I think using a point system would allow for this, in the creativity and complexity categories of point awarding!

But will this work as an actual constraint or just for judging?

ok a couple questions, first.. Can there be an up to 28 gal display PPPpllllleeeeassseeee:mrgreen: I don't want to have to buy another tank and I have two 28's sitting in storage LOL

Also this one is a question about the budget. why do we have a hard ware budget and no livestock one, why not no hardware budget and only a live stock one. IMHO what people see is the tank and whats in it. To me it would make sense to have restrictions like , no more than 1 fish for every 5 gal, no more than 1lb of live rock for every 2 or 3 gal, ect.. give people limits in what they can work with and see what they come up with. with budgits there is always a work around. say I buy a broken pump for 5 bucks and it needs some electrical repair myself.. I just got a 200 buck pump for 5 bucks.. same goes for a skimmer, get a brokin one for cheep, fix it your self..... but if you tell me I can only have a skimmer, a single primary light with suplamental lighting, 15lbs of live rock, 3 fish, 6 corals, and 3 total pumps. It will make me do some serious thinking about what I want for my tank and how to do it. IMHO this is the best way to get creativity out of people.. give them stuff to work with and see how they put it togeather.

Personally if I did a 20 gal, it would be a SPS dominated tank and it would have MH/T5 lighting and a big skimmer. and either a kalk reactor or maybe even a dosing set up.

My thinking is I am not going to set up a tank just for the sake of setting one up. it is going to be done right, if that means I need to buy some stuff so be it but I am not going to cheap out and cut corners for the sake of a contest. we owe more than that to the eventual inhabitants we are going to have.

but entering this contest I am hoping that people are looking at it as a way to have fun with a build they already would have been doing and not just setting up a disposable tank for the sake of competing.

for the record, I can build my own skimmer, lights, reactor, ect.. got the acrylic tubing and the tools to do it, but.. even doing it your self there is no way you can buy the parts for under 300,

Steve

How about a category for those of us that are not only complete DIY idiots but think all those fancy, shmancy gadgets are not needed. Just a tank, a heater, some kind of light, a powerhead or 2 and an unlimited livestock budget. No drilling, no sump, no skimmer, you have a month (or 2) to put the livestock in and then you have to keep it all alive for 6 months... :mrgreen:

Isn't that what the last one was essentially?

After all the fighting and bickering it was hard to tell what the last one was :razz:

but no I mean no budget on anything just a simple box of water, the key is once livestock is added the contest essentially starts and it is about who can keep everything alive and with visible growth for the full 6 months

so what happens after the 6 months, you just flush everything. you make it sound like your going to do as basic as you can to make it challenging to keep things alive for 6 months, I hope that isn't what you meant at all as that would be a very irresponsible way to run it.

I do agree that they are overboard on equipment, I wouldn't even have a category for equipment at all and get away with the equipment side of the budget. this would allow people to create there opinion of what is the best environment for there livestock.

Steve

:lol: Well us DIY idiots gotta do what we gotta do ya know...but I wouldn't flush it, it would plug up the toilet. Maybe fertilize the garden... or I know I could feed it all to my dog... then I could show everyone the real meaning of "Barf" :lol:

no, no you mis understood, I wasn't saying that DIY is the way to go for this, I am saying that a budgit on hardware would give an unfair advantage for the guys that can DIY. that is why I suport having a live stock budget over a hardware. I would rather see people put some quality hardware on there tanks, than just rig some getto equipment up, this would increase the quality and longjevity of the system. In the same way I would also suport and unlimited sump size, I would rather see the extra water volume to create a more stable enviorment for the critters.

Lets face it if some one sets up a tiny tank they will get tired of the increased amount of maintenance after a while, daily dosing, or waterchanges, multiple evaporation top offs each day to keep salinity stable, ect.. more ware volume makes this a slower process, and a larger sump allows you to put equipment in the reduce work.

now if you wanted to buy a proflux you could do small and stable, but now your adding 8 or 900 to your hardware budget..

Steve

My interest isn't in doing a tank just for the contest only to take it down later. I don't have space for that :-) I am wanting to do a pico for my desk anyhow and would enter that in the contest but it is something I would do anyhow and would want to do right. Budget or not, it doesn't really matter as I don't want to get into ridiculous spending on it anyhow.

You don't necessarily need a Profilux for top offs etc. A simpler ATO can be had for alot less money and it is not hard to DIY an ATO for alot less than an off the shelf one.

Just my 2 cents on the subject.

Overall, I think a more open contest would produce a wider variety of results and be more interesting. Set major criteria like max volume, possibly budgets for hardware and/or livestock etc. and see what people come up with. Variety is the spice of life after all.