Just a rant nothing major....

[Dearth]

I've been in the SW hobby for about 9 months now and have had some interesting chats with various SW hobbyists. At one time I was on 5 different forums learning what I could and found out real fast that all hobbyists are not created equal and it includes this forum as well. It's one of the reasons I no longer visit any other forum as this one seems to be the most tolerant one.

I've met some hobbyists face to face and talked with several in private chats and their responses to me being in the hobby with a nano tank has been wide and varied. Some have greeted me with enthusiasm and offered me no end of help while others wouldn't give me the time of day cause I run a nano tank.

I have met many who were willing to give me advice as long as I did it their way and if I refused or said I'm doing it this way those people will no longer talk to me. Then there are the ones that feel I should learn as they did by trial and error and shelling out countless thousands of dollars to learn from my mistakes at the same time are willing to offer smidgins of advice.

Then my personal favourites the ones that despise the hobbyists that run nano tanks it doesn't matter how nice your nano is they won't talk to you because your not a true hobbyist in their eyes and in their eyes guys like me are ruining the hobby.

So it can make it nerve wracking when you want to ask or show your tank because you never know how you will be received and there are many experienced hobbyists with many many years of hobby experience that tend to forget that they were once a newbie too and maybe didn't have the guidance of the forums or other hobbyists to set up and run your tank.

Yes it can get old hearing over and over the same questions about algae, diatom blooms and aiptasia but then that is why people come to the forums to learn. Maybe a FAQ forum should be posted for questions such as these. IE. I have seen many newbies ask about diatom blooms the standard answer is just wait for the bloom to mature...well it really doesn't answer the question and there is no standard answer but it helps to know it can take 3 days to 2 months to bloom. Stuff like that.

Ok I'm done feel free to flame rant or ignore

[sphelps]

I've not aware of anyone that discriminates against nano tanks. That makes zero sense, who are these people?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I've not aware of anyone that discriminates against nano tanks. That makes zero sense, who are these people?

There are some who would be like "huh nano? You must be kidding!". Maybe that's why there's a forum dedicated to nanos so that they dont feel the horror of such remarks.

But yah, in the end, Canreef is much more nano-friendly.

[lockrookie]

It can be frustrating I agree but most mean well. I think everyone's Experiance in the hobby carries so much that in itself is hard to give straight answers. Not all systems are the same. I'm sorry you have had a tough time of it. I've been in the hobby 3 years now and by no means follow the rule book as some lay out infront of me. But it works for me and I seem to keep thing's alive for the most part save for some corals.

It would be cool to have a FAQ page but even that will come under scrutiny and most new ppl wouldn't even know its there unless pointed to it. My advice my friend is breath relax its your tank take everything wih a grain of salt but don't write off all the advice most is good and has worked for the one whom posted it. Personally I take ppls advise and try to achieve something in between. Try everything once and the fun things twice sort of speak. Also I try to avoid public posting of my answers of how I do things. Keeps me out of the furring squad lol

[ScubaSteve]

Ya, I've come across that too (less so around here). It's annoying but I just ignore them. Those people aren't worth your time.

Personally I think that nanos require even more knowledge and hands on work than the big kid systems, so I think more respect is due for those that go this route; especially those that achieve gorgeous looking nanos. I am currently growing SPS like weeds in a skimmerless, LED-modded biocube faster than many of the big guys grow them in their big fancy systems. I can tell you it has taken every ounce of knowledge and experience I have to pull it off and it's way more work than my big tank. Funny thing is: when I told someone about my tank recently they didn't take me seriously because I said I was doing this in a biocube. QQLF?

[Dearth]

I just met a guy in Grande Prairie last week at Petsmart he found out I was a SW hobbyist so we started talking he has a 190 gallon tank and when I told him I ran a33 gallon tank he outright told me "I wasn't a real hobbyist and said it was guys like me that were ruining the hobby" and promptly walked away not saying another word to me

[sphelps]

But we all have nano tanks.... it's just perspective. Who comes up with the logic of what size is OK and what size is not? And what's it based on?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Dearth

I just met a guy in Grande Prairie last week at Petsmart he found out I was a SW hobbyist so we started talking he has a 190 gallon tank and when I told him I ran a33 gallon tank he outright told me "I wasn't a real hobbyist and said it was guys like me that were ruining the hobby" and promptly walked away not saying another word to me

Not everyone has the money to spend on a bigger tank....some people just don't get it. Or maybe they suffer from inferiority complex since nanos can achieve similar level of awesomeness to that of big tanks. I believe its all about husbandry in the end than just how big is you tank.

[Dearth]

I don't generally let stuff said on a forum bother me Christ try reading a gaming forum it's like dealing with 10000 5 yr olds. But while Canreef has been very helpful other forums like Reef central and American aquarist it can turn nasty real quick. It is also very tough to convey what your saying too because SW is very much visual and it gets frustrating very fast both for the newb and the one(s) trying to help especially if your trying to do it with no pictures.

[Coralgurl]

I've been on different forums as well, some I posted on, others I just created an account so that I could read the posts. I don't care for some of the US based sites, whether its SW or cars or whatever, I just find Americans have a completely different mindset on numerous things and I'm not very tolerant. These sites are full of useful information however so I just ignore the useless chatter.

I do find the crowd here for the most part to be quite awesome. I'm not sure what issues you are finding because you run a nano tank, I think they are amazing little systems, challenging for different reasons, but do the same thing any other size tank does and that's bring a bit of the ocean to your home for YOUR enjoyment, regardless of size.

Everyone here has different experiences in this hobby, therefore will have different opinions. Put those opinions on the internet, behind a computer screen and personalities will clash. Take what you want and leave the rest. If it doesn't work, move on to the next.

Hopefully you find your groove, your tank is still young and will likely continue to have its quirks for a bit. Hang in there!