Well Steve, from your lofty position up there you probably shouldn't be one of those people who set up a tank just to enter a contest either :rolleyes:

Yeah I'm thinking I'll just read through everyones opinions, pick out the good ones :razz: and go from there. Do we the rules posted prior to the starting day or should it be a shotgun start?

Steve, I'm not sure why you say that the tanks will be disposable. I plan on doing a pico for my desk. I am going to be doing it anyhow so it might be fun to do it as part of the contest. It is definitely not disposable as I want it there for a long time.

I don't think superduperwesman's 10G Plate Coral Nano from the first competition is disposable either. That's alot of work for something he planned to take down after the contest.

Sorry, not trying to be confrontational but I just think it is a bit unfair to judge people's intentions here.

Things that need to be determined.

- Max Display Size
- Max Water Volume
- Equipment Budget (included: everything for the "build".. Tank, Stand, Skimmer, Lights, pumps, plumbing, etc)
- Standard tanks or Custom tanks (or both?)
- Monthly guidelines (if any)
- Limited or Unlimited Livestock Budget
- Categories for people to compete in. (Best ****, Best %%%%%, Best ###)


My input:

If I enter to contest my tank will be "disposable". I will return the corals to my main tank, and tear down the contest nano so I can take part in the next one too! :D I can't have 50 million nanos just for the sake of not "disposing" of them. I'm already on the fence whether I should take part in this contest because I have enough tanks as it is.

I've already said it in that other thread, but imo a nano is 20 gallons or less. The stock tank categories are interesting because they put a lot of emphasis on livestock selection and aquascaping. I liked that about the first nano contest...although some people took advantage of the [lack of defined] rules. I REALLY think livestock should not have a budget as I believe in the last contest that several of the participants had corals in their tanks that grossly out-valued what was recorded in their budget.

In order to make it as painless as possible on you Christy, I think you either need to set out many clearly defined rules with few possibilities for loopholes, or set very few rules, and let people give'r. You are a brave woman after seeing what Josh went through!!! :eek:

not lofty at all, I am setting up a new tank, which I concider a nano, but it will use a 28 gal main and a 28 gal sump. so contest or no contest mine is getting built. just thought it would be fun to do it as part of the contest. No worries though I can watch from the sidelines.

Steve

Don't worry about being confentational:mrgreen:

yes there will be people who will keep them running, but I do believe the majority of them will be short lived.

the real problem comes in as there is no clear definition of what a nano is. I believe a nano is anything under 33 gal, but that could be because I have never had a tank set up under 92 gal in salt water and 20 gal in fresh water (Betta tank)

Some one who has only had 180's or larger might think a 55 is a Nano.
where as some one who has only had 33's and 20's would think a 5 or less is a nanno, so it all comes down to who can impose there will forcefully enough to decide what a nanno should be.

I just felt we already had a Nanno contest, why don't we have a large nanno/medium tank contest with a little more time for the build and a little more budget for equipment to allow for some nice tanks to be built.

Steve

Over the last 10 years, I've never had a system over 25 gallons including the one running in my office now for 4 years... Never thought of any of my tanks as disposable.

I'm building a new tank to but it's around 100gallons so can you make that the limit for the contest? :lol: When will the madness end, you can't adjust the rules of the contest so one contender gets to use something he already has. If it works out great, if not get over it.

I've never seen a 33 gallon nano, it's a 3 foot tank and people put tangs in them, since when do you keep such fish in a nano? If you make the volume range too big the unlimited livestock becomes somewhat of a joke. I think the smaller volume of total 20gal or less is key to making this work.

It all comes down to people's own definitions and it can be hard to reach consensus on things like what makes a nano. I spend alot of time on nano-reef.com and it seems that over there anything up to a 34 gallon red sea max is considered a nano. I think once you start getting into sumps etc. you are kind of getting out of what a nano is about; a small self contained bit of reef or ocean.

This is of course my opinion only and I am happy to entertain other people's thoughts and experiences on it. In the end somebody else will make the call on the rules for the contest. Hopefully they will have found this debate useful and will take into account the input we have all made to come up with something reasonable. And hopefully we can all be satisfied with the outcome. There will undoubtably be some who end up not getting what they want but c'est la vie, non?