Handling conflicting information

[BackToTheReef]

So as I do my research and start planning my system I am falling into the trap of paralysis by analysis. By trying to avoid confirmation bias by finding info that supports my thoughts and go "see I got it right" I am finding every side of the three headed coin and getting more confused than I was before.

How do you handle the opposing information?

For me I try to weigh the information and look to see what is the general consensus, see if that is supported by data, and then try to make a decision. But for every consensus and piece of data their seems to be an opposing one. I sort of thought I knew what I was going to do but I'll be buggered this go around.

I think I am also being increasingly cautious as I age because I don't want to see wild caught fish die unnecessarily.

(Might be less of a question and more of a vent)

 

[code4]

I think we all go through this. Then one day you just have to say, beck with it, I am just going to do it. And once that happens you move forward and work through the clouds. Good luck.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

I think we all go through this. Then one day you just have to say, beck with it, I am just going to do it. And once that happens you move forward and work through the clouds. Good luck.

+1 here... just jump in and do it and learn as you go

 

[Ippyroy]

I am learning to not sweat the small things and relax and let my tank do what it wants within reason. The best thing to do in my opinion is to emulate a tank you like that has been up and running for a substantial amount of time. If it worked for them, it should work for me. If you do that piecemeal you might wind up doing something that contradicts another and have a disaster.

 

[samnaz]

Hm, this is a difficult one. Something I’m sure we all struggle with at one point or another. The thing with reefing is, in many situations there is no right answer, no right or wrong way of doing something. Each system is unique. So at some point, you just gotta bite the bullet and try one way or the other. Who knows how long until there will be a definitive yes or no answer to the questions. Is there a specific issue you’re battling with?

 

[X-37B]

Best advice I can give is pick your system and stick with it from day one.

 

[Meara]

Hello I’m only a little bit ahead of you, my tank is only six months old. I have a huge problem with all the conflicting information too. After a lot of planning I just went for it. The advice I found helpful is to take your time with each step and watch your tank very closely. Every person can only tell you what they have experienced and no two tanks are the same.

 

[BackToTheReef]

Hm, this is a difficult one. Something I’m sure we all struggle with at one point or another. The thing with reefing is, in many situations there is no right answer, no right or wrong way of doing something. Each system is unique. So at some point, you just gotta bite the bullet and try one way or the other. Who knows how long until there will be a definitive yes or no answer to the questions. Is there a specific issue you’re battling with?

A little bit of everything right now. All the info I have been reading has me questioning the overall philosophy of the system I wanted to set up. Size, filtration, cost, redundancy, stocking list/wish list, and general tank goals as a whole.

 

[PatW]

Tanks are systems. By that I mean, the various parts interact and often affect the outcome. Two people can have seemingly very similar conditions and one has a flourishing tank and the other one has a dumpster fire (might be overstated).

There are just so many variables that most tanks are rather unique. Live rock or dry rock. Dry sand vs live sand. Three kinds of light and various intensities and lighting schedules to boot. Amount of skimming. Macro algae. Grazers - there are a bunch of different snails and a bunch of different crabs. The number of variables you can set up is enormous. One would expect the outcomes to vary quite a bit. So unless you know everything about a system and understand exactly how it works (and we don’t), you will not be able to predict the outcome.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

As others have said, create a plan. Decide what you want to keep and how you want to approach it. Look into the various methods people use and consider each with regards to how you want to run your tank...and run with it.

stability and patience are key. Better to have a method that’s 90% successful and stick with it than to keep changing your methods.

 

[dbowman5]

Hey BTTR,
I have no idea what i want to be when i grow up. odd thing, it did not stop me from getting old. This hobby is a lot like that for me. I try things. I try to pick what appeals to me. I like a variety of things so i have a mixed reef/community tank. I have had my tanks a very short time so I do not know exactly what i am doing. I figure i have a few years to go before i can call my experiment a success. I am keeping a spreadsheet of purchases/changes/test results. like a laboratory log. Try to determine the things that people seem to agree on and build into the unknown from there. enjoy the ride! look left and right. you are not alone.

 

[ScottB]

Yes the internet and forums provide a bewildering mass of conflicting opinions & experiences.

Over time, I have become more selective about who's advice I weight heaviest. And that varies by the question at hand. The one thing most have in common is a gorgeous SPS dominant tank that has the look I like.

So I listen to Randy if it is a chemistry question. Dana if it is lighting. Taricha if dinoflagellates or cyano. Paul B if it is fish. For SPS I have a dozen names. Ditto plumbing and design. Joe G for aquascaping. A couple people about pest control, others about calcium reactors, etc etc.

And yes, I spend way too much time here learning up on all this.

 

[BighohoReef]

I read somewhere on this forum that this hobby is filled with a lot of trail and error, that the most successful/long term reefers are ones that not only keep healthy thriving tanks but are the ones that have face the worst scenarios (tank crash, lose of live stock, imagine the worst) and yet rise to whatever challenge and keeps on going.

