A Guide to Building a DIY BS-o-meter

Just thought this was interesting... and so true.

A Guide to Building a DIY BS-o-meter by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D. - Reefkeeping.com

 

Thanks Mr. Bill! Now my brain hurts!

Finally, many anecdotal procedures or techniques are simple or promote simple clear-cut "cures" to problems. For most folks, there is a profound appeal of this simplicity over the real complexity of our aquaria and the organisms we keep. It is easier to believe in and "understand" a simple cure, even if it is wrong, than it is to believe in the more complicated processes that may actually be occurring.


For example, one observation of something in a tank is not enough to establish even a correlation between two things. Furthermore, even strong correlations do not say anything about causation.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/rs/index.php

It's an excellent read, but is it realistic to think that even a small number of hobbyist will see the article for it's harsh truths? We are talking about a large percentage of hobbyist that are in this short term, add to that the instant gratification syndrome.

Honestly I become more and more reluctant to give advice and post because I know my personal observations seldom apply. Rarely do I give advice on something I do not have first hand experience with (and I really dislike it when others do give advice on life stock they have never ever kept).

The article does provide some basic format and I appreciate that.

Thank you for sharing.

 

A lot of people do not even recognize that I'm trying to help when I ask for references. Its seen more as me challenging them. This forum is very friendly in that manner, I might add. I had the most hilarious "discussion" the other day on another forum. I'll admit, his ignorance on the topics of both garlic and just research in general, amused me, but I never would try to talk down to people..... still it is perceived this way.

 

Still amazes and frustrates me that for some reason the internet tends to make innocent request and comments come off as offensive. I spend a lot of time editing my post to avoid offending when that was never my intent.

Unfortunately I now offer much less reference material than I used to. Perhaps I should put more effort into it.

 

My personality doesn't translate well in type, I'm afraid.

 

Hey, Just what are you saying, huh?



;-) It was a funny, rhetorical question

 

I feel threatened and offended by the way you are talking about our discourse on garlic. Inexcusable Renee.

Also I read about how people can cure ick by applying more resin coated rare earth magnets in their sump. True story dawg. Well, maybe not, but velvet is always stopped with a 3 minute freshwater bath using Blue Food coloring. And redbugs HATE glucose dosing... just saying I got mad tricks in my tinfoil hatz.

 

Excellent article!
I am trying to do some research on LED lighting profiles(I own a Radion), but,as stated in the article, there are just too many other variables to try and control in a home aquarium environment.
When I see a change in coral status I'm never sure whether it was because of a parameter change or a lighting change.

 

That is a great article and I could see it generating a lot of constructive discussion. I agree with pretty much everything he says, but have a few comments of my own.

The main objective of Shimek's article is to advocate hobbyists to think like a scientist (critically) and to encourage the use of hard data to substantiate statements. This idea obviously comes from Shimek's background in academia, where scientists are held to a very high standard and require data to substantiate every claim. Is this fair to expect in the aquarium hobby? I would argue it is not, although I agree with Shimek that hobbyists should strive for more. My reasons:

1) Most people in the hobby lack a basic background in biology and even the scientific method.

2) Access to scientific journals is limited to academia, unless you can afford to pay expensive access fees. As Shimek states in the article, even published literature shouldn't be taken as "God's word". Reading a studies abstract only is not sufficient to formulate scepticism regarding the study. Therefore, reading only abstracts is simply transferring "God's word" from aquarium books to the literature.

3) The journals Shimek recommends provide the foundation of knowledge that has given us the ability to keep corals in captivity. Many common anecdotal questions in the hobby however are not directly addressed by them. Studies of corals in captivity, using synthetic salts in recirculating systems are rare. For example, one of the most common topics of anecdotal posts I see is about the effect of light spectrum on coral health, colour, and growth. This question is poorly studied... I would argue that right now, anecdotal reports are all we have!

Also, although Shimek doesn't directly touch on it, I wanted to discuss the effect of consumerism on the hobby. Shimek's main goal here is to get hobbyists to think more critically, so he focussed on the negative: manufacturers often make unsubstantiated claims to take advantage of ignorant hobbyists. There is no question this is true. I believe everyone here has probably fell victim to this problem at one point. That being said, I firmly believe the positive effect of consumerism overwhelmingly outweighs the negative. Consumerism and the desire for profit has clearly spurred the modernization of our hobby... for example, DC pumps (Vortech, Waveline, Tunze etc) have had a tremendous positive impact. The same could be said about LEDs and aquarium computers.