Randy stepping back from RC.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Six years ago, the owner of Reef Central asked me if I'd like to moderate a reef chemistry forum. The idea intrigued me. As today, I had at the time a high level of concern about misinformation in the area of reef aquarium chemistry. Unlike many other questions asked by aquarists, chemistry questions often have a single right and many wrong answers.

The hobby at the time abounded in parroted wrong answers, and were often made worse by manufacturers that either did not know or did not care that their products could not or did not do what they claimed. So I had a mission to try to help nonchemists sort through these issues in ways that would benefit them, their reefs, or their pocketbooks. The reef chemistry forum was a perfect venue, bringing the questions to me rather than making me sort through many forums on many boards looking for them.

To that end, I believe that the Reef Chemistry forum (and associated chemistry articles) has met my expectations. While there is still a lot of misinformation around, much has been improved. There is now a small army of folks that have suitable chemistry skills to decide for themselves the appropriate ways to deal with reef chemistry issues.

Likewise, there is a very strong small core of frequent contributors to the reef chemistry forum that is clearly able to help others use these tools to move forward. I am confident in their abilities to keep this chemistry forum strong.

With that in mind, then, I think it is time for me to move on to other projects. It is with a highly surprising level of emotion (for me) that I've decided to step back from moderating this forum and participating in RC. I'm not moving to another forum, just going to look to do something else with many freed up hours each day.

I've really enjoyed working with all of you!

Good luck and Happy Reefing.