Forum Pharmacology

The most valuable tool one can find in the aquarium hobby is information, but unfortunately it’s the most expensive and difficult resource to acquire. Aquarium forums are high on quantity but low on quality. Books become obsolete before they go to press, and fail to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Enter the Blogosphere and you lose the megalomaniac mods, trolls and overnight experts (for the most part). Here you will find just a few pedantic nerds trying to warn others not to repeat their mistakes. It’s the closest thing we have to a time machine, thus far.

In the early days of aquarium forums advertising space was cheap, and industry experts received a warm welcome. Over time, the real estate at the top of the forum page grew to be like oceanfront property. Some reef forums cost $500.00 a month for just a banner. Multiply that by 75 sponsors and you start to see why most boards run off any non-sponsor in the aquarium industry, and with them goes the information they bring to the table. Even if you bite the bullet any pay the sponsorship dues, you are often not permitted to post in the regular forums so as not to allow favouritism.

As an industry member, I have to tread lightly on forums, for fear of banishment. The mods on some boards are also weary of members saying anything that counters the doctrine that has been passed down to them from above. The whole point of this hobby is to try new things in the never ending quest to build the better mantis trap. Now that I have the keys to the place, I’m free to discuss more interesting topics without fear of reprisal… I think?

Most industry people don’t get much if anything out of the forums, and participate only to keep in touch with the market, share ideas, and give back to the community. Most are like me and enjoy getting wired on the topic and find a heightened level of clarity when new ideas are shared. It’s like a drug, and under its influence, I can exercise my problem solving skills and library of information. Not only do I exercise (and hopefully exorcise) a part of my brain that is otherwise hard to access, but I find that the best solutions come from the real problems of real people, and not from siting in front of a drafting board having to rely on internal inspiration. Maybe there are other drugs for that

Censorship is a bad drug. It quells a lot of the most progressive discussions, leaving only redundant status quo gospel. I’ve read some absolutely horrible advice on threads, but after noticing the origin is a mod or administrator, I leave them to their own devices; and what strange devices they are at times.

It isn’t just the staff that scares away good contributers. The mob rules, and some threads take on a life of their own and become tabu to challenge. Reef Central had a mass exodus of their resident experts a few years ago after a heated sand bed debate that reached biblical proportions. Unfortunately it led to a new expert site that leaned too far to the other extreme. Now the experts make their comments and fellow hobbyists aren’t permitted to participate, thus narrowing the pool of ideas. Experts tend to be either too zealous or too conservative. We can run a poll in a few months to see where I stand.

I hope that my contributions here will actually raise more questions than answers. I will pick hot topics and start the ball rolling in the hopes that our community think tank can weigh the merits of reef technology and methodology. If there are enough people interested, I would like to do some informal pseudoscientific testing and experimenting.

Mr. Wilson