So I keep to the reefing model fail and keep moving forward.. I definitely know that's impart why I stay in the hobby, I'm constantly learning, trying things and jumping into the deep end when I sometimes have no idea what I'm doing. I do research before anything new, I'm risk adverse and I typically don't jump unless I know where I'm going to land, unfortunately reefing doesn't always allow for that and a lot of what I've learned has been trial by fire (with trusted advice).
So I'll say this... my original 3 fish in my DT were not QT'd (5 years and go strong), my first 3 corals (2 which are still alive) were not dipped which I think both of these now I would never do. Was I luck probably, have I experienced issues along the way, of course. Do I find conflicting information in this hobby all the time (every tank is different). I have chosen to follow the advice of a few people on here and more often than not their advice is sound. Long any short this community is huge and easy to get lost in... find folks that you can bounce things off of or a local community group that can help.

If if helps here are a few folks that I feel very fortunate to have gotten advice from I know I'm missing a few mini shout to you all: @vetteguy53081 @LRT @ReeferBlaine @Billldg @Peace River @andrewey @Flippers4pups @fishguy242 @TriggerFinger @revhtree

Don't let the freeze take ya... welcome the challenge!

 

[h2so4hurts]

Lots of ways to skin this cat. Some methods are better than others but there's no "right" way. The hobby evolves, things change, doing something for 20 years doesn't make it "right". You're going to make mistakes, but the best way is to just get started and find out what works for you.

 

[HuduVudu]

Since this is a general question, I would rather relay ideas that aren't specific to this hobby as to keep offense to a minimum. So my learning of Spanish is what I will use.

What I have learned in my quest to learn Spanish.
I started a long time ago in Junior High with a year of Spanish. It was verb conjugation and such. I couldn't speak after a year and I found it wrote and boring. Fast forward to two years ago. I wanted to start speaking Spanish. I knew that it wouldn't be easy so I committed to learning it no matter how hard it is i.e. keep solving the problems presented and keep trying to move forward. So I had an old copy of Rosetta Stone, I used it a little and then didn't really use it again. Then I started to do DuoLingo. Doing DuoLingo utterly opened my eyes as to why so many people don't learn Spanish. DuoLingo has a type of comment feature on the phrases. When I was confused as to why a phrase was the way it was, I would look at the comments to see what others where saying. At first I thought this was helpful but as time went on, it seemed more and more ... ummm wrong. I couldn't say why it was wrong but it just seemed out of place. I have friends that are Spanish speakers so I would ask them and they would ask me why I thought such a stupid crazy thing. Hmmmmm that's weird. So I started challenging people in the comments to see where they where getting their ideas, after many flame wars two things became clear first, 90% of the commenters where not native speakers. They didn't speak Spanish in any capacity and didn't have native speakers to help back up what they were saying, in other words they just made up out of thin blue air their comments (but oh boy did their answers sound plausible). The other problem with them not being native speakers is that they still thought in English in fact they couldn't think in Spanish at all. Their translations were really just English with Spanish words. Also for whatever reason their egos were completely into their being right even though they couldn't speak Spanish, why? The Second thing I learned is that about 10 percent or so really were native speakers. Rarely did they post but when they did it was clear that they understood from a very low level what was correct. Sometimes they didn't have words for why something was, other than this is how it is done. It didn't take long before I started to recognize the native speakers. Unfortunately they were few and far between and they wouldn't answer a lot.

After about nine months of DuoLingo I became frustrated and it was time for me to evaluate what I was doing. I couldn't speak at all and my reading was getting betterish but no real progress. I took a break for about a month and during that time I evaluated if wanted to even do this anymore and what I was doing wrong because clearly this wasn't working. My Spanish friends would just chuckle at my sad gringish. It was pretty humiliating.

So after my reflection time I came away with some real things that I could bite into. First I did want to learn Spanish. I have multiple reasons to do it and I am constantly excited even with my daily work. Second the way that many people where trying to learn Spanish would not help them learn the language, it would make them feel better with busy work that was utterly useless. Third I felt (didn't know or have scientific studies of) that "immersion" was the correct path.

So armed with my newly found understanding I started with things that I basically made up. I felt that YouTube would give me the immersion that I was looking for, so I chose children's videos to start with and I just watched them over and over. Looking up words as I went. I finally started to feel like I was making progress. Small progress but progress. At this point I totally eschewed the programs. I see the ads and they seem tempting but I will never do one of those programs again. I feel that they are lies and they are driven not by their ability to teach but by their bottom line. So I watched (PocoYo) a half and hour every day. Day in day out. It was all that I could think to do so I figured at some point I would figure out more so I was patient. Then one day one of my friends that I haven't seen in a while and I were talking. I was telling her how excited I was to learn Spanish and what I was doing and what I had done. She was educated and from Mexico and she offered to teach me. When the student is read the teacher will appear. I was soooooo excited I talked about it non-stop. Little did I know that my teacher wasn't so sure about my commitment ...

