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Re: Oversimplification hazards
Susan wrote:
>>I stand corrected and will not answer in the future any questions that
involve a PHD on this highly technical discussion group. I'm glad that it
is because the books aren't helping all that much it seems.<<
Personally, I comment on anything whether I'm qualified or not! :-) If I'm
wrong, it prompts someone with the correct or more in-depth answer to come
out of the woodwork. I don't think anyone criticized you personally or
considered your response inane or 100% false, they just corrected a commonly
misunderstood point. If we wait for the people with doctorates to reply,
99.9% might as well just read the APD like a newsletter and never say a
word.
Regarding the ammonia/ammonium issue, I think the correction was an
important one and wasn't just hair-splitting. Ammonia is no less toxic
under pH 7 than it is at a higher pH, there is just less of it around since
the most (not all) becomes ammonium. A phrase like "At a pH under 7, ammonia
becomes ammonium" is correctly interpreted by those who know the facts, but
can be dangerously misinterpreted by someone who knows nothing about this
little backwater of chemistry. The people who corrected the statement (not
you, the statement) just wanted to make that clear.
Regarding Karens comment on books, well, I've seen some amazing things in
print in this hobby. This list and its archives are my primary source of
info, and you will find many so-called facts torn to shreds here. The
publishing companies do not appear to have fact checkers who are
particularly experienced in our hobby. In addition, new inventions,
discoveries, and methods are coming up every year in this hobby, and a
source of information as static as a book cannot keep up. I remember the
reef hobby when a wet-dry was ABSOLUTELY required equipment. A couple years
later they were ABSOLUTELY unwanted nitrate generators! Funny, but the
books written during that period did not mysteriously change their text,
they still espouse wet-dry filtration :-).
Anyway.... Don't shut down, your answer was appreciated, it just needed some
chrome polishing :-)
Darren