2017 The Year Of The Critical Thinking Reef Keeper

Sharvey103

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Great article. It pays to take your time and pay attention to what your tank is telling you when making changes especially if you only have one tank and no test tank. Observation is as critical a skill and critical thinking.
 
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jeremy.gosnell

jeremy.gosnell

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I studied sociology in college, which is a social science, so there are some parallels between how we study cultural traits and influences to how hard science in a lab setting works. However, sociology is also a very literary science, in that data is used to make a multitude of interpretations. As for hard reef science, I worked with Beautiful Oceans (a now defunct, diving based coral reef biology school/program) to collect data on reefs and analyze it while also creating 3D GPS maps of reef growth and changes over time. The program also offered biology based education for scuba divers, so that they could have a concrete understanding of reef biology. Some of what I learned on those projects (which involved real world coral reefs) have translated into my approach to reef keeping. However, most of my reef keeping approach came early as an affront to common sense. You promise that one product will influence a host of complex biological processes and offer grand and measurable results - but you won't even release the contents of the product, so that people can make an informed consensus before dumping it into a tank full of tens of thousands of dollars worth of living animals. That seemed bizarre to me, to have some much trust with so little baseline testing. Since I was dissatisfied by simple reef keepers' review videos, I began testing products to scrutiny similar to that found in syndicated labs. Testing costs money and takes time, as the equipment needed isn't cheap, however it saves on the back-end, once you learn something expensive isn't working.
 

Uwharrie

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Great article. Being new to the hobby I have found forums a blessing and curse. There is an outlet to ask for advise. But trying to decide what is good and bad advise can be a challenge. I do find this hobby frustrating for me. I guess if I get years under my belt it will not be as bad. After just a little over a year in I see why so many folks get in and then out.
 

Cruz_Arias

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Very nice article...
There is a big difference between thinking critically versus thinking skeptically...
Critical thinking isn't what many skeptics in our hobby practice. They practice doubting without doing.

Critical DOING is what this hobby needs, not theoretical reefing experts.
 

Cruz_Arias

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When go against the norm in this hobby people tend to attack those that question the current trend. I remember when the Berlin method was first starting to be used. Everyone was using wet/dry systems and everyone thought that just placing live rock into a tank could not provide filtration for a reef tank. There where many hostile discussion thread's on forum's. I see that now with lighting people question the current trend and hostility comes into play. If one does not constantly question the proper way to do something we never learn anything. Just because others say something is great doesn't make it so in all cases. :)
Agreed, Ed... 100%... the corollary is also true... just because others say something is not great (also with no practical experience to back it up) doesn't negate validity. :)
 

Rick Mathew

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Excellent article! I could not agree more especially with regard to "rigorous testing". Although many of us see testing as a "necessary evil" it is primary to the understanding of what is happening in our reef!...Bad testing procedure and protocols yield incorrect and random results which produces incorrect and random actions!!...Not good for stability of our systems. Understanding the precision and accuracy of a test is critical to the decisions on what action to take....If any. In a discussion with a fellow hobbyist, he informed me when he gets an undesirable result he retests the sample...sometimes multiple times and often gets a desirable result. This in and of itself is not a bad practice, but then the question..."what do you do if you get a good result on the first test?"...."Record the results and move on".... This says he believed the results when they were good but not if they were bad!...This is not a good practice! If the test results are in error with undesirable results it is just as likely to be in error with good results. This is why we need to understand the precision and accuracy of our testing methods so we can have confidence in the data that is going to lead us to take action or do nothing....Critical Thinking!

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Hope lots of people read it.
 

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