Creative Container Pico Contest - Official Announcement

[brandon429]

Hey my 25 w is in transit

 

I only noticed after clicking that for one dollar more a 50 w was avail, remorse lol

 

you think a 25 w will be enough to keep the reefbowl at 80 degrees in a house where the old man 71's it all the time

 

I didn't mind the AF one cuz it looks to be rebranded/same form factor as the ocean box one.  I was thinking on bottoming out my house to a good 65 degrees for 5 days to really test it, changing heater styles after 16 years is unnerving. if you think it'll hold without such rigorous test then we'll just install it and be normal. my unheated planted tank did not want a freezing test that's for sure, but rb gets priority.

[Felicia]

Hi everyone!  Thank you to everyone who has already pm'ed me their January FTS's.  However, I am still missing a lot of the January FTS's.  Please get me your January FTS's ASAP if you do not want to be disqualified from the contest.

[Felicia]

The January FTS's are now posted! Looking great, everyone!  I was excited to see how these are maturing and coming together.  Its going to be some stiff competition at the end!  I'm excited that we have 26 contestants still going strong!  You've got just two more FTS's (Feb. and March) before the contest ends and the voting begins...so make them count!  More details on the voting process will be coming around the beginning of March.  Let's keep these picos going and finish out the contest with an awesome group of contestants! 

[seabass]

Wow!

 

One nice thing about having less contestants is that it's possible to visit more threads.  I'm really impressed by how these are coming along.

[Felicia]

Hi everyone, just a reminder that you need to please personal message me your February full tank shots by this Friday 3/2/18.  I'll post all of the new FTS's this coming weekend.

[Draco]

I am super jealous at some of the picos here! I've been lurking and browsing. Almost makes me wish I took that option for a second chance, lol. but it's too much work for the time.

 

Good luck everyone, I can't wait to see the final outcome and the winners!

[Christmas Corals]

wow I love this thread! really beautiful creative setups! amazing ideas! really sparks the imagination! brilliant! ??

[SaltyBuddha]

Hey guys. So my little pico has been struggling this past month. I've been doing water changes and keeping the SG consistent, but the GSP barely comes out anymore. This is the reason I did not submit an FTS and I'm okay with dropping from the comp. The little tank was cool to have up but I will be taking it down soon. Really weird thing is the GSP IS STILL GROWING even though it wont come out. It is really weird and is even growing over the toadstool.

 

I'm going to add the GSP to the back of my IM10 and get the toadstool in there as well.

 

Good luck, everyone! 

[fishfreak0114]

Sorry to hear your taking the pico down  it was really cool!  I hope your GSP opens back up in the main tank. 

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, SaltyBuddha said:

Hey guys. So my little pico has been struggling this past month. I've been doing water changes and keeping the SG consistent, but the GSP barely comes out anymore. This is the reason I did not submit an FTS and I'm okay with dropping from the comp. The little tank was cool to have up but I will be taking it down soon. Really weird thing is the GSP IS STILL GROWING even though it wont come out. It is really weird and is even growing over the toadstool.

 

I'm going to add the GSP to the back of my IM10 and get the toadstool in there as well.

 

Good luck, everyone! 

Sorry to hear about this.

 

I have never had luck with gsp myself.

[vlangel]

13 hours ago, SaltyBuddha said:

Hey guys. So my little pico has been struggling this past month. I've been doing water changes and keeping the SG consistent, but the GSP barely comes out anymore. This is the reason I did not submit an FTS and I'm okay with dropping from the comp. The little tank was cool to have up but I will be taking it down soon. Really weird thing is the GSP IS STILL GROWING even though it wont come out. It is really weird and is even growing over the toadstool.

 

I'm going to add the GSP to the back of my IM10 and get the toadstool in there as well.

 

Good luck, everyone! 

Ahhh, I am sorry to hear that.  I thought you had a really cool concept.  Still it was a neat experiment and we all got to learn from it.?

[MedievalITGuy]

@SaltyBuddha Sorry to hear that. I've had problems with GSP myself in the past. For no apparent reason, it just likes to close up and die on me, even when everything else is doing fine. Hope it recovers for you.

[SaltyBuddha]

Thanks everyone! I have no doubt I'll get the GSP to open up in my big tank. Especially since it was still growing....but not opening. So weird. Either way I was planning on putting some in my main tank anyways. The color and way the polyps flow on this specimen is amazing. 

 

[Felicia]

On 3/8/2018 at 3:57 PM, SaltyBuddha said:

Hey guys. So my little pico has been struggling this past month. I've been doing water changes and keeping the SG consistent, but the GSP barely comes out anymore. This is the reason I did not submit an FTS and I'm okay with dropping from the comp. The little tank was cool to have up but I will be taking it down soon. Really weird thing is the GSP IS STILL GROWING even though it wont come out. It is really weird and is even growing over the toadstool.

 

I'm going to add the GSP to the back of my IM10 and get the toadstool in there as well.

 

Good luck, everyone! 

So sorry to hear this!

[Felicia]

Contest Updates

The February FTS's are now posted in the FTS thread.  We have some stiff competition!  Looking great, everyone!

 

 

The contest is coming to a close!  Its amazing how quickly the 6 months has flown by!  March 31st will be the official end of the competition and then the voting will begin.  In order to help the community decide what tanks to vote for, each remaining contestant will need to do the following:

1. PM me three (3) final photos that you think summarize your container reef.  The composition for two of these is up to you, but one of them should be a final FTS taken sometime during the month of March.
2. PM me a written summary of your container reef build and experiences throughout the competition.  This should be no more than 250 words.
3. These items must be private messaged to me by midnight (Pacific Standard Time) on March 31st.

