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

[Stigigemla]

When I see a tank with well fed and beautiful animals I always ask how the owner does the maintenance.
It is obvious that something is done a good way.
Sometimes it is just that they are following the schedule they got from the LFS (me) without thinking much.
Many times they have read a lot and come to some other solutions than I have.
Then we have a very nice discussion of pros and contras of different parts of the maintenance.
If I see a tank thats not looking good I also ask the owner what maintenance is done the last months.
Then I tell the owner the difference from my standard schedule and what I think he will gain from it and begs him to show respect for the living animals and take better care of them.

 

[Krully]

I just mostly relate to people who don't run high tech tank. I don't have the budget for a full Apex/Trident thingy so I have to deal with things more manually, I'm more lenient on parameters and try to find people who run things sucessfully without chasing numbers. That's just my way of doing it, it's probably far from the best but it works for me.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Following.

 

[AngryOwl]

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!

This is spot on, well said. As I mentioned before that is one of the awesome but frustrating parts of this hobby... in that one person can try the exact same thing but get a different out come or come to a wildly different conclusion. I found myself in that habit and determined I needed to slow down so I could accurately determine a cause/effect of my actions. This helped me understand my tank way more. Does that mean it would apply as "good" advice to someone else? Maybe not.

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.

I mainly run it for water clarity now.


I think everyone who's commented so far has made some very valid points. It is important to listen closely between the lines and identify how fully developed someone's explanation is. This may be very difficult to determine if you're new to the hobby and don't know any better. I mean we all thought Santa was real until someone ruined it, we didn't know any better. The conclusion I've come to in this hobby so far and confirmed via this thread, is to not take advice from just a single person, but do not discount it either. Take that advice and go do further research and get more opinions and come to a conclusion you feel comfortable with - then try it and see if you're right. This could be seen as a slippery slope in my opinion because I believe taking in too many opinions can lead to confusion and you end up a deer in the headlights with no idea where to go next.

Additionally, as someone previously mentioned, you probably should take advice with a grain of salt from someone telling you how to keep SPS but has an LPS tank - or vise versa.

I'll share another example of what I thought was bad advice from someone with a beautiful tank and has replicated it multiple times. He told me that I should shut off my skimmer once per day for 1 minute. This was advice given in relationship to a high nutrient discussion. He didn't explain it much more and to be honest I didn't ask why, my brain instantly decided that sounds pointless and just moved on... well... then my skimmer over time started not producing as many bubbles... I look at the intake line and there's salt creep built up in there. Light bulb moment! You shut it off to dissolve the buildup and thus avoid this issue. Sometimes I think I just need to learn the hard way ;Hilarious

 

[Krully]

Great points, I always make sure to tell newbies that they shouldn't trust my advice alone and they need to take the habit of fact checking, double crossing advices etc... Even (especially?) from their LFS. So much of our reef keeping knowledge comes from word of mouth, personal experiences etc...

 

[DJF]

I take all non-scientific advice with 1.026 grains of salt. I’ve learned a lot from local reefers but have always hung my hat on personal, practical experience knowing that each tank has its own personality.

 

[Brew12]

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*.

+1 on this.
Having a nice tank shouldn't be ignored. You may learn a little about "what" they do. However, if they cannot explain "why" they do something I would be more hesitant to take their advice.

 

[reef jacob]

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?

Hey man I'll just say even tho you used my tank as an example of this I'll take it as a good thing . I built this from a standard 120 gallon off of Craigslist and built the rest. I was the guy reading and watching everything Bulk Reef Supply like religiously and it helped me really understand how to have somewhat of success. Was there bleaching and pests on the way there? Heck yeah! I never really tried to give advice to be honest I just shared the Bulk reef Supply videos and articles I read here on reef2reef to anyone that asked me a question. And it's probably embarrassing to brutality honest in how i stopped doing water changes after the system running for like 2 years because I just solely relied on organic carbon dosing and filter socks and of coarse a decent skimmer. My tests were just with Api testers so nothing special but it showed 5ppm of nitrate and like .025 phosphate but who knows if those testers we're good tbh haha.

Overall DON'T look at me for success or knowing tons. I just tried to learn enough for myself and work like 40 hours a week trying to keep it going haha and now this tank isn't even running anymore because I went to college and my parents weren't able to keep anything but the fish alive. So now they have a fish only 60 gallon with a huge purple gorgonian that I have no freaking idea how that thing is still alive.

 

[Zionas]

Well it depends if their goals are similar to my goals. There isn’t one way to have a nice tank. Generally I tend to take advice from members more experienced than me (at least 10 years of experience), especially if they have a track record of successfully maintaining tanks in the size range I’m aiming for or bigger. If they have a track record of successfully keeping difficult fish and corals, then their credibility goes up even more.

 

[beyondtheblue]

Advice is free...get as many sources as you can and you will usually learn best practices regarding any question you may have!

 

[Reefinmike]

it depends... do they have 95 little frags, BRS inspired "NSA" nonsense and rattle off the goofy designer names of their corals??? don't listen to them.

Do they have real- porous actual live rock stacked in a wall formation, 12-18 large mature colonies and still run halides or T5???- trust those people.

 

[LegendaryCG]

Experience certainly builds knowledge, but unless they align up closely with the topic on hand it may not be a good comparison.
For example someone who has a 20 year old reef they started from real live rock vs someone starting their first tank from dry rock can have totally different experiences.

 

[AngryOwl]

So what can we tell new hobbiest that are desperate for success and advice? I think the consensus here is it depends on several factors and those things are clear to a somewhat experienced hobbiest; but what about the new guys?

 

[Rubberfrog]

Experience certainly builds knowledge, but unless they align up closely with the topic on hand it may not be a good comparison.
For example someone who has a 20 year old reef they started from real live rock vs someone starting their first tank from dry rock can have totally different experiences.

That's a good point. I live in the desert. I can't make trips to the seashore for mud and assorted creatures.