This is an example of "I don't know what I don't know" situation.

Lacking knowledge and experience, it is impossible to ask good questions, so you just have to start where you are and go from there.

I was the poster boy for topical ignorance when I started my pond renovation. If I hadn't found the PB forum I would have a leaky hole
full of boring fish in my front yard.

Best advice I could give to the person who posed the original question would be to read every single post in the archive. I did that very
thing after I discovered this place. By doing so, I cured my ignorance. Many of the questions that I didn't know I had were answered
before I ever had to ask them, and I had put myself in a position where I knew *just enough* to ask a sensible question, and make sense
of the answers that were given.