LFS Employees Giving Bad Advice

[erk]

I recently had a crappy experience at my favorite LFS and I'd like to rant a bit and see what everyone thinks.

My LFS recently hired a middle aged aquarist. He has been keeping aquariums for some time. Every time I go in, I overhear him giving questionable advice, but because I don't have a lot of experience on the subject he is discussing, I don't say anything. That wasn't the case this time.

I went in to grab a couple cheap frags to test how my aquarium has recovered. Had a small crash due to a damaged pH probe and finally on the rebound. I casually mention that I think the tank is ready and mention previously having relatively high levels of PO4 at ~1ppm and now I'm closer to acceptable levels. The employee then begins to lecture me about the best conditions of keeping coral.

First, keep your SG at 1.020 to 1.021. I was perplexed at this. This is way too low for coral imo.

Second, alkalinity should be between 7-8dKH. 7 is low, but 8 isn't so bad. Based on the BRS study, 10dKH would be better.

Third, that 1ppm PO4 is pretty low and that there is no way to keep your tank at natural seawater conditions, i.e. 0.03ppm. My tank was stable at 0.06ppm for a year before the crash.

Fourth, and this one really got me annoyed, that carbon dosing is "cheating." Apparently to this guy, carbon dosing isn't a valid method of nutrient control and he was vehemently against it.

And then in an attempt to back up his credibility he confidently states that "every coral farm and supplier maintains their water at these parameters."

I just chose to agree to disagree and left. But it left me annoyed that this guy was giving this kind of advice. What would you do in this situation? Just choose to ignore the employee or would you attempt to correct them? I tried to explain my point of view, but this guy was very confident that I was wrong and wouldn't even accept my point of view.

 

[James M]

I would personally correct but also let him know that everyone has different opinions and methods to reef keeping
Send him to reef2reef

 

[KrisReef]

What do you hope to gain by engaging in a conversation with a known LFS A-whole?
Certainly, he must be right about how all farms and suppliers maintaining their parameters at numbers different from typical ocean waters even when there are lots of aquaculture farms that are in the same ocean. Those farms dose like buckets of additives to adjust their local conditions, right?

Don't engage. Nothing to win, just lose your mind, time, etc.

 

[MTBake]

I probably would have walked out and spent my money somewhere else.

 

[Retro Reefer]

I has been my experience that is more the norm than an exception, the majority of LFS are staffed by people not even qualified to keep a gold fish I’m fortunate to have a few quality reef stores near me but even they sometimes give questionable advice and recommend things that IMO are a waste of money.

 

[MTBake]

What do you hope to gain by engaging in a conversation with a known LFS A-whole?
Certainly, he must be right about how all farms and suppliers maintaining their parameters at numbers different from typical ocean waters even when there are lots of aquaculture farms that are in the same ocean. Those farms dose like buckets of additives to adjust their local conditions, right?

Don't engage. Nothing to win, just lose your mind, time, etc.

Totally agree. Not worth the energy and frustration trying to debate, IMO.

Like I said, I probably would have just walked out. Nothing to loose there.

 

[WVNed]

You will meet a large number of people like this over your lifetime. Say something nice like "thanks for the advice" and walk away. Twice recently I have selected an animal to buy and asked them to bag it up. I then wander over to get some fish food. When I got to the register the wrong thing was in the bag. I had a sally lightfoot instead of an emerald crab and a scopas instead of a kole tang.
I no longer expect very much.

 

[Dom]

Tell ya what... I'd go over his head. Let the owner know what this guy is telling people and let the owner deal with it.

 

[Reeferdood]

Well, everyone has their own opinions. Personally I would look for another person to talk to about advice or find another place to shop. I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a shop and heard bogus advise from an employee or owner. IMHO, usually if they don't have a display setup for you to look at then they might not have the knowledge they are trying to sell you.

