I notice quite often new members will make one post and then disappear never to be heard from again. How about by default, have the “notify me of a reply be email” box ticked. That way if they forget where they posted they will get an email telling them where they posted, when they get a reply. For example in the 13 pages of “introduce yourself” there are 10 posts by members who only made 1 post.

Sometimes they post on different forums and then selct the one that they either get the first reply from not necesserily the best forum or sadly the fish in question have died so the dont bother coming back it is annoying though when you take the time to try and help a new member and they dont come back or respond and you are left wondering how they got on :? there is a Notification Options box to tick at the bottom of the thread to notify members of replies to the topic, but I guess new members may not realise this and then forget as you say where they posted, Admin is the one to be able to advise it it could be set as a default or not

I feel also that ppl who have bought Biorbs or want to buy Biorbs that come on asking advice just get it in the neck straight away and no wonder they don't come back. I've had a Biube and yes you're right they aren't ideal and they have flaws but if it wasn't for the design appeal of their products I still wouldn't be in the hobby, so they do bring ppl to the hobby and yes they may learn some lessons and waste some money but they sharp upgrade to something sensible. I just think if the person already owns one we should just deal with it and try and advise the best we can under the circumstances, I've seen a lot of ppl come on here saying they want a goldfish in a Biorb, they get an ear bashing and told they're not suitable then they probably go out and buy one anyway as we never hear from them again. We should be trying a different approach like saying look it's not suitable for goldfish but try a few minnows instead, or if they're after a Biorb 15 or 30 try saying well Biorb 60, 105, Biube or Biorb Life would be better because larger surface area. Ultimately Reef One are to blame for this but I think we could do more to help and get the message across.

Totally agree especially as we all made mistakes in the beginning but thankfully we learned by them, sadly not all peeps will listen though as hard as we try to help educate them and this day and age with computers being the norm you would think new fish keepers would research the tank/bi-orb before buying and spending so much on something totally unsuitable country to how nice it looks

I even researched and still bought the thing, as fishy-fishy has said previously it's like reef one hypnotise you with their marketing and flash packaging. We must accept that this happens but while it does it's putting more money into the industry and getting ppl hooked on this rewarding hobby. It is a shame we can't help ppl skip passed our mistakes as majority just need to make them for themselves but all we can do is be supportive and offer constructive advice when required.

Advisor's/Members do mean well and I don't think they realise how they can come across at times it's just that as soon as bi-orb or similar tiny tanks are mentioned a red mist comes over, and then they forget and get side tracked which can sound like they are dictating rather than advising to their unsuitability and helping with the problem at the time, although nine out of ten times for cold-water fish it is usually tank related and the way Bi-orbs are marketed I guess it would be easy although expensive to be seduced by them

Yeah I agree with what your saying. I had lots of contact with Reef One complaining about their marketing and inparticular their filtration capabilities and got nothing but smug replies like they had been scripted. I guess I just want to see us keep hold of more Biorb owners when they come on so we can keep an eye on them even and make sure they don't make any bigger mistakes.

your totally right about the biorb's i was going to get one, the biorb life 60 untill i got put off by all the bad comments people where leaving on a different forum i ended up going for a roma200 instead and don't regret it one bit, the problem people have who keep fish don't see them as aquariums, they see them as a fashion accesory and straight away get there back up when anybody mentions them in any forum not just this one! I personally think they are very nice looking tanks but i'm glad i was talking into buying something abit bigger as it enabled me to keep the fish i really wanted instead of being restricted to a select few!!!

you're a good case study, did the Biorb attract you into fishkeeping before you read bad reviews? or is it something you were getting into anyway or had previous experience with?

yeah to be completely hones the biorb did attract me into keeping fish but my work colleague keeps malawis and he pretty much dragged me round every fish shop near where we where working at the time.(just bought him 4 aulonocara sp fire fish for 20quid today as well for him).

when i was looking at buying one after having my head turned it was the biorb that i wanted but it wasn't suitable for the fish i wanted to keep! So really after hearing all the bad comments i started looking at other tanks in that price range and found there were alot bigger tanks out there for the same price. if i lived in a flat and was stuck for space and a bit more minimalistic the biorb would be perfect! but luckily i had the room for a roma200 in my front room after some clever rearanging of furniture much to the missus disliking ;)