The WORST advice EVER!!!!

[Mariette]

LFS: you can totally do saltwater. Just like a freshwater tank. Only difference is mixing the salt.

Same LFS: sure, you can qt for a week but it’s really not necessary.

PS - GREAT thread!!!

 

[MnFish1]

Not when powerheads with equal GPH, lights with equal PAR and comparable spectra, and coral frags all have a 5- to 10-fold range of prices for functionally equivalent items

"You get what you pay for" appears to be about as far from true in the aquarium hobby as in the purchase of a car.. but its repeated all the time anyway.

that was my point.... You dont always get what you pay for....

 

[Higher Thinking]

@sde1500
Ive asked for work threads here and in prior threads, that's where I based my recommend on never allowing an uglies phase/purposeful invasion phase. I rarely get even a single example when asking, its offputting like you mentioned.

You guys certainly don't mind challenging the recommend in quotes, nobody called you out so I know if I just ask for a single work example the back n forth slows greatly and the greater recommend will still and always be to purposefully wreck your tank.

That keeps us busy in our work threads, continue on if you think its right.

*remember its not as serious as you guys like to make it... we're simply saying that if you have a nano or a shallow tank, clean the filth out at the start, don't let it compound to a cyano or dinos invasion that takes 5 months to clear...cleaning isn't harmful.

The rates of loss from all sizes of tanks nowadays is totally unacceptable and one way to reduce that is to consider not repeating the errors of the past though it works for 30%.

Im aware that the majority of reefers will still self invade. The % we show how to not do that sure like the method.

Dan

Post up any work threads you have.

I already know you have personal experience, Im asking for work threads bc they allow me to check for patterns/see if conclusions are similar

if none avail that's ok/work threads are very hard to run

work thread=any invasion tank you appeared in during invasion then stayed until clean after pics were earned. Any tank other than your own you guided online etc...w take a single example. if possible to get a thread of ten, we'll have real patterns to check out. *Make a work thread if you don't have one, that way next time we'll have some collected examples~ten if possible would be an ideal start to test concepts

I'll be honest, it's very hard to understand the point that you are making...

 

[brandon429]

No prob I don’t mind at all. Not even a need to clarify y’all carry on.

 

[SeaJay]

I'll be honest, it's very hard to understand the point that you are making...

Punctuation is critical.

 

[GoatmealJones]

I think the worst advice to give is to chase very specific numbers at all costs, leading to over correction instead of regression to the mean/stability. I lost many acros trying to raise my KH too fast thinking that the quicker I could change it, the better.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

pee in your rental wet suit to keep yourself warm

One word can change bad advice to good advice! ;Woot

 

[DivingTheWorld]

A tank is ready for acros within the first year, no problem!

Acros do best in an ULN environment.

 

[James M]

You can add a anemone before your tank matures, Just keep parameters stable.

 

[GK3]

Let’s be honest - we are all taking 2/3’s of the planet and trying to put it into our living room.

Some people do great using tap water others don’t (depends on where you live). Some people swear by QT, I’ve literally never done it (depends on your LFS). Don’t cycle with a fish (in my first SW tank my cycle damsel outlived everything, not saying it’s necessarily right). Some people do great with DIY equipment. Some people never do water changes. I’ve never chased a single pest with the exception of hair Algae. Chemclean cleared it all and several fish. Now I just add fish that take care of a problem.

So my point is: I enjoy the thread, but our tanks are all different, what works for some, does and doesn’t for others. Find me 100% guaranteed method for reef tanks and I’ll show you a boring hobby. Just my 2 gold dragons (I hope you get that).

 

[Lissa1987]

90 gallon FOWLR. My Aquarium maintenance company (just started out with saltwater last April so I had no idea) decided water changes were not necessary (as They only did two (less than 20 gallons) in a year.)..They were "letting it cycle" up to the year point where I took over...They were concerned about my calcium being high and had me dose only part B (once a week just squirt it in the sump- no actually quantity) I decided to add a regal angel and it died within a day (I also added more hardy fish which did ok) when I took a water sample back to the store, my nitrates were unreadable....It literally took me about 325 gallons30-40 gallons each change(every 2-3 days) to get them back on the Api chart...Why does a company who is supposed to care for (and about) your tank do things like this? The angel was the only fish I have lost since the tank was started almost 1 1/2 years ago...and the reason I lost it was due to ignorance and not being involved enough in my tank...

 

[Proteus Meep]

Facebook groups are the best place for advice

 

[fishybizzness]

You should start a saltwater tank they said, it no harder than a freshwater tank they said!!!

 

[Storm Trooper Reefer]

Everything at Petco that says Marine is Reef Safe!

 

[Neoalchemist]

my pet peeve regarding advice common in the hobby:

all your early invasions are normal. Leave them in. Its the uglies phase, it goes away on its own

(then we spend twenty years developing invasion stop methods to undo the advice for the 70%~ it never goes away)

People are told to sit there and watch any manner of invaders totally take over a tank, then work back slowly, hopefully, hesitantly, through the water only while trying to add animals to the setup. Recipe for the reason we have massive, massive invasion and dinos and loss within the hobby from biological means not just hardware/error issues.


The counter option: permit no invasion ever, disallow it from day one if you chose to build a system that lets you access the invaded areas for simple hand guiding. Simply opting out of the uglies phase and never self infecting is a new option we like to replace the old one with.

Once you hand guide to maturity, the work lessens and you can back off. if you start with purposeful invasion, you have a 70% chance of having to reinvest again at one point or become part of a rescue thread. Don't own a system so large or so densely stacked that you can't simply guide it into looking great vs letting it wreck/unwreck

Sorry, but I completely disagree. Outbreaks like dinos chrisophytes and low nutrient cyano are usually caused by not allowing other "pest" algea to fill the niche.
The philosophy on my current tank was to maintain low nutrients, Avoid nutrient sinks and never let a pest get a foothold. It worked so well that I ended up with a tank that was so efficient that I will be dosing no3, po4 and silicates for the foreseeable future to help grow "pests". After 6 or 8 month dino fight some turf algea is grounds for a celebration.
No, sorry, I'm firmly back to the old school philosophy of throw as much life as I can get my hands on into the tank, let it flourish then sort it out as time goes by.

 

[Ferrell]

“You don’t have to quarantine your fish”
Two weeks later... I have no fish because of velvet

 

[Neoalchemist]

Worst advise, " if you have algea you have po4 even if all test are zero, run more gfo." that led to a tank full of white skeletons for more bryopsis to grow on, lol. ( not really laughing)

 

[Genetics]

Power compact lights are more than enough to keep all corals happy.

 

[jtl]

Not sure I have actually had any bad advice in many years, but I have had conflicting advice.

 

[scriptmonkey]

"Raccoon Butterflyfish is reef safe."