Help Me Out

[ajroahkni]

From the Marine Center website

 

http://www.themarinecenter.com/rockbs.htm

 

Great informative article on the whole live rock/cured rock/ etc.etc. thing.

[Dave ESPI]

New forum title:

 

ID Please:

A forum in which ya can get an answer to the "WTF is that ! in my tank.?" Questions.

[Christopher Marks]

Thanks for everything so far! I'm going to be compiling everything sometime this week. Keep the questions coming!

[Xavier]

Actually, I found a lot of useful information from the articles section. I've been doing a lot of research on marine tanks for a few months now, collecting information, learning the do's and don'ts, mainly from articles and "diaries".

 

As a professional web developer I can tell you that if the site has the information and it's setup properly, a "sitemap" and "FAQ" are rarely needed. Detailed articles provide more information then an FAQ would, and the forum a place to go AFTER reading the articles. FAQ's/Sitemaps are a pain to maintain, whereas, articles you can just archive as new things come out (someone will always have some old piece of equipment that they don't know anything about... therefore... archives are handy).

 

What I've done in similar situations is a step-by-step guide. In an endeavor such as a marine tank, there are certain things you must do, some things you can bend the rules on, all within some type of order. A guide where a person can come in and learn what a nano is, what you can do with a nano, what elements make up a nano, what equipment is needed, patience patience patience, explain the different livestock, etc, etc, and end up finally at the forum - this is the way a truly interested individual will learn. Take all of your FAQ questions some of information from your current articles (link to the full article from the guide if need be) and create something I will come back to over and over as I'm setting up my tank, completing each step of the guide.

 

And of course you'll want your obligatory disclaimer that the guide is for information purposes only, and you obviously take no responsibility for the outcome of their tank

[hhasty79]

I'd like to see a FAQ question that goes...

 

Q:"I just bought critterxyz -- what does it eat, how big does it get, and I think it might be sick will copper fix it, because I just dumped some in?"

 

A: [Either] "Bring it back to the store and trade it for a good book"

[OR] "Why don't you email Dave ESPI and see what he thinks?"

 

So sick of people buying stuff because it looks cool and then trying to learn all about it in the hour or two it's acclimating! Argh! And you wouldn't beleive it, folks, it even happens in freshwater..."Hey I bought a little fish called a pacu today for my betta bowl! What should I feed it?".........[primal scream...]

 

-the evil Zerg Queen slithers from her soapbox and retreats to the shadows of Lurkerdom...

[Xavier]

Has anyone considered either linking to, or creating, a database of this type of information? Different livestock, details, and images can be databased so that you can converse on them and provide personal experiences to the different creatures. I've seen a handful of these types of sites on the net during my research, but few I came across were very good (most DB's I found were woefully lacking in detailed information). Being that this is a site for Nano-reefs, it might be beneficial to setup some type of database of nano-safe creatures (therefore, you wouldn't need to maintain a DB of all marine creatures).

[Metznreef]

i think an FAQ would be a futile attempt to educate people because from what i've observe from people on the net so far is that they are LAZY. they would rather have other people answer their simple qustions for them then find them theirselves. wait on second though, it's a 50/50 split between the lazy and non-lazy so it may not be such a bad idea after all.

[Kalanianaole]

I got into the salt hobby five months ago, and my first tank was a 6 gal eclipse = I was a beginner x 2. Oh yeah, and my faq-style questions are still pretty fresh in my mind.

 

Nuuuuuuumber One!

The most important for me was Reeeeesearch! Then look for a second and third opinion on everything, espically because people like to gloat over anomolous victories that often won't be replicated. And as someone said in the thread earlier, if you don't have the grit to read up on what you're gonna do, then you mos def don't have the necessary constitution to keep reef. Hoo-ha!

 

Nummer Two!

Ummm....I can't quite think of anything as vital as research so you have the Knowledge and Empowerment and all that sass.

Ooo, maybe Number Two Big Important Thing is understanding that YOUR tank is different than everyone elses, so act/feed/clean/change/add/love accordingly.

 

Numba Tre!

An answer/link/discussion on the maturation process of your tank. Specifically, what you can look forward to long term after the initial cycle. For example, the myth/facts about tank crashes, substrate building up nasties or toxic materials, why you should wait a long time before adding gorgonias, scleronephytha, sponges and the like.

 

Or something like that.

 

kalaniana'ole majhibar I, esquire

[ricknbecky]

Max fish load for tank size. #of inches of fish/ gal of H2O.

To avoid peope trying to trade that cute little trigger htat has out grown the 7g minibow.

[printerdown01]

I think this is a great idea, but the major problem with addressing most of these issues is simply that there are multiple ways of dealing with them. I.e. What lighting, water changes durring cycle, what salt brand, what tests, what corals, what fish, tank size, filtration (major confusion for newbies, almost as bad as lighting) ect. All of these have SEVERAL answers. And the major confusion for newbies doesn't come from the more concrete Q&A..? I'm not sure if I stated my point clearly, as everytime I post past 2 am I have to redo it in the morning... but I hope this is somewhat understandable... Perhaps I should try a statement: Newbies don't seem to be confused with concepts when everyone agrees, the confusion arises on the more debated issues (lighing, beginer corals, filtration, appropriate level of current, additives ect).... -there I'm pretty sure that makes sense (I'll have to re-read it tomorrow). I am honestly not sure how a Q&A will address these issues... perhaps I'm just tired and am not thinking creatively... -night y'all.

[reiple]

Research only lays down the foundation.

 

In such a young (almost all documents and faq sheets refer to BIG tanks and prevailing techniques in regular marine aquarium --- where nano reefing is a MINOR subset. An "anomaly" if you like) field as this "nano" reefing style of keeping inverts you can gather little factual and more opinions taken as fact.

 

Experience is the greater teacher. It is expensive (the mistakes and critter death) and time consuming. But you will learn.

 

Looking for that "cooking recipe" approach is good for big tanks. Nanos are pioneer land. Common sense works better (some don't have this though.)

 

And so the now 8 month old tank continues to grow and thrive.....

[tgrupert]

how about

 

 

why is everyonbe so mean to me?

[coolreefer]

put alot o anenomes and how dangerous they are. then tell how to keep one if that person really want to(teporarily).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canary's can sing but snails get drunk!

[Christopher Marks]

Well, for a great deal of these questions, I'm going to expand on them with articles. I'm dividing the articles area up into topics: [beginners Articles, Live Stock Articles, Equipment Articles, etc]

[leslr]

Another idea would be to post a link to our senior members who would look after answering a specific question/s relateing to a specific subject:ie Any questions relating to "power Heads" would be directed to lets say Dave Espi. As everyone monitors the posts and seems to jump all over newbies at times anyway break the fields down to specifics ,something like reef centrel with monitors on each section.

leslr.

[Kogut]

A section on what stuff means. My entire family sits and stares at me when I say things like "powerhead"... I wouldn't think it that hard to understand, but apparently it is...

[coralreefer]

cycling lr -

 

there seems to be two schools of thought:

 

1) no light/no wc - applies to those who wish not to keep

hitchiking flora/fauna (curing)

2) light and wc - those who want to keep all hitchikers (cycling)

esp. concern of florida aqaucultered rock).

 

both methods should be discussed.

 

btw chris, thanks for the site! without it i may have never started my 10g three weeks ago.

[coralreefer]

chris,

 

if you could get some help from other experienced nano-reefers on this subject http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=35543

 

it would be hugely appreciated by all!

 

thanks

[Scorched]

holy old thread batman!