Forgive my Rant - Facebook Saltwater Groups...

cdness · Dec 16, 2013

So I noticed a few of my Facebook friends and members of our local club were joining a Facebook group on Saltwater aquariums... I thought what harm can it do, I'll join and check it out for a bit. That was a HUGE mistake as I have never seen incorrect information spewed out so fast in my entire life. Thank You Reef2Reef for having correct information and sharing it with the other users on this forum. Without it, many could be lost...

Here are some of the claims I saw:

Cyano - I mentioned check your flow and feeding schedule. Everyone else says treat with a red slime chemical... I say a chemical is a band aid and doesn't fix the true issue. They say Contact them for the chemical to treat the tank...

Aquascaping - User showed a new aquascape using the two island approach. I said nice open space and room for growth and fish swimming room as well. Others support the more rock is better, let's make a wall approach

Copper - User asked if after 6 months they were safe to add inverts after a copper based "white spot disease" treatment. Others say use polyfilter and cuprisorb and you are just fine. I say they won't remove ALL copper and unless you are going to run them as a permanent media in the tank, copper will still leach out of the live rock. Others say "No here is what the manufacturer says about cuprisorb" I say there is no reef safe ich treatment in the hobby that actually works. All treatments should be done outside the display in a hospital tank to avoid contamination. Others say Marine Ich?

Also they seem to support the Marineland Reef Capable LEDs as a viable reef LED lighting source...

I am almost to my last straw... I want to help, but when there are so many people on there with so WRONG information it is hard to get anyone to listen. I have started to tell them to verify their information on a good reef site like Reef2Reef (it is an international group so my local club wouldn't be a good referral) before believing anyone personal or company rep.

Anyone else run into this issue on Facebook? I am just ready to call it quits on that group...

TheGrimmReefer · Dec 16, 2013

Yeah.. I see the same thing all the time. Some horrible information getting fed out through these FB groups. I just have to shake me head and keep scrolling.

Badfish83 · Dec 16, 2013

What I don't understand is why these people don't just google their stupid questions. Instead they get advice from 3 month veterans and or an LFS who just wants to sell some super reef safe ich kick.

cdness · Dec 16, 2013

I am glad I am not the only one who sees this. I hate being that guy who just scrolls by, but unfortunately I am going to have to. I just cannot afford to waste my time. However if I can get some over to Reef2Reef instead I will try. There are benefits to my suffering through these FB threads if we get some more members over here...

sqcube4me · Dec 16, 2013

CD i agree with you .. i have never seen so much incorrect info going out on FB .. IMO most of them are such newbies and really have no clue about reefs and aquariums .. but want to jump on it like they know . your right with the cyno .. 1st you have to find the root of the problem then fix it before you open something and just throw it in your tank .. see so many post like that its mind blowing .. same with hair algae .. 10 to 1 its because they are using tap water or to much TDS .. i was reading 1 about a month ago a guy was having a really bad prob with it and 1 kid told him get new rock .. i about fell over .. sad sad sad when your sitting in front of a computer all you have to do is ASK like .. what causes hair algae to grow in my reef .. you will get 1000++++ answers .. what i think it is is just plan laziness ... they dont want to take the time to read up on what they are doing so i will ask joe that works on cars for a living he will know the answer to all my reefing questions

TheGrimmReefer · Dec 16, 2013

cdness said:
I am glad I am not the only one who sees this. I hate being that guy who just scrolls by, but unfortunately I am going to have to. I just cannot afford to waste my time. However if I can get some over to Reef2Reef instead I will try. There are benefits to my suffering through these FB threads if we get some more members over here...

I've tried redirecting some of those people to this site as well as the local club we have here in Louisiana (to the local fb groups, anyway) Most of the time the post gets deleted and the admin will shake his big finger at me for doing so.

SeymourDuncan · Dec 16, 2013

I joined them to share Reef Edition links and holy moly! They are as some would say, severely uneducated. I got some guy ranting about ich and how it is immortal...yeah and butter comes melted. I give my two cents when I see ignorance and usually direct the victims of misinformation here. The ones who are worthy of the hobby actually come over and learn while the crazy closed minded people still ramble on about their myths they believe as true.

Best thing to do is find a way to delete Facebook lol

McAllyn · Dec 16, 2013

You are expecting way too much from Facebook...

Mac

SeymourDuncan · Dec 16, 2013

I'm also in a marine land debate lol

inurocker · Dec 16, 2013

The sad part is most of the answers are just parroting what some part time kid at the big box pet store that never had a tank in there life told them. Lazy is the only word that comes to mind when one has more hard information and data at there fingertips than ever and choose to go to a social media site for answers.

TheSaint216 · Dec 16, 2013

Cd can you Link the group? Google is a powerful thing.

SeymourDuncan · Dec 16, 2013

My fav: can you I'd this fish?

Hrmmmm did you get it from a bucket labeled "take one?"

goodtimes · Dec 16, 2013

If any of those questions were googled they would be directed towards R2R. That's how I found the site originally.

SeymourDuncan · Dec 16, 2013

I found r2r via Google as well

sqcube4me · Dec 16, 2013

same here i was looking for some info and came across this site

SeymourDuncan · Dec 16, 2013

I try to write articles for Reef Edition that help clear the air about the mythical knowledge I hear about on Facebook, since there are so many people getting poisoned with ignorance. Lol, it's awesome when I share the article and people say it helped. I've also really ticked off "professionals" who use the myths to their advantage. Science, baby! Can't argue with facts

cdness · Dec 16, 2013

TheSaint216 said:
Cd can you Link the group? Google is a powerful thing.

Maybe when I get home I can.

Now there is a guy with a 15 tall wanting to use it to quarantine all his fish. He says they are not too big with the largest at 5". He follows the typical ignorant "wait until someone agrees with me" stance and that ticks me off. If someone asks a question only to try find a single person who will justify their decision it is just stupid. I will fall back on the quote I use in IT some days... "There are no stupid questions, only stupid people" as it really works in this situation...

revhtree · Dec 16, 2013

It's our mission to rescue the wayward reefer! HA! Just keep pointing them here and we'll all do our best to provide the best info available!

SeymourDuncan · Dec 16, 2013

ah man, I know exactly what your talking about. I almost responded but I had to go feed my cats.

revhtree · Dec 16, 2013

I also notice that many of them are created by vendors looking for a place to drum up sales. Which is ok in my book but not at the expense of incorrect information!