Worst advise seen/been given

[blasterman]

Pretty much the lighting forum here on a daily basis. I'm an engineer, and if I were to spout half the junk I see promoted in the lighting forum I would be handed a box and fired.

"Can't grow corals with LEDs"

"T5's and halides are full spectrum" , etc.

"You have algae...it's because you are using LEDs"

"The sun is the wrong spectrum to grow corals" ....my personal favorite

The other bad one is the relentless and neurotic push to get noobs here to start two part dosing when they have tanks with mostly LPS and softies.

Claiming some salt mixes are superior to others because they contain unobtanium and other rare trace elements.

 

[oceans garden aquaculture]

my wife STILL to this day tries to convince me of this.... I have shown her studies and proof and she still tells me this..... and she is confident that with the stunted growth the fish will be stress free and healthy.....

Yes dear...

 

[The0wn4g3]

"Get a saltwater aquarium, it's relaxing!"

Yeah tell that to my sleep schedule and bank account...

 

[oceans garden aquaculture]

Pretty much the lighting forum here on a daily basis. I'm an engineer, and if I were to spout half the junk I see promoted in the lighting forum I would be handed a box and fired.

"Can't grow corals with LEDs"

"T5's and halides are full spectrum" , etc.

"You have algae...it's because you are using LEDs"

"The sun is the wrong spectrum to grow corals" ....my personal favorite

The other bad one is the relentless and neurotic push to get noobs here to start two part dosing when they have tanks with mostly LPS and softies.

Claiming some salt mixes are superior to others because they contain unobtanium and other rare trace elements.

I just literally face palmed myself at the sun comment... zoinks that's a special kinda, .. special

 

[hllb]

"This Copperband butterfly will help the aiptasia problem in your 14 gallon biocube"

This was also from a pretty well known LFS in the Detroit Metro area.

Ooh, which one? I mean, I only go to one, but...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Disease or Dino? let the tank sit it out, it will go away

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

I had someone tell me that I should be testing nitrites and ammonia Weekly on my 12 year old 29g.... what the WHAT?!

 

[Fezbearer]

"The sun is the wrong spectrum to grow corals" ....my personal favorite

 

[Brew12]

How about the worst advice I've ever given? I'll admit I still feel terrible about it.
A member I had gotten to know well was having all sorts of problems with his tank. Couldn't keep coral, fish wouldn't live more than 6 months. He ended up with a dinoflagellate issue. I recommended that he dose 1ml of H2O2 per 10 gallons of volume.
He did, and pretty much everything in his tank was dead within 24 hours.

Turns out he had high levels of Vanadium in his water from black sand. The H2O2 must have reacted with it and wiped his tank. ;Blackeye

 

[cancun]

Let's all share our stories of the worst advise you've been given when starting out or what you might have seen floating around or just funny things people have said that make no sense

I'll start the lack of explanation of the nitrogen cycle I've seen this quiet a few times when I've bought fish from different shops it's not that they dont mention it it's like they are rushed and say leave the tank running for 10 days then it will be fine it's not hard to give out a link to a YouTube video

Here's mine....I was told this years ago by three LFS by me, "you can acclimate a fish from their 1.018 salinity water to your 1.025 water in 60 min with a fast drip". Matter of fact I still hear that advise today to new aquarists. Then a few days later they are back at the LFS saying their fish died.

 

[accline]

“Purchase the seahorse, it will do fine with your wrasse and tang.”

“Mandarin Gobies don’t need anything special in your tank, just feed normal pellets.”

“ To grow anything, you need to have zero nitrates.”

 

[brandon429]

Brew it was big of you to take accountability for that, but I don’t think that cause effect scenario is the reason for his loss. We have about eleven years of peroxide work collected, several are black sand, no losses. Sometimes people make dosing mistakes, calculation errors, and they dont know or won’t admit. That loss is one outlier among just a massive amount of opposite outcomes to consider.

based on some of the longest term patterning ive collected for what peroxide does, your call wouldnt kill anything in his tank beyond lysmata cleaner shrimp. Right now in the chem forum, Cory has been using five times the dose in a full reef, documenting everything. Not black sand agreed, but I’ve seen ten or fifteen of them by now dosing the 1:10. hth

 

[laverda]

Sadly I have read some really bad advice on this site including today. I don’t know why people give advice that have no clue what they are talking about!

 

[cancun]

Sadly I have read some really bad advice on this site including today. I don’t know why people give advice that have no clue what they are talking about!

Can you give us an example without naming the person? So we can learn from it....if that's possible!

 

[cancun]

This is a great thread by the way! Especially if new aquarists came across this. I can't imagine how much headache, stress, heartache, and money I would have saved myself if I knew then what I know now!

 

[laverda]

There are a couple tonight. One rough quote: All tangs will stop eating veggies once the get a tase if meets food, so don’t worry if your only eats meat.

 

[cancun]

There are a couple tonight. One rough quote: All tangs will stop eating veggies once the get a tase if meets food, so don’t worry if your only eats meat.

Wow! I see some too, but it is hard to decide whether or not to respond, and risk a back and forth with the person giving out the bad info. On the other hand you hate for the new aquarist to get the wrong info too.

 

[Smarkow]

"This Copperband butterfly will help the aiptasia problem in your 14 gallon biocube"

This was also from a pretty well known LFS in the Detroit Metro area.

Did it?

 

[Smarkow]

There are a couple tonight. One rough quote: All tangs will stop eating veggies once the get a tase if meets food, so don’t worry if your only eats meat.

 

[Smarkow]

Pretty much the lighting forum here on a daily basis. I'm an engineer, and if I were to spout half the junk I see promoted in the lighting forum I would be handed a box and fired.

"Can't grow corals with LEDs"

"T5's and halides are full spectrum" , etc.

"You have algae...it's because you are using LEDs"

"The sun is the wrong spectrum to grow corals" ....my personal favorite

The other bad one is the relentless and neurotic push to get noobs here to start two part dosing when they have tanks with mostly LPS and softies.

Claiming some salt mixes are superior to others because they contain unobtanium and other rare trace elements.