Should you take advice from someone just because they have a nice tank?

[AngryOwl]

Hey everyone,

I'm just curious what everyone's thoughts are on this topic. In my experience I don't think just because someone has a nice tank or 'business card' that you should take their advice as truth. Call me pessimistic but I do believe it's possible to have long stretches of 'luck' (or bad luck) in this hobby that can give a reefer a false perception of their skills. I've seen several times someone who had a successful tank, restarts with a new tank and does not have anywhere close to the same level of success. I think we've all seen what happens when someone posts a nice tank, everyone flocks to it and starts asking 100 questions, lighting, equipment, parameters, etc - but should you trust them?

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Hey everyone,

I'm just curious what everyone's thoughts are on this topic. In my experience I don't think just because someone has a nice tank or 'business card' that you should take their advice as truth. Call me pessimistic but I do believe it's possible to have long stretches of 'luck' (or bad luck) in this hobby that can give a reefer a false perception of their skills. I've seen several times someone who had a successful tank, restarts with a new tank and does not have anywhere close to the same level of success. I think we've all seen what happens when someone posts a nice tank, everyone flocks to it and starts asking 100 questions, lighting, equipment, parameters, etc - but should you trust them?

You need to ask questions about their experience, and if they maintain the tank themselves or hire a maintenance company to do it, but in general the proof is in the pudding. If someone maintains a nice tank themselves, they probably know what they are doing. I won't take advice from anyone that I haven't seen their tanks (not necessarily in person).

 

[AngryOwl]

You need to ask questions about their experience, and if they maintain the tank themselves or hire a maintenance company to do it, but in general the proof is in the pudding. If someone maintains a nice tank themselves, they probably know what they are doing. I won't take advice from anyone that I haven't seen their tanks (not necessarily in person).

I agree with that. What are some questions you could ask to quickly 'weed out' if this is someone you should take advice from? Maybe that is a better question ;Pompus

 

[homer1475]

You need to ask questions about their experience, and if they maintain the tank themselves or hire a maintenance company to do it, but in general the proof is in the pudding. If someone maintains a nice tank themselves, they probably know what they are doing. I won't take advice from anyone that I haven't seen their tanks (not necessarily in person).

100% agree.

And I would agree with the OP. Sometimes a nice tank doesn't mean they know what they are talking about either, but most times it does. As the old saying goes....

The proof is in the pudding.

 

[homer1475]

I agree with that. What are some questions you could ask to quickly 'weed out' if this is someone you should take advice from? Maybe that is a better question ;Pompus

if you have spent any amount of time in this hobby, and have done even the slightest bit of reading, you can usually tell who is regurgitating information, and someone who actually has experience.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I agree with that. What are some questions you could ask to quickly 'weed out' if this is someone you should take advice from? Maybe that is a better question ;Pompus

I think the first question, assuming they maintain it themselves, would be - How long has the tank been set up? After that I would ask about the export methods they've chosen, as well as their lighting. If the responses are well thought out, they probably know what they are doing. If they say that they are just parroting someone else and it works, then you might want to take their advice with a grain of salt...

 

[Soren]

There are a lot of variables that need to be considered with reef tanks. A nice tank is a sign the person maintaining the tank knows what to do, but a few differences between your reef and theirs could make a large difference on applicable advice.

I never base my plans on advice from just one person's experiences. Forums and such like allow for a lot of fact checking and experiential references to compare and determine a best course of action. In the end, you are still the one who decides for yourself what information you consider reliable enough to try for yourself, and your results will help determine for you whether that information works in your case.

 

[AngryOwl]

I think the first question, assuming they maintain it themselves, would be - How long has the tank been set up? After that I would ask about the export methods they've chosen, as well as their lighting. If the responses are well thought out, they probably know what they are doing. If they say that they are just parroting someone else and it works, then you might want to take their advice with a grain of salt...

I had a guy deliver me a nice frag pack once... so he was checking out my tank and noticed I was running UV. This was an 18W UV on a 230g system. He asks me how long I'm running it for, I tell him 24/7. His response was then "You should put it on a timer because your tank will never cycle or mature because it's killing all the bacteria".... yea.... so I stopped listening after that ;Hilarious

 

[X-37B]

Their are very few people I will take advice from.
Pics over time of their tanks helps alot.
Many locals that know everything wont show pics.
This goes for the lfs too.
Its amazing the bs I hear spewed from customers and owners alike, lol.
Many here are right just ask a few questions and you can tell.
And growth pics tell alot too!

 

[vetteguy53081]

That’s a maybe
I’ve seen some really good advice and some really bad advice and often wondered how they have a thriving tank.
Like buying on eBay where we consider seller feedback, we rely on:
Tank
Years of experience
Clear knowledge
Certainty (not maybe or Try to .)

 

[Soren]

I had a guy deliver me a nice frag pack once... so he was checking out my tank and noticed I was running UV. This was an 18W UV on a 230g system. He asks me how long I'm running it for, I tell him 24/7. His response was then "You should put it on a timer because your tank will never cycle or mature because it's killing all the bacteria".... yea.... so I stopped listening after that ;Hilarious

That seems to be the basic premise that is best when considering advice: fact-check and research all advice to test it against the knowledge and experiences of the relevant community.

