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what do u consider a beginner?

2K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  Little Luey 
#1 ·
I have had fishtanks for 10 years. Last year in Nov I created a 65g reef tank. no problems yet ( WHEW) Everthing is growing and fish are doing great!
am I still a beginner? :rolleyes:
 
#2 ·
If you want to get all "freudien" I would say that everyone is a beginner. Including me. I dont know of anyone that knows everything and most people are still constantly learning new things everyday about nearly every aspect of this hobby.

My littleneck clam just burped.
 
#5 ·
Yeah said that it was his bad, it smelt like Zooplan. Trying to teach the things some manners - they just dont learn. I tell them to stop burping, then as soon as they stop burping I feed them some more Zoo as a treat then they just burp again. It's almost like they are taunting me.
 
#6 ·
johnny505 said:
hahahaha .... well, he does have a point, but i do think there is a line somewhere?!?!
I will make one line and you decide if you can step across it. If things dont (DO NOT) keep dying in your tank then you are past a beginner. I know one guy that still cant keep damselfish alive and my freakin clams are trying to breed. I will get a call from him once a week, 6 months straight now 'YEAH!!! THE DOMINO DAMSEL IS STILL ALIVE' then 1 to 2 months later it dies. He's cursed I think so I just stay away from his place. Because whenever I go to test his water - it is all nearly perfect (outside of slightly higher nitrates). I could probably keep a domino damsel alive in a can of Sprite for longer then a month. Just gimme an air stone and a tablespoon of synthetic sea salt.
 
#11 ·
I base a persons level based on your reaction to any given situation. when there is a question or problem are you scrambling for books or online or do you know what to look for? Everyone has issues, i say experience will show how you handle the issues as they come along.
 
#12 ·
i feel like im a beginner, especially with reefs. there is way to much to learn. i think one thing that pushes you over that next step, is when you finally have the knowledge to make decisions, without haveing to ask a thousand questions on a forum. there are so many different ways to achieve a single task, (dsb, bb.... skimmer, no skimmer..... sump, no sump) you get the idea, if you could start right now, with out asking a single question, and set up an entire tank, just a little different from the one you have now. i think you have some experience.
 
#13 ·
I think that beginner only applies for a while. Once we have made a few intelligent changes or learned from a few problems or even had a few systems, i dont know that beginner applies. I do however think that novice applies to alomost everyone! Without a deep understanding of the chemistry involved in this hobby how can we be anything but novices? At most we learn a solid foundaton for the basics of water chemistry and livestock care a nd needs but very few have the knowledg of someone like Tom.
Thats not to say there arent some very advanced novices with high levels of success!!!!!!
Im just a low level novice with a few strengths.

Robert
 
#14 ·
I like this view of being a "beginner" better; we are all beginners in a way, no matter how long we've been doing this. One of the things that I love most about the hobby is that the learning curve never ends...I think that you become a "serious" hobbyist when you come to this realization, and then decide to keep on learning everything you can :D

...and remember, there is no shame in reaching for a book, or asking a well-thought out question, when you don't know...

- Michael

jonnywater said:
If you want to get all "freudien" I would say that everyone is a beginner. Including me. I dont know of anyone that knows everything and most people are still constantly learning new things everyday about nearly every aspect of this hobby.

My littleneck clam just burped.
 
#15 ·
depending on where you want to start the beginning of the learning curve.
if you start back to where you first got a tank, either fresh water or salt water and tried very hard or not to keep something alive. then that woudl be the beginning of a very long journey.But.... if you want to break t he journal down to certain paths or forks in the road of life, then you are a beginner no matter which way you go. But..... if you are talking Reef tanks only, each person is a bginning in a certern way. the reef tank we have changes over time while in our care. each tank, each person has to deal with the changes in that specific tank,the problems in your tank will not be the same in my tank, the growth you get , may or may not happen in his tank, or mine..some read up and learn as much as they can on certain areas to be more helpful to others and to solve a problem they may be having at that time....

what was the question again?
 
#16 ·
I really don't think it matter the length of time You have been in the hobbie, Some of the younger guys here know more of whats going on then some old time guys like me. I have learned alot from people with only a few years in the hobbie. It's real easy to just stay in the same place and not go anywhere when things are going good. It like everything else, it how well you apply yourself.
 
#18 ·
Here is officially when you are not a beginner. You hold a calcium pinpoint monitor in your tank with your teeth, a ph monitor with your foot, then use both your hands to test your water 24 hours a day. You havent slept in 27 years, you have nothing but those little seachem meters that detect ammonia lining the right hand side of your tank - you only leave the chair to go to the bathroom but you have a portable "video monitoring system" that you stare in to even when you go to the bathroom, you never leave the side of your tank so much that you are actually the only person on the entire planet that can use an eyedropper to top off the water, you'v scheduled water changes 7 years in advance and starting actually mixing the water 3 years in advance, if you smell even the slightest secent of algae - your entire tank is rigged like something the coyote would do, you have a MASSIVE net where you can hit an emergency panic button and it lifts everything out of your tank and into a quarantine tank. If that doesnt make you beyond a beginner, I dont know what does.

Outside of that, the information that the hobby has changes to much. Like for example protein skimmers were the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread. Now adays there are even some "nay-sayers" of them.
 
#20 ·
if being beyond beginner is simply being addicted, learning as much as you can, and never looking away from your tank even when your posting on a forum, no matter the speling porblems or not. then im a pro!
 
#23 ·
I consider myself a beginer, my first tank when up the summer of 2004 but I had more of a HA tank than a reef. Now my current tank is pretty much algie free and I am able to keep some easy coral and fish. I have the tank maintenance down for the most part but I don't do any testing at all. I know if I want to move forward I need to start testing for different things but specially Ca, I need to know I can keep SPS and clams, but I am not willing,(yet) to start testing. It is up to me when I try this, and it would move me along in the knowledge area.

It is true we never stop learning.
 
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