Reef Aquarium Guide bashed, need your help

[Scrooge]

I could use some backup. I recommended the removal of biomedia to a user of my discussion board. The manufacturer of the filter in question has now decided to visit my board and tell me how wrong I am. Please take a moment to view the thread here http://www.hobbyschool.com/UBB/Forum1/HTML/000964.html

I would appreciate any posts you might make to this thread backing me up. Of course, if you disagree with me you can say that as well

[Doug1]

Check your thread

[Brooke]

Scrooge-

Perhaps it's time to update your "liability" statement. See the bottom of our page where it says, "our lawyer tells us....."

You might want to make sure you have something in your registration and below the copyright that protects you from people who feel the need to blame you for what happens to their business.

I can't believe he really hasn't done a water change in 8 years...good grief!

Brooke

[tdwyatt]

OK,

I thought we had addressed this topic many months ago on several boards... Hmmmmmm....
To your defense, and to stimulate a rational dialogue, I have posted as follows at your site:

I find it interesting that your filtration system touts something that, once we finally got away from it, seems to come back rearing it's ugly head. I don't dispute that bioballs are great at moving ammonia along its path more quickly to nitrate; whatever your system does, I'm sure that it must do so very efficiently. The ultimate question is "Why do this when there is a non-technical solution that requires zero maintainence and no additional cost? What is it's advantage???" Keep in mind that most of the folk who use this forum are newbies, or lurker newbies, who take much of what is posted here as Gospel. I guess that you'll have to take me to school, too; although I don't want to get in the middle of a cat fight, my marine biology degree keeps me from seeing the utility of using a redundant nitrification cycle...I guess all that post grad school stuff must have fried my brain (coral)... spell out your program, your system, your world wide recognised system of nitrification and it's advantages, and tell me, without resorting to taunts and innuendo, why it is better, and support the statements you make with sound data. Let the public forums scrutinize your data and your system, and allow folk to make evaluations based on the system's strong points. THAT is what will win you followers, not "taking (them) to school"... ...Many shysters and snake oil salesmen have resorted to attack and innuendo when others "... just don't understand this new approach..." when the data doesn't back up the bravado. Take the time to formulate a sustance-based reply and gain support, rather than just bucking the system. If your system is truely an advance, all of us can profit from your insight, our corals husbandry will make another leap forward, and people will speak of you the same way they did when ("..did you hear that Julien Sprung has been running a set of tanks WITHOUT undergravel filters for 3 years now???") Julien acheived his groundbreaking advances in the early 90's.

Put up, or shut up.

[FishDaddy]

Scrooge,
Thank you for bringing this up. All filtration methods that can improve our reefs are worth considering but many have been discarded in favor of the prevailing preferred LR/LS/Skimmer/regular water change setup.
All new reefers should become familiar with Underground Filters; Plenums; Bio-Balls; Bio-Wheels; Cannister Filters; Fluidized Bed Filters and all other filtration systems so that they can make their own intelligent and informed choices and not be subject to buying equipment they do not need upon the recommendation of a single vendor.
The important thing is to explore, ask questions and do research before buying anything to put in your tank.
BTW, your site, http://www.hobbyschool.com/reef/ is one of the links I recommend to new reefers as a source of information. Thanks for your contribution to our hobby.
The learning never stops.
Dick

[ 03-22-2001: Message edited by: FishDaddy ]

[Scrooge]

Many thanks to those of you who took a moment to post. You guys are great, thanks for the help. BTW, you can stop posting on the topic now, I think the point was made and don't want it getting any worse.

And now, I will shamelessly plug my site since this is getting so much play. (At least I am honest about it!) The discussion board is good but a little slow, but I think the main site is great and everyone would benefit from it. So, give a visit to http://www.hobbyschool.com and have a look around.

P.S. Thanks FishDaddy for recommending my site, that is the highest praise I could receive

[Doug1]

Youre welcome, and everytime I post on your board my sig line is a shameless plug so we are even