 

[CindyKz]

A lot of "information" in this hobby is really opinion and anecdotal evidence. Maybe in his experience all that worked for him. Or (seems likely) that the LFS keeps thier salinity on the low side to try to ward off parasites. Who knows? Arm yourself with a few key phrases like "that's an interesting concept", then walk away and do what you're gonna do. Why waste energy?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I have had issues with lfs employees either giving bad/incorrect info or just not having any knowledge on a given subject or item. This happens at even the better reef type lfs'. Few months before I got my tank up and running I was researching powerheads and had questions on Rossmont pumps that they carried. The guy knew nothing about them. He asked hiw much flow I wanted and I told him random 30-50x turn over minimum. He wanted to know why so much flow and I told him again tank will be sps. He was shocked I wanted so much flow. He clearly did not know much about sps and proper reef tank flow. I find it pretty common that I know more than most lfs employees so when I do have a question its hard to find a good answer.

 

[erk]

I thought about going over the guys head to the owner, but figured it wasn't worth the effort. What surprises me is that the majority of the employees working at this particular LFS are great to talk to and fairly knowledgeable. It's just this one new employee. I think I'll be keeping my distance from the place for awhile. I only go in to check out the coral anyway. I'm fortunate to have many saltwater/reef LFS's in the DFW area.

 

[andyg1960]

I would mention it to the owner. If you're walking out ticked off, so are others. If I were the owner, I would want to know.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I've been at this a long time. I've always tried to learn as much as I could about what I was interested in before entering any LFS. If they didn't have what I was looking for, but had items that was of interest to me, I would leave, not buy and learn about those items that I saw.

When I first started out, it was books and yes, employees of LFS. If someone gave me good advice in the past, I would ask for them and them only to talk to. If they were not there, then ask when they would be back and return when they were there. Inconvenience, maybe, but I was determined to do things right.

Bad advice, no talk. Buy from them personally educated, why not. I'm in control, they aren't. They want to try to guide me, thanks I'm good. Buy and leave.

All of this is about self control and understanding what I'm doing, not what they are saying, that's not right in my book.

Buy from a kid employee that doesn't know the difference from a ornamental gold fish to a sohal surgeonfish is okay by me. Let me see it eat, is the store and tanks in good shape and is the fish in good health, I'll buy it. If not, I don't buy.

I'm in control, they are not.

 

[Dom]

Well, everyone has their own opinions. Personally I would look for another person to talk to about advice or find another place to shop. I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a shop and heard bogus advise from an employee or owner. IMHO, usually if they don't have a display setup for you to look at then they might not have the knowledge they are trying to sell you.

That happens?!! There are local fish stores that operate without any display tanks??

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I have had issues with lfs employees either giving bad/incorrect info or just not having any knowledge on a given subject or item. This happens at even the better reef type lfs'. Few months before I got my tank up and running I was researching powerheads and had questions on Rossmont pumps that they carried. The guy knew nothing about them. He asked hiw much flow I wanted and I told him random 30-50x turn over minimum. He wanted to know why so much flow and I told him again tank will be sps. He was shocked I wanted so much flow. He clearly did not know much about sps and proper reef tank flow. I find it pretty common that I know more than most lfs employees so when I do have a question its hard to find a good answer.

That sounds like he was stuck in the old way of thinking when we all used powerheads, back then 10x turnover was the norm.
But yeah, it’s his darn responsibility to keep up to date with the industry.

 

[Bob Weigant]

I personally don’t ask much when I go to the LFS. I do my own research. I’ve heard many things over the years. My all time favorite was I needed a gold fish to cycle my tank

 

[Dburr1014]

I had a guy at my lfs tell me "I was killing my coral using io salt". Then he started to pitch other brands.
He said this in front of my wife who likes my tank but hates the cost surrounding it. I broke off with him and told him "you are a great salesman (sarcastically) but I've been using io for years and dose other stuff with the salt. I don't want any other salt". He passed me off. Now that lfs is out of business.