Analysis paralysis

[Pntbll687]

Hey guys, just a little rant here.

I've seen an uptick in questions/issues across most of the popular Facebook groups as well as the forum here, with new reefers with questions that deal with the real minutia of the hobby.

Is my stand level enough? I dunno, is the Bible in the middle of the two lines. Marineland won't even honor their warranty on a tank of you shim the stand. I put my tank on a stand, bubble was in the middle on the level, then started filling with water.

How much flow will these fittings restrict if I have 3x90's then a check valve then 2x45's?

What's the EXACT par my xxx coral needs?

What alk level do I need, and how to I keep it super stable?

I find myself on the forums and boards less and less because of these questions. I think allot of it has to do with the amount of information available now, there's too much available that we don't know what to do with.

Brs puts out fantastic videos and I personally have learned allot through them, but the fb group had the same question posted 4x a day.

And here's my tank, because I'm not gonna post a rant and not show what I got when I don't worry about minutia.

 

[count krunk]

Pretty easy to avoid those threads. Just don't click on em!

 

[blasterman]

There is no such thing as a bad question. Some people are naturally OCD about stuff, but if it's not detracting from the goal and people are willing to learn so be it.

Where paralysis by analysis drives me crazy is cycling questions and WAY too much forum traffic is focused on that topic. Throw some ammonia in a new tank....wait...when ammonia starts to dive you are nitrogen cycled. What happens in the months after the initial cycle is 1000x more critical for reefing success....but we have to keep talking about cycling because it sells cycling products.

Same with testing. I swear we have people that enjoy testing water params more than keeping coral or fish. "My calcium has climbed from 427 to 463 according to my overpriced reef monitor in my 200gal with three zoa frags in it even though I'm using two part dosing...what am I doing ?"

Educating is one thing. Fighting a culture of bad reef science is not worth my time.

 

[Pntbll687]

Pretty easy to avoid those threads. Just don't click on em!

In r2r it's pretty easy to avoid. But the Facebook groups are getting bad. It's hard to not see, because it's in the feed, then when I post on a post that had actual quality the algorithm gives me more posts from the same place.

 

[Pntbll687]

There is no such thing as a bad question. Some people are naturally OCD about stuff, but if it's not detracting from the goal and people are willing to learn so be it.

Where paralysis by analysis drives me crazy is cycling questions and WAY too much forum traffic is focused on that topic. Throw some ammonia in a new tank....wait...when ammonia starts to dive you are nitrogen cycled. What happens in the months after the initial cycle is 1000x more critical for reefing success....but we have to keep talking about cycling because it sells cycling products.

Same with testing. I swear we have people that enjoy testing water params more than keeping coral or fish. "My calcium has climbed from 427 to 463 according to my overpriced reef monitor in my 200gal with three zoa frags in it even though I'm using two part dosing...what am I doing ?"

Educating is one thing. Fighting a culture of bad reef science is not worth my time.

I agree 1000% on testing.

I test alk weekly, maybe biweekly if I'm really busy. Calcium and magnesium maybe once a month. Corals are growing, I use kalk in a reservoir, alk dropped over 2 weeks then add 100ml a day and see how it goes.

I don't think I've tested nitrates and phosphates in a few years. I'm not going to go chase numbers around even if I did test.

But as you said, testing parameters sells products so that's where it's heading. Just wait for the onslaught of bacteria products once the bacteria dna testing takes off.

 

[MarshallB]

To be fair getting into the hobby isn't exactly a cake walk and can be pretty intimidating. There is also a reason why a ton of people dont make it a year into the hobby. It's expensive, things get ugly before they get pretty, expensive fish and coral die, and for some can end up being a money pit.

I'm definitely one of those that collects as much information as I can in attempts to avoid pitfalls.

Like you said a good portion of that has to do with conflicting information. I think thats more of a social media issue. "I feel like XYZ works" x1000.

 

[Sailingeric]

I think new people see all the stuff out there and feel that they need it to run a tank based on some the threads. Do you need an Apex, no, do you need $1000 sump, no, my $20 20 gallon long sump has served me well almost 5 years. I think we can make more reefers successful by steering them towards a KISS plan to start with instead of letting them spend $5k to keep a couple clowns and a kenya tree.

 

[Pntbll687]

I think new people see all the stuff out there and feel that they need it to run a tank based on some the threads. Do you need an Apex, no, do you need $1000 sump, no, my $20 20 gallon long sump has served me well almost 5 years. I think we can make more reefers successful by steering them towards a KISS plan to start with instead of letting them spend $5k to keep a couple clowns and a kenya tree.

AGREED!!