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

[AlexG]

Taking advice based on the look of a persons tank is not something I would recommend. I always find that it is good to absorb advice/experiences but then I take that information to do research and form my own opinion. Going way back to the time I worked at an LFS I could not count the number of times I worked with customers that took someone's advice without understanding the why or questioning if it was the right thing to do. In some cases I would hear that a person had a nice looking tank so they thought they knew what they were doing. The challenge is that there are too many variables in this hobby that can be factors in the success or failure of an aquarium based on implementing changes that were advised. 10 reef tanks can be setup the same exact way by 10 people following the same advice and all the tanks will turn out different over time with different levels of "success/failure" One of the reasons I enjoy this hobby is the challenge of maintaining reef tanks knowing that it is not luck and requires me to constantly learn and grow my knowledge.

 

[WirelessMike]

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.

I’m still calibrating my crap detector after being in this for a year, but sometimes it’s easy to weed out the folks who know nothing. Typically the ones who are trying to sell you a product that is either overkill or not needed. OR the person who “used to have a perfect tank.”

 

[Deezill]

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?

I know where this is coming from lol I was watching yesterday too. lol. The answer is it depends. You have valid points. If you ask me each tank is different. There are some things that are the same as the big three and how you can introduce the etc. The fact of the matter in this hobby from the chemical we use to the equipment such as lights pumps we will all have different experiences. Granted we might have some similarities when speaking in general but for the most part, every tank has its own identity making it different. My 200-gallon system will be different from the next reefers 200-gallon system even if we use the same amount of rock and sand. Our equipment can be identical and we still have different experiences. This is what makes it so great.

 

[Nano sapiens]

I would say that your chances of obtaining useful and correct information are better from someone with a nice successful reef aquarium that they have personally been running for many years. If they have a recorded history of success with multiple aquaria over a decade or more, even more so. Doesn't always mean that what they do, or how they do it, will work exactly the same way for you, though, since all reef systems are their own unique entities.

While it is possible for someone to set up and run a great reef aquarium for a long period of time without any hick-ups whatsoever, they would be in the minority. IMO, one should be more inclined to contemplate advice from experienced reef aquarists that openly present their almost inevitable miscalculations and mistakes along with their successes.

And don't expect that someone experienced in small pico/nano reef aquaria would automatically be an expert in large aquaria (or visa-versa), unless they have successfully maintained both types for extended periods of time. While the basic biological processes are the same for both examples, the methods/techniques for dealing with things like waste export, type of animals that can be used to help maintain the system, types of equipment used (or not used), etc. are typically quite different.

 

[schuby]

I believe that it is impossible for two tanks to be identical, even if you were to purchase two of everything and perform near-identical feeding and maintenance. Why? Because no two fish are exactly the same, no two corals are exactly the same, no two pumps or tanks are exactly the same, and so on. Every slight variation or different method generates a different result.

This means that the solution for one tank is not automatically the solution for any other tank.

Only I am responsible for what happens to my tank. If I choose to follow someone else's advice, it was still my choice. No one else is making changes to my tank. Critical thinking is very beneficial.

I try to take in information and experiences from this site "with a grain of salt". My tank may be very similar or not. I need to decide what I think is the best course of action. Information and differing perspectives are our friends.

Whenever I post on someone else's thread, I try to always say something like "this is what I do" or "this is what happened to me". I try never to say that someone else should do something specific to address their issue. I want to provide them more food-for-thought so that they can't make a more informed decision.

 

[gray808]

Probably more so than from someone who has a crappy, dirty, fish and coral dying tank?

 

[CMMorgan]

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).

+1 to @SawCJack00 My thoughts exactly.
I used to conduct tours in our exhibits at the environmental center back in the day. I could tell you about the ecosystem but I did not know diddly about the maintenance of the tanks themselves. We hired that out.
It certainly inspired me to learn about it but... nope, the extent of my knowledge back then was "Please do not try to make the Porcupine Puffer puff up by tapping on the glass" and "No, someone did not drop there pet hermit crab in the tank."

 

[AngryOwl]

I’m still calibrating my crap detector after being in this for a year, but sometimes it’s easy to weed out the folks who know nothing. Typically the ones who are trying to sell you a product that is either overkill or not needed. OR the person who “used to have a perfect tank.”

haha I think we've all heard this before "well my tank use to look like this but then..." ;Hilarious

I know where this is coming from lol I was watching yesterday too. lol. The answer is it depends. You have valid points. If you ask me each tank is different. There are some things that are the same as the big three and how you can introduce the etc. The fact of the matter in this hobby from the chemical we use to the equipment such as lights pumps we will all have different experiences. Granted we might have some similarities when speaking in general but for the most part, every tank has its own identity making it different. My 200-gallon system will be different from the next reefers 200-gallon system even if we use the same amount of rock and sand. Our equipment can be identical and we still have different experiences. This is what makes it so great.

