Tip of the Week #2
Beware of forums !!!
While forums are typically a great source of first hand knowledge, they can also be a pain in the backside for two different reasons.
When first starting and setting up your marine aquarium, your experience is limited. Even when you research more than enough, you still can make a mistake here and their when you are new to the hobby. Most of the time this is not a bad thing as there will be no permanent harm to your aquarium inhabitants and you will still be enjoying your aquarium in ignorant bliss, just like I had started started out in the hobby. However, if you unknowingly make a mistake to go to a forum to explain your situation and ask for advice, you will likely get a dozen or so people pointing out all of your mistakes. This can make it real easy to feel bad about yourself and limit your enjoyment you will get from your aquarium. Just keep in mind that almost all problems you will ever run into, can be corrected by applying a few basic and simple concepts. This hobby is not a “Black Art”.
Another reason for this warning is some hobbyist who have many decades of experience can forget they are talking to a newer or lessor experience hobbyist at times. This can make you feel like someone just explained to you how to build a watch when you only asked what time it was. Don’t get down on yourself when this happens, and it will happen. It can be easy to feel like you don’t know what you are doing when a fellow hobbyist tries to sum up his/her many many years of experience into a few paragraphs, just do your best to learn from the information. Once again, stick to the basics doing those well, and most every thing else will fall into place.
Also, I thought I would share the below links as I found them very interesting and I hope you will as well
http://blog.aquanerd.com/2013/05/diablo-dc3500-controllable-pump.html
http://blog.aquanerd.com/2013/08/vertex-aquaristik-sump.html
http://blog.aquanerd.com/2013/09/picture-of-the-week-mccoskers-flasher-wrasse-paracheilinus-mccoskeri.html