"What is Wrong and How do I Fix It?" section

[cweaks]

What would it take to get some of you over-paid, under-worked advisors to write some articles on ”How to Fix Common Problems”. I know, I know, you have already answered all of these questions a thousand times at least and all I have to do is search the posts that are already there, but here is the problem I have with that. I ran water tests this morning and found that my pH was too high. So, I said to myself, “Myself, let me go to www.aquariumadvice.com and search for a solution.” I input “pH high” as my search parameters. What came back was no less than 833 search hits. Talk about information overload!

What the search actually found was 833 occurrences of the letters “[acronym:cd8815d7be="Powerhead"]PH[/acronym:cd8815d7be]” or the word “high”, as in [acronym:cd8815d7be="Powerhead"]PH[/acronym:cd8815d7be]OTOGALLERY or water level too HIGH, but nowhere, as far as I followed the pages, did I find the phrase I had entered. The articles that showed up were titled such things as, Saltwater Game, Keeping Inverts safe from [acronym:cd8815d7be="Powerhead"]PH[/acronym:cd8815d7be]’s, and Cloudy Water, Way past Frustrated Now!. If there were a section somewhere on the board in which the articles were written by you True Experts, and replies and discussion were not invited, at least not in this section, I could very quickly and easily find an answer to my problem.

As I envision this, using my pH problem as an example, the article would explain what pH actually is, what the ideal readings should be for various type tanks, freshwater, saltwater, ponds even, list some of the possible causes for it being too high or too low, and offer specific suggestions on what to do to correct the problem. I know we do not want to stifle conversation and discussion on this board, but think what a valuable service that would be for us newbie’s and, think how much typing it would save you, our Great and Wise and All-Knowing Advisors” (Can I lay the butter on thick or what.) Now understand, I am not saying that we would not still ask the question. But to answer it all you would have to do would be to respond, “You will find the answer at [a href="http://answer.to_dumb_pH.question_here"] pH Too High[a]”

What do you think? Good idea? By the way, what could have caused my pH to go from 8.3 to 8.7 in a week and what should I do about it?

[fishfreek]

Hm, Overpaid. Now thats an overstatment. None of us at this pont get paid anything for this site. In fact at this moment we are in the red as far as expenses vs income.

Moved to teh Site help/feedback forum.

If you search try to add "+" between the words like [acronym:4a7f6337f1="Powerhead"]PH[/acronym:4a7f6337f1] + High or "[acronym:4a7f6337f1="Powerhead"]PH[/acronym:4a7f6337f1] High" this way you will find topics with those two phrases in them together vs those two phrases independant.

A agree we need more aritcles. Problem is getting the time. Non of us do this full time so we all volenteer our time here and I know my personal do to list on this site is backed up by seveal months.



We do appricate the suggestion.

[reefrunner69]

By the way, what could have caused my pH to go from 8.3 to 8.7 in a week and what should I do about it?

This is why I was gonna leave it where it was Aaron addressed the first part of your post, as for the second part, we need to know more about your maintenance practices. What your other water parameters are, when was the last water change? Do you use [acronym:db4a22f51b="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:db4a22f51b]/[acronym:db4a22f51b="Deionization"]DI[/acronym:db4a22f51b] water? What is the [acronym:db4a22f51b="Measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions"]ph[/acronym:db4a22f51b] of said makeup water? What does your newly mixed [acronym:db4a22f51b="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:db4a22f51b] measure at before you do a water change? When was the last water change?

[cweaks]

Originally Posted by fishfreek

Hm, Overpaid. Now thats an overstatment. None of us at this pont get paid anything for this site. In fact at this moment we are in the red as far as expenses vs income.

I do hope you realize that the "over-paid, under-worked" bit was strictly intended as an attempt at a little humor. I know you guys are not paid a dime. The rest of us certainly appreciate your efforts. This is a great website. After ReefRaff came begging for us to come over, I haven't been back to the Yahoo Group more than two or three times. Thanks for all. I will try the search a little differently

[RogerMcAllen]

What if instead of writing new articles, old posts were referenced in an index? It would take a lot of work to index the posts, but might be worthwile. For example you could have an index for pH problems, and then link to past posts that have explained possible causes/solutions.

[cweaks]

Originally Posted by fishfreek

If you search try to add "+" between the words like [acronym:1b73d86305="Powerhead"]PH[/acronym:1b73d86305] + High or "[acronym:1b73d86305="Powerhead"]PH[/acronym:1b73d86305] High" this way you will find topics with those two phrases in them together vs those two phrases independant.

When I try pH + high I get No Topics Found and "pH High" gives me the same 833 articles.

[fishfreek]

Im sure you where using humor. Just wanted to clear up things in that we all do this for our love of the hobby not for any possible finanial gain.

With over 38000 posts an index like you described would definatly be a huge undertaking.

I did some searches and came up with the same no topics found result. I found that a bit strange. The search feature of this site leaves alot to be desired and there is not much I can do about it till a new release of our forum software is released. That new version is currently in development.

The search database alone is over 20MB in size.

Really if there is a suggestion as to some articles that need or could be written please suggest them and we/I will work hard to make sure they get on the site.

[cweaks]

Originally Posted by fishfreek

Really if there is a suggestion as to some articles that need or could be written please suggest them and we/I will work hard to make sure they get on the site.

I am "disabled" and at home a lot. I've been told that I am a pretty good writer. I would be more than happy to help out in anyway I could in the writing of these articles. I don't know the technical end of it, but if the Advisors would put the articles into rough drafts and send them to me in Word format, I would do the formatting and "pretty them up" some for publication. I really think such articles would be very helpful. We could start out with just the basic water tests. What they are testing, what they should be, and what do do if they are not. In other words, an article on pH, an article on nitrates, and article on nitrites, one on ammonia, etc.