Yea I thought I'd get other opinions on it. Reef2reef members have always been fair to all sides of a discussion. Less hostility for sure. I agree with you and others who have stated no two tanks are the same, even directly set up the same!

Taking advice based on the look of a persons tank is not something I would recommend. I always find that it is good to absorb advice/experiences but then I take that information to do research and form my own opinion. Going way back to the time I worked at an LFS I could not count the number of times I worked with customers that took someone's advice without understanding the why or questioning if it was the right thing to do. In some cases I would hear that a person had a nice looking tank so they thought they knew what they were doing. The challenge is that there are too many variables in this hobby that can be factors in the success or failure of an aquarium based on implementing changes that were advised. 10 reef tanks can be setup the same exact way by 10 people following the same advice and all the tanks will turn out different over time with different levels of "success/failure" One of the reasons I enjoy this hobby is the challenge of maintaining reef tanks knowing that it is not luck and requires me to constantly learn and grow my knowledge.

Well said! I'm sure you've heard far more bad advice than me then haha! I do find it interesting on several topics how someone for instance will say "if my NO3 goes above 15 and PO4 above .05, all my sps get mad or brown out" but then in my experience I've had wild swings with no noticeable difference (except when things hit 0, bad stuff happens). It is interesting yet frustrating because it makes troubleshooting in this hobby more difficult.. and also more difficult to be receptive to advice/experiences. It's the he/said she said game right? Unless you can see it for yourself.

I would say that your chances of obtaining useful and correct information are better from someone with a nice successful reef aquarium that they have personally been running for many years. If they have a recorded history of success with multiple aquaria over a decade or more, even more so. Doesn't always mean that what they do, or how they do it, will work exactly the same way for you, though, since all reef systems are their own unique entities.

While it is possible for someone to set up and run a great reef aquarium for a long period of time without any hick-ups whatsoever, they would be in the minority. IMO, one should be more inclined to contemplate advice from experienced reef aquarists that openly present their almost inevitable miscalculations and mistakes along with their successes.

And don't expect that someone experienced in small pico/nano reef aquaria would automatically be an expert in large aquaria (or visa-versa), unless they have successfully maintained both types for extended periods of time. While the basic biological processes are the same for both examples, the methods/techniques for dealing with things like waste export, type of animals that can be used to help maintain the system, types of equipment used (or not used), etc. are typically quite different.

Another good point. I have doubts how I treat and manage my 230g system would translate to a successful 20g. My advice is to find someone who's tank matches yours. It's not a universal truth but I feel it's a good starting point.

I believe that it is impossible for two tanks to be identical, even if you were to purchase two of everything and perform near-identical feeding and maintenance. Why? Because no two fish are exactly the same, no two corals are exactly the same, no two pumps or tanks are exactly the same, and so on. Every slight variation or different method generates a different result.

This means that the solution for one tank is not automatically the solution for any other tank.

Only I am responsible for what happens to my tank. If I choose to follow someone else's advice, it was still my choice. No one else is making changes to my tank. Critical thinking is very beneficial.

I try to take in information and experiences from this site "with a grain of salt". My tank may be very similar or not. I need to decide what I think is the best course of action. Information and differing perspectives are our friends.

Whenever I post on someone else's thread, I try to always say something like "this is what I do" or "this is what happened to me". I try never to say that someone else should do something specific to address their issue. I want to provide them more food-for-thought so that they can't make a more informed decision.

I think that's the way to approach it. No one (or very few) likes information or advice being forced on them. I approach giving advice the same way. There are probably at least 100 ways to approach a single issue in our aquariums, taking the time to step back, slow down, and perform some critical thinking is necessary IMO.

Probably more so than from someone who has a crappy, dirty, fish and coral dying tank?

I've been listening to the wrong people all this time! ;Hilarious

 

[Stuartmercer]

Not that easy of an answer tbh. It all depends on the situation of the person answering questions. If someones tank doesnt look great it could be for a number of reasons including a recent tank crash, which will inevitably happen to all of us at some point. But, of course, if someones tank doesn't look great it could be a lack of experience in care. It's difficult to really know WHO is experienced or not by their tank. I feel like it mostly depends on the answers they give to others, and the answers others give that aligns with theirs. That will determine if someone knows what they are talking about or not.

