than when I tried to follow the "proper" path.
As a beginner, the worst thing you could do is get caught up in these arguments, or start to think that the passion going into the discussion should discourage you from trying out something. You like a coral that's being sold for $500 for a 1/2" piece? GO FOR IT! Who cares what it's "value" is, if you like it enough and would like to get it, it will become your most prized piece, and motivation for you to continue through the hard parts that come with the hobby.
Similarly, you want to try out the natural system of an Algae Turf Scrubber, but don't like being lumped in with "the crowd" who represents it (not casting any stones here folks, just talking purely in loosy goosey hypotheticals)? Try it out anyways, see if you like it-if not, guess what, you just got smarter about something that may help you down the road, so all the "hype" that got you to try out this other system gave you invaluable experience.
Same for Vodka Dosing, or Bio-Pellets, Granular Ferrix Oxide (GFO) or any number of things-we're all trying out different means of accomplishing the same goal: Keeping a healthy thriving reef tank that WE enjoy, not that THEY enjoy.
In short-if you're starting out and feeling overwhelmed but get excited by something-GO FOR IT! Research the thing that got you excited to know it's inherent risks or drawbacks, but don't be discouraged from any negative hype and let it overwhelm your positive hype-there's a really good reason that we as people get excited about stuff, it's what allows us to put up with the bad so we can get to the good and enjoy the H-E-double-hockey-sticks out of it!
Just my .02 dinares
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