Bad Advice or No Advice

[Smithers]

I was at my local pet shop yesterday and the owner was offering pretty dodgy advice.

Here are some snippets.

He was suggesting PINK (yes you read it right) T8's and Sylvania over ATI, AM and Deltec T5's.

Jebo skimmers are just as good as AM, Octo's etc

Blue lights make coral grow.

Calcium Chloride is better than Kalk as Kalk can kill everything.

Bio Balls, You need em and you need em bad !

The list goes on. What worries me the most is that people like this offer such shocking advice. Do you think it is better that they do not give advice at all.
When I go to Northlands, I know I can ask Chris or Shaun a question and I KNOW they will give me an informed answer. Reason being they have tried so mant diff. products and they use a lot of them in their shop.

I am not punting Northlands I am just comparing them to my LFS. People like this make me wanna :014::y14:

 

[AndreT]

Yeah I also feel like killing some of them sometimes.

I went to one of my LFS a while back looking to buy salt. They only sold Prodac. I asked the guys if they don't stock brands like TM, Reef Crystals or Instant Ocean. He laughed at me and said that all salts are the same and that you only pay for the name when buying products like TM. I just turned around and walked off. I did later buy the Prodac salt.

 

[Smithers]

That is their problem as well. I asked why they do not stock other brands of salt apart from red sea. Their answer IT IS THE BEST SALT !
I also mentioned some of the sponsors names and products and he was not interested at all.
I would rather have a good looking sales tank that some darkly lit cess pool of rotting corals.

 

[Afsal]

just wants to make u scream , also heard this , trickle filter systems are the best i.e with bio balls etc .... another guy at the shop siad , im keeping marines for years and jebo is the best !!!

 

[Dober Man]

Smithers, i assume from the Jebo thing that its Hillcrest Pets. Unfortunately the owner of HP is the brother of the owner of Marltons, so he only punts Marltons products (jebo being one of them). He gets the Marltons stuff at discount price and sells them at a premium to make more money out of unsuspecting newbies.

This is when people have huge deaths in their tanks and are scared to ventuer further into the hobby, and eventually call it a day.

 

[Afsal]

thats just sad !!!

 

[Smithers]

Not mentioning any names whatsoever, This has happened to me at more than one petshop though. Lots of people are still stuck in the days of T8's and are not willing to try a damn thing.

 

[Alan]

IMO this is one of the biggest problems in this hobby as it will eventually drive people away from the hobby.

 

[Mekaeel]

thats how i started off,with all incorrect advice from LFS and then realised how much money was thrown away when i could have bought the good stuff all at once

 

[Smithers]

I feel the same Mekaeel, If I had just gone with T5's from the start and a decent skimmer I would not have had half the problems either. I did not even know about forums like this and the other one untill I had hair algea almost as bad as deans (Dean's algea takes the cake though).

Instead of punting just one product try a few and see what else there is out there on the market. Just because you keep coral in a tank for a few days before you sell it does not mean you are an instant expert.

Without online forums I think I would have given up already. This is a great hobby and LFS out there have the ability to ruin it.

 

[Mekaeel]

ha guess we in the same boat then gavin.now im sitting aound with junk lying all around the place

 

[Rod]

Hi this is a tank run on Sylvania T8's and a Jebo skimmer:

 

[Mekaeel]

to be honest,that system doenst look bad

 

[Copperband]

Yeah Mekaeel but remember its Rod's tank. Rod can keep SPS looking great for months using a wet hanky and dishwasher salt..

 

[Mekaeel]

lol you put in a nice way copper

 

[Rod]

Hi the point I was trying to make is one can have a nice tank with basic equipment. And no its not my tank, it belonged to friend of mine. The tank has been stripped down as he is doing alterations to the house.
BTW Copperband this tank was in a west facing room which had lots of good old sunlight for most of the afternoon.

 

[Afsal]

these sure look like T5 ballasts !!!

 

[Rod]

these sure look like T5 ballasts !!!

Nope, electronic T8 ballasts.

 

[Smithers]

Ok so that is a nice tank ... (me sulks off now) ... BUT reefers like me start off with keeping the odd softy then see Glynn's tank or alans or bob the reef builder the list goes on. Why not start off with something like a little Octo or reeftek even a small AM skimmer. That is the one think I regret doing is going cheap. I am not wealthy but I pump all my free cash into my tank. A skimmer to me is invaluble.
The difference between a T8 and T5 is not that much either. A ballast for a T5 is around the 150 mark and that supports 2 lights. The ballast for a T8 is around the 100 mark and you need 2.
So it is not like the T5's are more expensive really.
The petshop owner also did not know that using Kalk helps with precipitating phosphates etc etc
He just saw it as a Bad idea.

 

[DragonReef]

Rod for sure, I've seen some stunning shoe string budget tanks.

The difference they have been guided by guy's like yourself who are passionate Hobbyists and will only advise them to keep what they know their tank limitations are.

Too many times guy's are sold equipment / livestock that will perish in their systems because the guy at the shop doesn't even know what the requirements are, or doesn't ask the guy what equipment / tank he is running.
Again, I know you not one of those but the sad reality is there are unscrupulous guy's out there and it's so short sited. Instead of trying to get a guy involved for the long haul they try and make a quick sale now.
After losing countless livestock and buying equipuiment he doesn't need they end up throwing in the towel and giving up.
We want this hooby to grow and thrive in the future, espescially the kids.
Far too many kids hanging out in shopping malls and getting up to no good. Let them get into a hobby that introduces them to great people, teaches them something about our precious Marine resources and the wonderful creature that exist.

Ok I'll get off my soap box now..