Today, I felt a little more uplifted by some hobby-related experiences this weekend, so I’m putting my usual grumpy, cynical, sarcastic self on the back burner for the day to give us a little Monday lift. That’s right- I’m praising us for a change. Don’t worry, I haven’t gone “soft”…By tomorrow, I’ll have something to rail about, trust me. 
I had occasion to go to one of my local fish stores this weekend (Hey, I’m a fish geek, right? It’s still fun!), and, amid the usual hustle, bustle, and hobbyist banter, I made a social observation:
When you think about it, we as reefers (Okay, aquarium hobbyists in general, but reefers in particular, really) have an incredible amount of knowledge about some very arcane facts, don’t we?
“Phosphate”, “calcium hydroxide”, “ultra low nutrient systems”, “ferric aluminum oxide” , “Acropora”, “zeolites”, “reverse osmosis”, “magnesium levels”, “ORP” are some of the first words you’ll often hear out of the mouth of a fellow reefer when engaged in a reefing discussion. Sounds intimidating to the uninitiated, but some of these things are just fundamental, and really quite easily understood in context. But they can alienate you from the masses at the next cocktail party you're invited to, unless, of course, it's at a reef conference!
"With my new controller, I can monitor Ph, ORP, evaporation, perspiration, and minor temperature fluctuations within a given set point." Ok, so it might brand you as a geek to some, but to us, it's cool.
In one 5 minute stretch, I heard an outwardly simple, biker-type guy giving a very detailed, lucid, and informative dissertation to a couple of other customers on the topic of phosphate in the reef and its good and bad effects on corals, complete with personal experience references and admission that some of his theories might be anecdotal…I mean, really impressive. I also listened in on a rather vigorous discussion on the merits of water changes conducted by a “Scary cat lady” kind of person (sorry for the cruel stereotype, but I’m being serious here!) And then there was the “Emo”girl with the fuscia hair and piercings, talking about how she grows phytoplankton for the Orchid Dottybacks she’s spawning….It all goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover!
"Duuude, my Pseudochromis flaviritex tend to have skewed sex ratios when I rear them at slightly lower pH. I think I'll try elevating with a concentrated two-part solution to keep more stable environmental parameters." Ok. Yeah.
More important, it shows that, as hobbyists, we are an incredibly well-studied, intellectually curious bunch, regardless of our educational backgrounds, ethnicity, appearance, gender, etc. As it should be. And most important of all- we share our knowledge with others quite readily, and a lot of the knowledge is NOT regurgitated stuff. Rather, it’s hard-earned, real world information gleaned by years of actual practice in our own reef systems, making it the most valuable kind of information available, IMHO.
Dan Rigle's reef. Real world testbed for real world answers.
What I find truly fascinating about our hobby is the level on which the average hobbyist is operating. Many of us run systems with tight control and understanding of many, many aspects of the environment, with tremendous insight on just why each of the perimeters we obsess over is so important. That’s really cool, because we are not just following some kind of “orders” from some anonymous “hobby force” up there that tells us to keep our nitrates at 0-10ppm, or our photoperiod at “X” hours per day…Rather, we’re arriving at some of these “hobby norms” because we’re observing and tweaking our systems based on what works best for our corals…crazy concept, huh?
My pal Marc Levenson (melev), everyman's reefer, avowed hater of freshwater, classic example of the consummate self-taught, happy-to-share-knowledge reefer. Awesome human being. A bit geeky, but awesome.
What’s more, is that we have a bunch of you out there who “dare” fly in the face of convention, asking why we have to do things a certain way, when your real world results prove that success can be achieved in a completely different manner. Very cool stuff.
Another observation: It seams like a lot of hobbyists got their start by…whoa…picking up a book, or reading information on the internet, then perusing forums and getting feedback and guidance from fellow reefer who took the time to act as “mentors.” We have a really great “hobby cultural” thing going here, don’t we? It’s not just hobbyists receiving advice from people who are trying to sell them stuff. Rather, we’re getting advice from others who’ve walked in our shoes…Clubs, conferences, and online forums have completely transformed the hobby.
What? These people are attending a conference on their own? Craziness.
I’m kind of curious how many of you got your start in the reefing hobby? Was it just something you stumbled into, or was it an evolution of sorts from another aspect of the aquarium hobby? Did you have a mentor, or did you slug it out alone?
So, in conclusion, I’m not sure exactly how we arrived at the state we’re in as a hobby right now, but on the whole, it’s pretty darned good!
