I still remember my noob days when everything I know now just seemed totally foreign to me. When I had assumed the LFS would at least steer me away from buying fish that don't do well in my system. When honestly, I believed I could get a yellow tang for my 45g TALL tank (because my brother "successfully" had 2 in there at different times, each one dying a few months after being added -- notice I put "successfully in quotes...cuz now I know they died from stress in a small tank). But you guys forget what it's like to be a noob, eager to start, thinking you have done the research. What did i know? My research came from my brother (who's had this tank for years) AND my LFS telling me a tang in a 45g is fine. I trusted both.
Now, I DO know better thanks to everyone here...I took it all to heart. Not everyone will. But I think had I been yelled at (which I didn't cuz I was just so darned lovable!!!!), I don't know if I'd have shut myself down and just did as I pleased and kept on killing fish :mrgreen:
There are the noobs who disregard all advice cuz it's not what they want to hear. The fault is from both sides...the noob being closed minded, and the people attacking him right off the bat before he's had a chance to regroup and take in the advice. You'll have all walks of life coming into here, and there's not much you can do if someone wants to keep spending money and killing fish. We just have to hope that if we reason with them enough, they'll realize our advice is sound. I believe there have been a couple of hard-asses who came and tried to conquer and fail because they didn't listen to us, but eventually admitted defeat.
With that, i have to applaud our mods because no matter how inane a noob gets with their ignorant post, they usually start off by patiently giving out good advice without the undertone of judgment....that is, until the noob's claws come out then of course we sic Biff on them to show she's got bigger claws :)