Laws of Reef Keeping

[Dine]

Excellent point.

So what you are saying is that it isn't the point of calling the tank immature, but the failure to expand on it.

And I also agree with experience being important. I added a Nem 4 months into a new tank and it split in less than a year.

So I guess it would be correct to say that it isn't the maturity of the tank but the maturity (experience of) the keeper which is more important.

With all due respect This is the problem right there. You stated a law that you yourself don’t follow? Is it really a law then or is it situational? It’s certainly not bad advice to suggest to a new hobbyist to take it slow but do as I say not as I do never gets anyone very far. I dont think the advice is bad but the way you delivered it (for a number of reasons) could improve.

please take this as constructive. I tried my best to word it in a way that didn’t come off like attacking you. Hard to reply to a post like this in a way no one gets defensive.

 

[Dine]

Much of the information on these boards is newbies teaching newbies. They want to share the new found knowledge and end up regurgitating information for which they have little experience and state it as fact without understanding the intricacies. This propagates misinformation. A number of experienced hobbyists tend to ignore the boards or only lurk to see if anything is new. I’ve heard it argued that it is the responsibility of experienced hobbyists to help the new, but frankly many are not in it to be teachers. They just want to practice their hobby. And therein lies the problem; newbies helping newbies.
Countless experienced hobbyists transfer anemones from old tanks to brand new ones without an issue. They don’t talk about it because it’s just a regular day. The reason is, and it’s already been mentioned, the hobbyists are experienced. So waiting a year for a tank to mature has more to do with the hobbyist maturing than the tank. On that same note, mature newbies may also have a lot of success because they will plan out the entire hobby before starting so when the time comes, they know what’s going on.

To play devils advocate the best way to learn is to teach. Don’t disagree with your assessment I just disagree that it’s always a bad thing...

 

[WVNed]

The real problem I have with people asking basic questions is that they have been answered 100s of times.
Using the search function and reading is a really basic skill that is necessary to be successful at this.

Not only will you find what you need to know most of the time but lots of other information gets dragged along with it that you never thought about. This turns reefing from bump and go with every problem to anticipating the next step and being ready or avoiding it.

 

[Samina]

I feel there are too many variables that can be play a huge role on the “laws” that we are talking about. Now if your talking about a reefer that has a good level of experience and knowledge, they are better off making corrections and providing offsets to manipulate results. Laws may not be concrete when it comes to a situation like that. Because of that experience, they are often times better equipped to follow their intuition and knowledge. Individuals that are new to the hobby may not be able to do those things and may not have the eye to pickup certain clues as to what is going on within the environment they have created until it is too late. Of course, there are still resources for everyone, but advice is abundant and can be simply wrong. Advice given needs to be tailored to to each specific setup and most importantly, the skill level of the hobbyist, IMHO. I have seen many individuals that are new to the hobby that may have an anemone in their tank well before when that tank could be considered relatively stable or mature. Oftentimes, these animals meet a slow demise and the hobbyist is left panicking and may change many variables at once which in turn hurts the stability of the tank leading to more animals possibly suffering and a disruption in the tanks equilibrium. On the other hand, there are setups when new tanks are setup and sensitive animals are hosted but the hobbyist has a decent or advanced level of experience. That hobbyist in this situation is better prepared to observe the animal and pickup on clues as to possible issues that may be present in the tank and will opt to correct them in a manner that slowly manipulates the environment to become conducive to the animal. There is less of a knee jerk reaction. However, there are still instances when no matter the level of experience, things happen and can go wrong. So because of that, I can’t say that there are a set of laws that are applicable throughout the community. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Dom]

With all due respect This is the problem right there. You stated a law that you yourself don’t follow? Is it really a law then or is it situational? It’s certainly not bad advice to suggest to a new hobbyist to take it slow but do as I say not as I do never gets anyone very far. I dont think the advice is bad but the way you delivered it (for a number of reasons) could improve.

please take this as constructive. I tried my best to word it in a way that didn’t come off like attacking you. Hard to reply to a post like this in a way no one gets defensive.

None taken.

And yes, "do as I say not as I do" would seem to be the case. But in this case, it was to a beginner, so sometimes, keeping suggestions simple and less overwhelming seems to be the better path.

In the end, it comes down to going slow, regardless of the skill level.