Okay, we could do without “LE”, Photoshop, “check out my Chalice collection” threads, microchip frags, blah,blah, blah…
Until next time, keep sharing, keep learning, and…
Stay wet.
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
I had occasion to go to one of my local fish stores this weekend (Hey, I’m a fish geek, right? It’s still fun!), and, amid the usual hustle, bustle, and hobbyist banter, I made a social observation:
When you think about it, we as reefers (Okay, aquarium hobbyists in general, but reefers in particular, really) have an incredible amount of knowledge about some very arcane facts, don’t we?
“Phosphate”, “calcium hydroxide”, “ultra low nutrient systems”, “ferric aluminum oxide” , “Acropora”, “zeolites”, “reverse osmosis”, “magnesium levels”, “ORP” are some of the first words you’ll often hear out of the mouth of a fellow reefer when engaged in a reefing discussion. Sounds intimidating to the uninitiated, but some of these things are just fundamental, and really quite easily understood in context. But they can alienate you from the masses at the next cocktail party you're invited to, unless, of course, it's at a reef conference!
"With my new controller, I can monitor Ph, ORP, evaporation, perspiration, and minor temperature fluctuations within a given set point." Ok, so it might brand you as a geek to some, but to us, it's cool.
In one 5 minute stretch, I heard an outwardly simple, biker-type guy giving a very detailed, lucid, and informative dissertation to a couple of other customers on the topic of phosphate in the reef and its good and bad effects on corals, complete with personal experience references and admission that some of his theories might be anecdotal…I mean, really impressive. I also listened in on a rather vigorous discussion on the merits of water changes conducted by a “Scary cat lady” kind of person (sorry for the cruel stereotype, but I’m being serious here!) And then there was the “Emo”girl with the fuscia hair and piercings, talking about how she grows phytoplankton for the Orchid Dottybacks she’s spawning….It all goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover!
"Duuude, my Pseudochromis flaviritex tend to have skewed sex ratios when I rear them at slightly lower pH. I think I'll try elevating with a concentrated two-part solution to keep more stable environmental parameters." Ok. Yeah.
More important, it shows that, as hobbyists, we are an incredibly well-studied, intellectually curious bunch, regardless of our educational backgrounds, ethnicity, appearance, gender, etc. As it should be. And most important of all- we share our knowledge with others quite readily, and a lot of the knowledge is NOT regurgitated stuff. Rather, it’s hard-earned, real world information gleaned by years of actual practice in our own reef systems, making it the most valuable kind of information available, IMHO.
Dan Rigle's reef. Real world testbed for real world answers.
What I find truly fascinating about our hobby is the level on which the average hobbyist is operating. Many of us run systems with tight control and understanding of many, many aspects of the environment, with tremendous insight on just why each of the perimeters we obsess over is so important. That’s really cool, because we are not just following some kind of “orders” from some anonymous “hobby force” up there that tells us to keep our nitrates at 0-10ppm, or our photoperiod at “X” hours per day…Rather, we’re arriving at some of these “hobby norms” because we’re observing and tweaking our systems based on what works best for our corals…crazy concept, huh?
My pal Marc Levenson (melev), everyman's reefer, avowed hater of freshwater, classic example of the consummate self-taught, happy-to-share-knowledge reefer. Awesome human being. A bit geeky, but awesome.
What’s more, is that we have a bunch of you out there who “dare” fly in the face of convention, asking why we have to do things a certain way, when your real world results prove that success can be achieved in a completely different manner. Very cool stuff.
Another observation: It seams like a lot of hobbyists got their start by…whoa…picking up a book, or reading information on the internet, then perusing forums and getting feedback and guidance from fellow reefer who took the time to act as “mentors.” We have a really great “hobby cultural” thing going here, don’t we? It’s not just hobbyists receiving advice from people who are trying to sell them stuff. Rather, we’re getting advice from others who’ve walked in our shoes…Clubs, conferences, and online forums have completely transformed the hobby.
What? These people are attending a conference on their own? Craziness.
I’m kind of curious how many of you got your start in the reefing hobby? Was it just something you stumbled into, or was it an evolution of sorts from another aspect of the aquarium hobby? Did you have a mentor, or did you slug it out alone?
So, in conclusion, I’m not sure exactly how we arrived at the state we’re in as a hobby right now, but on the whole, it’s pretty darned good!
Okay, we could do without “LE”, Photoshop, “check out my Chalice collection” threads, microchip frags, blah,blah, blah…
Until next time, keep sharing, keep learning, and…
Stay wet.
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
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