What is the worst advice you've ever heard?

I've heard a lot of bad advice, especially from the oh-so-knowledgeable staff at the LFS. Some of it is just garbage!
:eek:
Anything from recommending UGFs with CC, to angels going great in a small reef tank. I feel like putting a big wet fish net over their heads!
:p
What kinds of stupid advice have you all heard?
 

zibnata

Member
Use CC because all it takes is one grain of sand to break the impeller on the filter motor.Choco chip stars are reef safe.All you need is Normal Fluorescent lamps for corals.Just a couple...
 

ekclark

Member
A competitor of swf.com sells a kit which includes 19 fish for a 58 bowfront. These are added over the course of two months. Yikes.
 

bdhough

Active Member
I honestly haven't gotten bad advice that i can remember. I always ask and read twice....
The only thing i can think of is i was using pure RO in a fresh tank. Nobody told me you needed a ph buffer. I thankfully found out slowly since i only used it for top off for a while and tested weekly
 

dacia

Active Member
Bad advice:
1. Cycle your tank with a molly.
2. Don't use RO/DI water in your reef.
3. Add as much macro algae to your display tank as you can.
Oh wait! I didn't hear that at my LFS...wonder where I was when I heard (or read) that garbage??? :p
 

reefnut

Active Member
I've got a few... all were told to me by LFSs.
Yea a Mandarin is a good beginner fish and will do really well in a new tank... :(
A 30.00 Berlin Air-Lifts skimmer is all you need for your FO tank :rolleyes:.
You should feed your fish a square of frozen brine shrimp twice a day :rolleyes:.
Coral banded shrimp like to be kept in groups... (Didn't buy that one)
Four or Six queen conch's could easily be put into 125g tank... (Didn't buy that one)
I could continue but...
 

j21kickster

Active Member
setup tank wait a week- add fish and corals-
All you need is a blue light and a white light to keep any coral-
Those are about the 2 worst ones that i have heard:rolleyes:
 

dacia

Active Member
Coral banded shrimp like to be kept in groups...
LMAO!!! :D I've never heard that one before!
I heard this one at my LFS this morning: it's OK to keep 2 yellow tangs and 1 blue tang together in a 29 gallon tank as long as you buy the small ones.
 

spsfreak100

Active Member
"No need for aclamating any corals. They ajust just fine by themselves. But, for starfish, aclamate them for 15 minutes. Float the bag on the water for 15 minutes and then dump them in the tank." -LFS owner
Graham
 

shep

Member
I went into the fish packed place thinking it would be great from the add I seen. The owner started talking smack right off. To sum it up he suggested you have only NO lighting and a uv system with an undergravel for filtration. After looking at his so unimpressive 400+ 1 gallon tanks I found a reef tank. It was a 500 gallon tank and was actually impresive for him. Nothing was floating. The corals where all soft unattched corals that had been eaten on by inhabitanats.
So I go back over and ask for what I did truly need while I was there just to see if I could get a good price. Only wanted a MAXI 1200 powerhead. Then he ask about my tank. I told him what it was. It's 125 with 880 watts of vho lighting, cpr 194 Cyclone wet dry,95 lbs of arragonite, 175 lbs live sand, 150 lbs of live rock,2 1200, 2 800, and 4 600 maxi powerheads, and iwaki 1200 gph pump. Right off he suggested I go to a 40 watt NO system and trade my sump for a bio wheel system. Then add some uv lights to it and I could grow anything I wanted.
Needless to say I listened to him and let him do his thing and then went and showed him his corals and told him about his neglect of them and also pointed out that the line of hard coral skulls he was saling was a ^$&I%&^(% discrace and murder of species for profit. At anyrate I was questioned but not detained within a mile and not welcome back there due to hostile intent and detering customers. Told the nice officer he was feeding me bs and I got upset and spoke my opinion. He said that was one of thsoe rights that I do have left and just don't go back. Told him that i would have to be paid to go back.
My other is the mandrin goby for first fish. I can say that I did keep him going and alive by great research and alot of money. I still have him and he is the oldest fish in my tank. Little dude has made it for 4 years now and is healthy as can be. Needless to say I am not welcome there either now once I found out what the goby needed to live. I was told he ate flake food. No longer do I trust what I am told. I went to the theory of whats 200-300 in books if it saves you 1k in fish.:)
Aside from the books I must say this is the best place for info on what to do. 99.9 percent of the time someone has the answer for you and if they don't they do try to tell you where to get it.:)
 

bioreefer

Member
ok guys the crap about your LFS is getting way old!!!!!!!!!! and no I don't work at LFS if it wasn't for them I believe some of you wouldn't write threads I dont care what you say about me but this is getting old too fast!!!!
 
Don't read legitimate threads you don't enjoy.
I've found the posts on this thread absolutely amazing and in some cases hilarious. It is also helping to debunk a lot of nonsense ideas that kill millions of animals a year. I'd say that's the only thing getting old here. Bad advice in general continues to be a scourge upon this hobby. So what's being done about it?
Anyways...
Who else has stories, involving either a friend, this forum, or yes, the LFS? And what do you all think can be done to better inform the public and regulate the industry better?
:p
 

bioreefer

Member
guess I would share one on the news heard of pet stores selling nemos wasn't telling people that they where saltwater I know you all heard it and got rather mad I was one I heard it on cnn damn shame how people don't care and out to make a quick buck or two thoses people shouldn't be in the pet bizz the question is do you point your finger at the people or pet store owner its a toss up IMO
 
I don't htink I have really recieved bad advise myself from one of my lfs yet. However the one I buy my water at and thus spend a great amount of time in has told some doozies to others.
Customer was looking at a juvi Queen angel and a flame angel. Ask guy about them. He asks her how big her tank is. She says 45 Gallon so he says they will be fine since these are small. I almost choked and had to leave before I lost my welcome.
Rich
 

fishman88

Member
well luckly i have takin all of the advice i got from here. but the 1 thing i regret and also really bad advice was buying the blue tang for my 29 :( :( :( :( :( :( :( i am hopping to get ride of it today i will tell you how it went
mike
 
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