sirdarksol

"We do what we must because we can."

In the past few months, I've had a few ideas for water quality experiments, and am going to start putting these experiments into practice (fishless, of course). I'm going to use this blog to chronicle my tests and results, as well as fish-breeding results and DIY hardware.

Shawnie

awesome!! I love a "madd scientist"!! cant wait to see this blog develop!

Lucy

I agree, it's sounds interesting. I'm looking foward to your findings.

Devon

Yay this sounds like fun! Can't wait to see what you do!

mrsmuffin

Your title sounds very ominous...and interesting!

PetSmart

This chemistry major is interested...

sirdarksol

Ah, good, a chem major. I have a good background in science and logical reasoning, but there may be points where I need help figuring things out. Since most of these experiments are going to cover water chemistry, I may ask for your help. My experiments and research, when I do them properly, tend to blow way beyond anything I expect, and sometimes I have to do more research just to understand my research.

Dino

While I am 4 hours short of a chemistry minor, if you need any help, let me know.

sirdarksol

Meh... I'll wait until you get those last four hours...
Seriously, though, thanks. I had already planned on asking you and CWC for help, too.

pinkfloydpuffer

Sounds exciting! I'll be waiting to hear about your crazy experiments!

Dino

Those last 4 hours were under a professor I could not stand.
So I graduated without the minor.

Butterfly

SDS in all his glory!!!!

Attached Images

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sirdarksol

More like this:



Should be scary to some people . Most will just say "huh?"

Lucy

Huh?

Jugglo

Good luck.

sirdarksol

More info:

The reason I'm doing this is that so much of our information is based on series of facts like:
"I set my tank up as x."
"My fish lived."
"Therefore, x is good for fish."

While this is a decent method for determining things, it also possesses the possibility of going out of control. For example, we say "Cycle doesn't work." We list the reasons it doesn't work, and it seems to be good scientific reasoning, but how many of us have actually done a detailed experiment on Cycle's effects on an aquarium's cycle?

I periodically see people say "I do that and it works so I must be right" or "I never do that, because it has this impact," and, while their input is wanted and useful, neither is solid scientific reasoning or logical argument, which is why I want to start working on some of the most common bits of info that we take for granted, to see if I can support/deny each of them.
In short, I'm doing something like a less fun, less dramatic Mythbusters.

PetSmart

Aperture Science...is that from Portal? Am I the only one who may have caught that?

sirdarksol

Take a look at the first line in my first post.
It's a line from "Still Alive" by GlaDos, the supercomputer from Portal. It's become my favorite song in the whole world. My wife and I will just randomly start singing "This was a triumph. I'm making a note here, HUGE SUCCESS."