 

[AngryOwl]

Not that easy of an answer tbh. It all depends on the situation of the person answering questions. If someones tank doesnt look great it could be for a number of reasons including a recent tank crash, which will inevitably happen to all of us at some point. But, of course, if someones tank doesn't look great it could be a lack of experience in care. It's difficult to really know WHO is experienced or not by their tank. I feel like it mostly depends on the answers they give to others, and the answers others give that aligns with theirs. That will determine if someone knows what they are talking about or not.

I think this is a better way of saying what I stated in the OP about riding a wave of luck or bad luck. Someone could be very well experienced but made a mistake and introduced something into their tank or forgot to do something that causes the tank to crash or look really bad. So it's fair that we shouldn't dismiss their advice immediately for that just because they made a mistake. We all make mistakes and if you haven't yet, you will. As the motorcycle saying goes, there's two types of riders, those who have went down and those who haven't yet.

One caveat - if someone consistently makes mistakes... then I would say they might not know exactly what they're doing.

 

[Stuartmercer]

I think this is a better way of saying what I stated in the OP about riding a wave of luck or bad luck. Someone could be very well experienced but made a mistake and introduced something into their tank or forgot to do something that causes the tank to crash or look really bad. So it's fair that we shouldn't dismiss their advice immediately for that just because they made a mistake. We all make mistakes and if you haven't yet, you will. As the motorcycle saying goes, there's two types of riders, those who have went down and those who haven't yet.

One caveat - if someone consistently makes mistakes... then I would say they might not know exactly what they're doing.

Oh I didnt see your post, im sorry.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Yes for the most part! Alot of times a good build thread has all the information you need since it document ones success and failures. I just took the common thing that works out of everyones and it usually comes down to stable alk, established LR, and good import export. I think this hobby would be easy if someone figured out how to get dry rock established quickly and not over the course of few years. Patient is learned in this hobby and thats never worked for me when I was new so was not ready to take the good advice, just looking for quick home runs!

 

[swee10]

People with nice tanks have to be doing something right, but it is possible that in your tank trying to do somethings similar might not workout the same. Sometimes even slight differences result in a very different outcome. The differences might be live stock, feeding or lightning. It could even be the time between carbon changes.
So basically when I see someone with a takeout admire I listen to their wisdom and see if there are things I can apply to my tank if they make it better I leave them if it doesn’t work I try something else.

 

[sawdonkey]

I find that it’s pretty easy to tell when someone knows what they are doing. I’d like to think I have a pretty nice tank and I’ve been doing this for 20 years, but there are a ton of areas in this hobby where I’m not all that educated. For example, I don’t know that much about fish diseases, I’ve never set up a remote sump, I know literally nothing about zoas, I know don’t know much about soft corals.

But yes, if someone has a tank that is an aspiration to me, I’m surely going to take their advice more seriously. But, there are tons of ways to skin this cat and nobody has done it all.

 

[mermaid_life]

I don't think it's as simple as whether someone knows what they are talking about or not. So many factors... one of them is deep pockets. Some people have great tanks through LOTS of trial and error. The problem is because there's so much trial error it's hard to tell if the actions were necessary because they were course-correcting or if it was necessary to begin with.

Another issue is having wrong conclusions. I did this and this happened. Therefore, it must be a direct correlation when in fact it was probably a chain of events.

Yet another issue is whether someone is able to articulate what they did thoroughly and comprehensively to achieve the tank. I have this problem myself just explaining to my non-reef tank friends. I tell them that having a tank can be super easy. Then I explain what I do and it's always "oh yeah and I also do this..."

I think the true gurus are the ones that have had SEVERAL successful tanks. That means they figured it out and are able to replicate, which likely means they can explain it to someone else to replicate as well.

Just my two cents!

 

[Jeffcb]

It might not hurt to listen to the person with the nice tank. idk

 

[Bacon505]

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

I think i would say the same to you to removed the UV. And they do killing your beneficial bacteria. They are good to treat bacteria blooms or maybe slowdown ich but not necessary to keep them in the system if you dont have issue with the tank.

 

[blasterman]

What i do is I look at many nice tanks and look for common techniques. I also note things they arent doing.

I also note why they are having success with something they may be doing or not doing. There is WAY too much *what" in this hobby and lemming train habits vs *why*.

 

[Bacon505]

I would only take serious advice from those who had crashed their tank at least twice.

 

[sawdonkey]

I would only take serious advice from those who had crashed their tank at least twice.

This is for real! As someone mentioned above, having numerous successful tanks is a good gauge. If you you’ve crashed a few tanks and came back, you’ve likely dealt with some stuff and learned.

I’d also say that just because someone or even a bunch of people who have a nice tanks swear by some technique , it doesn’t mean it will work for you. For example, many people run carbon on their tanks....every time I’ve tried it, my corals start to look terrible.