...and don't stop listening to someone just because they give incorrect advice on one topic. We all are ignorant about some things, but we each may have some advice that is still correct. If we have the right attitude to strive for continuous learning and sharing of our experiences (and correcting what we did wrong in our experiences...), we will have the best growth in the community.

For me, it comes down to whether we want to share "my advice" or want to know the truth and share our understanding of the advice of the community.

 

[AngryOwl]

That’s a maybe
I’ve seen some really good advice and some really bad advice and often wondered how they have a thriving tank.
Like buying on eBay where we consider seller feedback, we rely on:
Tank
Years of experience
Clear knowledge
Certainty (not maybe or Try to .)

Yea I feel like this is more a depends kind of question for sure haha. So far I'm agreeing with the comments - but if you put your head back to when you were new, this is much more difficult I think. Beginners tend to lean heavily on someone's advice if they have a nice tank and their bs detector might not be fully calibrated yet

This is also coming from someone (myself) who is guilty of leaning heavily on someone who had a nice tank. Then I'd try all the things and wondered why I still sucked lol! After I stopped listening and went into more of a skeptical mode, I found better success.

 

[JoshO]

I'm going to go with a straight up YES on this one.

Time in the hobby "experience" doesn't always mean right. Someone with 25 years in the hobby and an average tank may know a lot but are their methods better or worse than someone with 5 years and a thriving, bright tank? I'd pick the thriving tank method every day

 

[Soren]

Yea I feel like this is more a depends kind of question for sure haha. So far I'm agreeing with the comments - but if you put your head back to when you were new, this is much more difficult I think. Beginners tend to lean heavily on someone's advice if they have a nice tank and their crap detector might not be fully calibrated yet

This is also coming from someone (myself) who is guilty of leaning heavily on someone who had a nice tank. Then I'd try all the things and wondered why I still sucked lol! After I stopped listening and went into more of a skeptical mode, I found better success.

This is why I advocate for extensive research before jumping into something. My test is yet to come when I finish the hardware of my setup and start to put my research into action. So far, I feel like I have learned a lot of ways to avoid the common beginner problems by reading this forum and as many reefing books as I can get my hands on before spending money and trying it for myself.

 

[AngryOwl]

I'm going to go with a straight up YES on this one.

Time in the hobby "experience" doesn't always mean right. Someone with 25 years in the hobby and an average tank may know a lot but are their methods better or worse than someone with 5 years and a thriving, bright tank? I'd pick the thriving tank method every day

I also agree with this.

 

[Soren]

I'm going to go with a straight up YES on this one.

Time in the hobby "experience" doesn't always mean right. Someone with 25 years in the hobby and an average tank may know a lot but are their methods better or worse than someone with 5 years and a thriving, bright tank? I'd pick the thriving tank method every day

I agree with this as well. The badge of experience is shown through results, not through years in the hobby. Typically, years in the hobby should correlate to good results, but this is not always the case.

It also depends on how our years are spent. For example, if I keep a reef of "beginner" soft corals for 25 years, this does not mean I should give advice on keeping dendronephthya. We need to understand our own "qualifications" before giving advice, and only give advice on the things we feel sure we are qualified to advise and that fall in line with the fact-checking and experiences of others.

 

[Soren]

...this does not mean nobody should try anything new or different than advice, just that we should understand our own assumed risks in such endeavors and not think we can suddenly discredit all of the experiences of many others.

 

[Brett S]

I think you kind of have to define what you mean by “advice”. I mean I would take advice from just about anyone, but how much I would allow that advice to influence my decisions can vary widely. I’m not sure there’s anyone who would make me stop what I’m doing and suddenly turn around and start doing the opposite. But if I start hearing advice from a lot of people (whether they have nice tanks or not) suggesting that what I’m doing is wrong then I’m going to consider that more and more and maybe start to make some changes.

 

[Soren]

I think you kind of have to define what you mean by “advice”. I mean I would take advice from just about anyone, but how much I would allow that advice to influence my decisions can vary widely. I’m not sure there’s anyone who would make me stop what I’m doing and suddenly turn around and start doing the opposite. But if I start hearing advice from a lot of people (whether they have nice tanks or not) suggesting that what I’m doing is wrong then I’m going to consider that more and more and maybe start to make some changes.

That sums up what I think quite nicely: I will listen to the advice from anyone, but I will also fact-check that advice and research it before making significant changes to what I am doing.

I choose truth over my pre-conceived notions and my own opinions, but truth takes time to prove. (Technically, we cannot prove truth, only falsehood; and it takes time to disprove falsehood over many considerations)

 

[AngryOwl]

I think you kind of have to define what you mean by “advice”. I mean I would take advice from just about anyone, but how much I would allow that advice to influence my decisions can vary widely. I’m not sure there’s anyone who would make me stop what I’m doing and suddenly turn around and start doing the opposite. But if I start hearing advice from a lot of people (whether they have nice tanks or not) suggesting that what I’m doing is wrong then I’m going to consider that more and more and maybe start to make some changes.

That is another good question "How much do you let someone's advice influence your decisions?" Often, I will ask for advice and end up taking none of it. This isn't always because I think the advice was bad or incorrect; but rather I use that advice to weigh my options and help me form my own opinion and decision. To someone giving the advice this could look as if you're ignoring it but in the end you did have an impact whether you see it in the final result or not.