What is an "advanced aquarist" ??
 

So this evening I decided to put off working on my (104.72g) tank yet again and insteaded decided to do some reading. I came accross this term again and it always seems to nip at me whenever I see it and I see it a lot. An "advanced aquarist". What the heck is that anyway? How do you qualify as one? How do you even define one?

Congratulations! By asking the secret question, you just qualified yourself as an advanced aquarist, eligible now to advance to the .. um .. the .. see, shoot, I was never good at ad-libbing .. oh oh I know! The NEXT LEVEL. Take it to the NEXT LEVEL!

I took Randy Holmes Farley's Reef Chemistry Quiz... I guess I'm an apprentice marine chemist according to that. I really don't know how else a person can formally qualify themselves as something in this hobby. However I have often wondered the same question and I believe that only those people who advance the hobby with their innovations and new approaches can call themselves advanced or expert aquarists. The rest of us who follow the instructions carefully laid out in books and articles can really only hope to be considered as intermediates or apprentices.

My MTS is very advanced... and since I am an aquarist... does that make me an advanced aquarist?

Its just another canned title to make someone feel far superior to there peers. Seems like it has more todo with money spent then anything else.

I am a Marine Hobbyologist!! that makes me superior!! MWAHAHAHA

I'm an advanced newbie.......smart enough to know better but.......

To me it's an online magazine :)

advanced aquarist? That is a really old guy that keeps and aquarium...

"Fred was an advanced aquarist until the nursing home took away his tank."

Next you'll learn the secret handshake! :wink:

Well you can't stay a noob forever. I think we're all advanced aquarists, hell we're learning all sort of things about this hobby every day so I'd call that advancing towards...something :razz:

Now the term expert aquarist, that says ego to me :razz:

I have to agree. :biggrin:

just remember your not an "advanced aquarist" unless your internet reputation is big. just another newb

i hate the internet but forums are addicting

edit...

sorry forgot some other concepts

unless you have a 100+ gal tank (preferably over 200gal) or you have a killer camera and can capture great shots of your livestock

not to sound bitter but after talking to a few people i wanted to kick them in the balls for how they talked to me because i wasn't up to par with their standards. but thats how it is on every forum, unless you make a name for yourself post whoring your a a nobody

Hmm. My tank is already on the main floor and I have no room upstairs in our bedroom for it :-(. I guess I'll never be an advanced aquarist. That's too bad because a lot of articles I read say that you can't keep this and you shouldn't keep that if you are not an advnced aquarist.. Boo hoo..

Was really hoping to maybe get a potters angel for the new tank but sadly only you special advanced aquarists are allowed to have them. Oh well.

One sure way is a refractometer not a salinity meter.
If you use a refractormeter you must be an advanced aquariust.

Ps.
I have nothing really funny to say but thought id tag along.

... our LFS uses a refractometer. Its a Total Pet so I dont think I have to say anything more. A conductivity meter on the other hand. That would impress me.

Oh, I thought it was if you could keep fish alive for a week

Honestly to me it's about knowing a lot about the hobby and the ablity to mantian a beautiful tank for quite a few years.

However if we're counting post whoring then I must be really really advanced :lol: j/k

If you can answer ALL the questions being asked on ALL the different forums, and answer them correctly, you might be an "advanced aquarist" LOL

I may be guilty too :redface:
Or is it pouring more and more money into it? :wink:

Oh oh, I've got that covered too :lol:

I thought that was what the mods were for, so we didn't have to read :twised:

LOL, mods aren't here because they know all the answers. They're here, well, because they're here so often :razz:

if i had to answer it, i would consider the advanced aquarist's to be the ones pushing the bounderies of the hobby that will make tommorow better for the aquariest's.

If it's about how much you have spent then I could quite posibly be the GRAND ULTRA SUPER ADVANCED AQUARIST, sounds better than certifiable(I think thats the term my therapist uses) :silly: You may now bow before me.

My next hobby will be that of burning hundred dollar bills and banging my head against the wall whilst inhaling the smoke!

Alot of the repliers here have over 1000 posts, some as high as 7000
<stares at christie>
Id say at 7000 posts you must be advanced.

Maybe it's when you sell more, than you have to give it away , or have to pay people to take. :lol:

more post's could also equal more question's

why do I want to get rid of ammonia, it cleans my floors does it not clean my tank ?

I'm not so sure about that :-) Every time I turn around it seems like this hobby has made some changes. New technologies, new methodologies, etc. There was a time when we didn't use skimmers. Now we use skimmers that are cone shaped because cones are cool? From Calcium reactors to Calcium dosing ? All those ULNS methods ? BioPellets ? Now LED lights are all the rage ? I have been in the hobby for 7 or 8 years and I still feel like a noob :redface: Although, I think I still have some pennies left that I could poor into this hobby so I may have some hope of becoming an advanced aquarist one day. I'm dreaming big!

Just putting this out there: perhaps it is how many advances you make with fellow hobbyists!

LOL it has nothing to do with posts. I put the entire reference library together, every one of those posts added to my post count. Some people create random threads in the lounge about nothing and people flock to them to get their numbers up. One of the mods was even gifting people with excess post counts for fun.

Post counts really mean nothing, other than the fact that they talk a lot and don't really have much else to do

But new technologies and methodologies don't mean that what you have going on with your tank now is completely defunct, it just means there are new ways of doing things and usually that comes with a hefty price tag, if this hobby is only for rich people well then I'm out (although some say it already is a hobby for the well off). You could decide go to with something new or stick with what you have, it doesn't make you a noob because you're constantly learning, it makes you a more avid hobbyist. Who wants to become complacent in this hobby, not me!

LOL!!!!:mrgreen:

I say post counts mean nothing. I have read just about every piece of paper out there, But I don't consider myself advance just not quite noob. I post very seldomly on many different boards but lurk quick a bit. I try to help out when I can with what I actually know.

If throwing money at this hobby counts, I'm an expert:redface:

Are you advance when you spend more money on your tanks than yourself:grab:

Making a bunch of dumb ass mistakes/decisions, spending a ton of money doing it and still continuing on !

It may mean how good you get at lying to people about the fact that you didn't but it new but second hand!!!!

EXACTLY

but that how it is on most forums and people look up to them. In reality its the people who better the hobby imo and sucessfully prove that their new methods are effective and safe.

An "Aquarist" is someone who keeps a goldfish in a bowl.

An "Advanced Aquarist" is someone who can keep the goldfish alive longer than 30 days.

I KNOW!! I've been totally trying to explain that to people, however most don't listen. I got totally taken in when I first started by someone that had a high post count, I figured they knew what they were doing. For the most part they did but they weren't much more "advanced" than I was and I quickly learned to do my own research.

Amazing coment.!