Each of your photos and summaries will be posted in a contest voting thread that will be advertised to the members of the community.  Remember that we have three categories with three awesome sets of prizes from our sponsors, so keep those categories in mind when putting together your photos and summaries.  More information on the voting thread will be coming closer to the end of the month.  I'm excited to see everyone's final updates!  Good luck everyone!

[debbeach13]

Still over 20 contestants, I think I counted 22. It is going to be pretty tough voting. A great big Thanks to everyone that started this contest. Some of you that did not make it to the end you absolutely helped us understand the trails and tribulations of trying to keep a reef in such small and unusual containers. You all contributed something. I have never gone smaller than 3 gallons yet but I have no doubt that some day I will and when I do lessons learned from this contest will be the guide for me and many others for years to come. Again a great big Thank You to all who entered. I can not wait to read the final summary's and see the final picture's.

[metrokat]

Just catching up - wow many didn't make it to the final stretch. I was seeing the FTS thread and there were so many that were disqualified and I was curious to see the reasons - where can I go to catch up on that? Thanks.

[Christopher Marks]

On 3/25/2018 at 11:05 AM, debbeach13 said:

Still over 20 contestants, I think I counted 22. It is going to be pretty tough voting. A great big Thanks to everyone that started this contest. Some of you that did not make it to the end you absolutely helped us understand the trails and tribulations of trying to keep a reef in such small and unusual containers. You all contributed something. I have never gone smaller than 3 gallons yet but I have no doubt that some day I will and when I do lessons learned from this contest will be the guide for me and many others for years to come. Again a great big Thank You to all who entered. I can not wait to read the final summary's and see the final picture's.

Agreed! There's been a lot that has been discovered through all of these cool pico containers, so many neat concepts built within the tight constraints. 

1 hour ago, metrokat said:

Just catching up - wow many didn't make it to the final stretch. I was seeing the FTS thread and there were so many that were disqualified and I was curious to see the reasons - where can I go to catch up on that? Thanks.

I don't think any were disqualified for technical reasons, some just dropped off the map without any updates or news, and were disqualified after not posting a monthly update past the grace period. Some were taken down before the end too. Life gets in the way sometimes ?‍♂️

 

Hopefully we can add some notes on the tanks that didn't make it to the end, if we know what became of them.

[Felicia]

On 3/25/2018 at 11:05 AM, debbeach13 said:

Still over 20 contestants, I think I counted 22. It is going to be pretty tough voting. A great big Thanks to everyone that started this contest. Some of you that did not make it to the end you absolutely helped us understand the trails and tribulations of trying to keep a reef in such small and unusual containers. You all contributed something. I have never gone smaller than 3 gallons yet but I have no doubt that some day I will and when I do lessons learned from this contest will be the guide for me and many others for years to come. Again a great big Thank You to all who entered. I can not wait to read the final summary's and see the final picture's.

Yep, we've still got a good number of contestants that made it to the end, so voting should be fun!  I'm glad you've enjoyed following along!  I definitely think its been a fun learning experience for the contestants and everyone following along!

2 hours ago, metrokat said:

Just catching up - wow many didn't make it to the final stretch. I was seeing the FTS thread and there were so many that were disqualified and I was curious to see the reasons - where can I go to catch up on that? Thanks.

The only reason any one was disqualified was for missing more than one monthly update.  There were a lot of contestants that just dropped off without any word and were disqualified when they missed sending monthly FTS's.  The contestants that are listed as withdrawn are people who told me they had to leave the competition for personal or other reasons and took down their containers before the end of the contest.  No one was disqualified for doing anything against the rules of the competition or anything like that.

[Lula_Mae]

On 1/18/2018 at 11:07 AM, brandon429 said:

Hey my 25 w is in transit

 

I only noticed after clicking that for one dollar more a 50 w was avail, remorse lol

 

you think a 25 w will be enough to keep the reefbowl at 80 degrees in a house where the old man 71's it all the time

 

I didn't mind the AF one cuz it looks to be rebranded/same form factor as the ocean box one.  I was thinking on bottoming out my house to a good 65 degrees for 5 days to really test it, changing heater styles after 16 years is unnerving. if you think it'll hold without such rigorous test then we'll just install it and be normal. my unheated planted tank did not want a freezing test that's for sure, but rb gets priority.

Sorry, I'm just now seeing this!  Your 25w should be fine, mine keeps a 5.5 gallon around 79 even when temps are in the high 60s inside.

[Felicia]

The voting thread with your summaries and final photos is now posted!

 

Voting will open tomorrow 4/2 at noon (PST) and will remain open for a week.  The voting will close on Monday 4/9 at noon (PST).  Please help get the word out to the community so we can get plenty of participation in the voting!  Also, great job again everyone!  The final write-ups and photos look wonderful!  It is going to be so hard to chose a single build to vote for in each category!  You guys really rocked this contest!

[Felicia]

Also, I wanted to let you all know that I realize it was hard to limit your writeups to only 250 words.  However, with 20 contestants, I didn't want the final summaries to be too long or people won't spend the time to read through all of them.  I made sure every photo in the voting thread links to your respective build threads, so people can easily head over to your thread if they want to read more details.  Please feel free to add a longer/more detailed final write-up in your build threads if you would like!  Hopefully, the final summaries and photos should serve as quick recaps and then people can head to the different builds for more detail to help them in deciding how to vote.  Thank you all again for putting together such wonderful summaries.  They look great all posted together in the voting thread!

[Felicia]

Voting is now open!

Head on over to the voting thread to cast your votes for your favorites!

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

? Please submit your Vote this weekend if you haven't yet had a chance! ?

 

[Christopher Marks]

Here are the final results! Congratulations to @teenyreef and @fishfreak0114! Thank you to everyone who participated in this fascinating pico container contest!