And so it began. First my teacher and I talked about where I wanted to go. I told her I want to be able to read the news I want to go across the border and buy stuff. I want to be able to fit in as well as a pasty white boy could. She gave me the immediate direction. I must speak educated Spanish so that I would be considered a part of the upper class, because I would most likely be accepted if I could do this. Ok, sounds good to me. It is hilarious because I am trailer trash I have no idea what it means to be well off even here in the U.S. She started me out speaking. She gave me the basics and then ... holy cow ... then she gave me a poem from a famous Spanish poet. She said if want to speak I have to learn how to recite this. Bamm that poem still kicks me in the nuts and my teacher was not nice when I screwed up. I loved it though because I am committed. As I started to get better, my teacher then told me that I wasn't going to get anywhere with children's videos and she gave me a Spanish miniseries to watch. The miniseries is as awesome as Breaking Bad, and I can't wait to watch it every day. The Spanish is very hard for me but a little at a time I am starting to hear the words clearly and understand more and more of what is happening. This is currently where I am at.

I fully feel now that I have a path to follow. Friends and strangers actually understand what I am saying and quickly drop to many words for me to process because they think with my new "accent" that I can speak. This is wonderful positive re-enforcement that I am on the right path. Also at this point I feel that I could learn on my own if I needed. I am also starting to see the distinction between different accents different ways of saying things. I am finding so so much more about this than just my small simple idea of what Spanish was when I started.

I wanted to write this because it has really been so long since I have had some of the problems that are asked on these boards and I have forgotten a lot of the reasons why I do things (sometimes it's good to look back and remember because things do change). It makes it hard for me to relate. The Spanish I think is more near where many people are here and is probably much more relevant to the problems people are having now.

Hope this can help, it was pretty long winded.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Always love to see a Happy reefer !!

 

[LRT]

@BighohoReef man thank you. That's the second time you gave me a shout out i have to give some back.
If it wasn't for you that said hey man run some carbon during my Nitrate Nuke I may have very well lost my reef. It was that close and I hadn't thought of it because I dont run carbon and rely most on natural filtration luckily I had that carbon pad that I was able to fashion into some kind of carbon filtration!
Second your mushroom garden thread inspired my whole entire mushroom garden lol.

That being said it has been a total learning experience coming back into reefing after 15yr layoff. Back in the day I ran a JBJ 24 nano for 4 or 5 years and upgraded to 40 gallon breeder for about a year until i got busy with my career and couldnt dedicate what it took to carefully and thoughtfully care for a reef. I left and now I'm back again.
Whatever I thought I knew completely changed. Everything. This hobby has now evolved to totally automated gadgets that can fully run your system remotely. To being able to tell alexa to turn on and off things to totally automatic water changes. You name it lol. I still can't wrap my head around most of it.
What i have learned is everything single reef is different. Our own little ecosystem comprised of however we built it. Whatever we have placed in it. And that dictates how we maintain, nurture and mature it. Whatever works for one reefer may not work for the next so you have to take all the info and adapt it to whats best and working for your own particular system for sure.
I made alot of bad choices chasing numbers. Should listened to older reefers that said if its not broken dont fix it.
There are particular parameters we should try and maintain as newbies to avoid failure. Its proven.
However certain corals Thrive in different parameters and par etc.
Since I'm being honest. I've been through some things last couple months. I knew better almost everytime listen to your gut and corals its usually 100% correct in my situation.
Have Patience my worse virtue ever.
Having a reef has totally humbled me lately. Almost gave up a few times no joke. Its extremely humbling when you look at your reef and the living things in it and know your not doing your best job when you have conquered everything else in your personal life but those living creatures push you to make it better.
You cannot not get it right.
I know this has been long and winded and apologize.
So ill close on this.
Nothing beats the downs like the ups in this hobby. Its nothing but a learning experience and failures. But when you get it right its extremely gratifying. Do your best. Listen yo your gut. Make threads and ask questions and base your decisions on what you feel is right.

Peace all

 

[BackToTheReef]

I'll tell you the biggest thing I have learned since starting to work my way "back" is how the attitudes and approaches have changed. It's more than slightly refreshing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

For me I try to weigh the information and look to see what is the general consensus, see if that is supported by data, and then try to make a decision. But for every consensus and piece of data their seems to be an opposing one. I sort of thought I knew what I was going to do but I'll be buggered this go around.

For some questions, a consensus is a good way to go. This applies to many opinion questions that include the word "best".

For other questions, there is a right and a wrong (or many wrong) answers, and the consensus can still be completely wrong. If you get differing statements on such fact based questions, the only solutions are:

1. Look deeper and figure out why the answers differ, and form your own answer based on the info available.
2. Pick one or more persons you trust to have already done #1 properly for you.
3. Flip a coin.

 

[btackerman]

Look at other tanks you want to model after and the follow their steps when it comes to filtration, livestock and maintenance. Sure it is not an exact science but if you can reach out to the individual and learn their tips for success you should be in good shape