OK, time for me to come clean.
When I first started posting here I mentioned a few times that I was posting in order to start thinking about my next pond since I'd been out of ponding for 7 years or so. I have my next design in mind and will post that build when and if I proceed. I also kind of feel like I'm back up to speed on the advancements made in ponding so I don't need the aggressive learning curve I've been climbing.
The coming clean part...
Several people have sent me emails and personal messages asking me how I learned about ponds...thinking I guess that there's some book or web site containing great info. I normally say something like "I read a lot of forums" which is true and point them to a few. I left out the best way I learn because I kind of had to or it stops working. I lucked into this 15 years ago when I first started learning about ponds.
Reading lots of sources gets a lot of info in my head, but most doesn't stick that well or I miss connections or I don't understand it as well as I think I do. What's missing is testing. Without testing yourself you can't test your knowledge. Normally testing is done by building a pond. Pretty time consuming as it can take years for some issues to appear and test your knowledge. Also expensive to have to build lots of ponds which is what I did last go around. I wanted a shorter cycle.
The testing shortcut is to find a forum that has no regular posters with a lot of experience (multiple pond builds) and then challenge the local dogma of regular posters. For example I think my first was saying something about Skippy being a poor bio filter, which I believe to true and can be supported. It's not really trolling, at least that wasn't my purpose. The goal is not to completely pee people off, but just poke their dogma a little to get them to challenge back, to test my knowledge. When I first did this with Skippy I think Trickle Towers was the last good bio filter I knew about from 7 years earlier. When a person's dogma is challenged they take it very personally and read every word you write, several times, looking for any error they can exploit. Other people who were challenged also read posts looking for something they can pounce on. That's good. They may even use Google to try and come up with arguments, although amazingly almost never to they actually check facts.
That keeps me on my toes, it forces me to research to make sure there is a reasonable basis for what's stuck in my head. Just a couple of slip ups and rebuttals will just be "oh yeah, well remember when you said that dumb thing". More than a few times I started to write a post to explain why a poster was incorrect but stopped and thought "maybe I should check that". Sure enough I'd sometimes be wrong. No problem, out with the bad and in with the good. It forced me to read the same articles several times.
This whole process depends on an open mind for yourself and the closed minds of others. It doesn't work with an opened minded person because they just say "I need to check that" or "that's interesting, I'd never heard that", or "where can I get more info". To be challenged you need people who will dig in their heels and stay the course even when it's become obvious they have no idea what they're talking about. Online forums provide a rich environment. All people, my self included, are closed minded to some degree, but still you can't beat online forums.
In this process I've learned a lot by challenging the local dogma here. Moiving bed, Bakki shower, tons about bacteria, TPRs, sieve, trickle water changes, construction of pond walls and lots of other stuff that I had no clue about when I started.
So I am truly sorry to have ruffled a few egos in the process, just no way around it. I felt it was necessary in order to learn. I did add people to my ignore list whenever they became too upset so that I would not keep challenging their dogma. Like I said, I wasn't trying to be a troll, but I understand some will think that and I can't blame them. I sincerely thank the people who did take the time to challenge me, you helped me a lot. I known it wasn't pleasant for you. I learned a lot and wish you could have too.
All the info I posted was what I thought, and still think, is the state of the art in pond keeping. I did a lot of research to make sure that was true. Never once did I post something misleading or what I knew to be incorrect in order to bait anyone.
So imo the secret to learning about ponds is an open mind. People asked and now I feel better about telling the whole story.
This isn't a goodbye post...but obviously I won't be challenging dogma here any more as the cat is out of the bag.
Thanks again.
