Pico Reef Contest Ideas 🤔💭💡

[This guy is extra salty]

10 hours ago, seabass said:

I believe we are just throwing around ideas right now.  It seems likely that we'll be using a standard 2.5 gallon pico, with additional volume (if any) provided by an approved external filter; but that might even be subject to change.  What's your preference?

I think the 2.5g display, Excluding filtration or back chambers if it was made into an AIO..

 

9 hours ago, seabass said:

That's an interesting idea.  It'd be interesting to make the only restriction being what you could build with a 24" x 24" sheet of acrylic or glass (or four 12" x 12" sheets).

Would need 5 sheets to make a box 😂 

also that would make it a 7.5gallon...

 

the picture I posted of that AIO is only a 3.5 TSV..(display 2.5g)

 

I thought about doing a 32Lx4wx6h

which will be 3.3g totally full 

 

[This guy is extra salty]

Lol equipment lying around

 

 

just need a green light and it’ll be wet 🤗

[seabass]

OR

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by seabass
Added tank pic

[MainelyReefer]

After calling all around and being told no LFS can order a deep blue 2.5g but all have the 2.5 aqueon I finally found one with one last one in stock.  I had them put it on hold Incase this competition happens haha for 13.99 I might just go buy it anyways.  I just really like clean black silicone.  They also make this ~1g betta tank that is pretty neat

[CD_Scapes]

I would love to join this contest

[DPRoberts]

I'm hoping to put a pico tank on my desk at work, so this would be a perfect time to enter a contest!

 

Since the last contest was "a vessel that's not an aquarium", I like the idea of making this one "a store bought aquarium" (i.e. anything not handmade, custom, etc.)  This would allow people who live in different states/countries to all participate without limiting to a certain vendor.

Perhaps list a size or range - under a gallon, 1-2 gallons, up to 3 gallons, or whatever. So many manufacturers are making small tanks now, it would be neat so see what people find & how they hack them.

[seabass]

7 hours ago, DPRoberts said:

I like the idea of making this one "a store bought aquarium"

You know, I like this definition.  Something designed to be used as a fish tank or fishbowl (anywhere between 2 and 3 gallons).

 

If we'd like to encourage use of a standard size 2.5 gallon tank, the main prize could go to someone in this class.  For those who can't purchase that particular tank, or would like to try something different, we could setup an open class (with a lesser prize for best in the open class).  Keeping in mind that prizes usually can't be shipped outside of the USA.

 

 

Note: I'm just throwing out suggestions.  I definitely don't wish to dictate what this competition should be.  Kind of feel that I'm contributing too much.  I'm going to keep quiet now and let some more people voice their opinions.

[debbeach13]

Love the idea of another contest. I just watch them but do learn so much. I like the idea of a max amount of total gallons. Tank, filter, sump what ever with a total of 5 gallon max as an example.  But I will follow no matter what you all decide. 

[Wingy]

I checked at several places yesterday and today and not one has standard type tanks under 10 gallons.  The only thing available under 5 gallons are acrylic betta cubes, cartoon character kids tanks, glofish tanks and goldfish bowls.  

[righttirefire]

1 hour ago, Wingy said:

I checked at several places yesterday and today and not one has standard type tanks under 10 gallons.  The only thing available under 5 gallons are acrylic betta cubes, cartoon character kids tanks, glofish tanks and goldfish bowls.  

Perfect!

[SeaFurn]

Both my Petsmart and Petco had standard 2.5gs!  I mean, you have to check - they are right by the frozen food after all....

[DPRoberts]

Here's a Deep Blue Professional 1-gallon aquarium... at Bed Bath & Beyond.

 

Deep Blue Professional 1-Gallon 2-Way Betta Tank with Black Frame

 

It's not rimless and it's only a gallon, but still... this is "beyond."

[This guy is extra salty]

For 22$? Wow rip off

[Grundler]

This is my first post! 

I've been lurking here (on a defunct account) since 2004. I really need to post my Nuvo 40.

I've never been able to catch the beginning of one of these contests.

I've been looking for an excuse to finally engage with this community!

 I'm sooooo in!

 

• I love the idea of standard 2.5 gallons and possibly limiting/standardizing budget/tech.
  • PAR38 (otherwise I'll be too tempted to buy another Nanobox 😅)
  • HoB or Canister is an interesting choice! 
• I love, even more, the idea of limiting variety and color forms of corals (and possibly livestock budget).
  • Similar to "Nature" aquariums in the planted world. To create a "natural feel" the idea is to restrict the tank to 3-5 species/varieties of coral.
  • The focus is on the aquascape and use of space & color; restricting species forces picking a few colors/forms and using them to emphasize aspects of the scape.
  • The minimalism of this approach to stocking/scaping prevents the "unicorn-vomit on a blacklight poster" look and creates opportunities to use multiple frags of the same variety to good effect. I feel like this has a different type of "reefing skill" to it then the usual skill needed to keep a bunch of different husbandry requirements met.
  • Fast-growing, "cheaper", and "old standby" varieties of corals could be leveraged to fill large areas without worry/shame. A budget restriction might help, there could be interesting juxtaposition choices, for example, a high-dollar mushroom in a field of xenia or cyphastrea ($300?). 

Just "thinking out loud"! 😃

 

 

 

[seabass]

Grundler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops, back to my self imposed time out. 

[DPRoberts]

49 minutes ago, Grundler said:

This is my first post! 

I've been lurking here (on a defunct account) since 2004. I really need to post my Nuvo 40.

I've never been able to catch the beginning of one of these contests.

I've been looking for an excuse to finally engage with this community!

 I'm sooooo in!

 

• I love the idea of standard 2.5 gallons and possibly limiting/standardizing budget/tech.
  • PAR38 (otherwise I'll be too tempted to buy another Nanobox 😅)
  • HoB or Canister is an interesting choice! 
• I love, even more, the idea of limiting variety and color forms of corals (and possibly livestock budget).
  • Similar to "Nature" aquariums in the planted world. To create a "natural feel" the idea is to restrict the tank to 3-5 species/varieties of coral.
  • The focus is on the aquascape and use of space & color; restricting species forces picking a few colors/forms and using them to emphasize aspects of the scape.
  • The minimalism of this approach to stocking/scaping prevents the "unicorn-vomit on a blacklight poster" look and creates opportunities to use multiple frags of the same variety to good effect. I feel like this has a different type of "reefing skill" to it then the usual skill needed to keep a bunch of different husbandry requirements met.
  • Fast-growing, "cheaper", and "old standby" varieties of corals could be leveraged to fill large areas without worry/shame. A budget restriction might help, there could be interesting juxtaposition choices, for example, a high-dollar mushroom in a field of xenia or cyphastrea ($300?). 

Just "thinking out loud"! 😃

 

 

 

I like that idea too. On one hand, it would be neat to see who can grow more difficult corals in such a small volume of water, and how. On the other hand, if it's limited to beginner-friendly corals, it would be accessible to more people / beginners. Plus, the variation would be in tech/DIY and aquascaping, which is always interesting & helpful.

[Grundler]

1 hour ago, DPRoberts said:

I like that idea too. On one hand, it would be neat to see who can grow more difficult corals in such a small volume of water, and how. On the other hand, if it's limited to beginner-friendly corals, it would be accessible to more people / beginners. Plus, the variation would be in tech/DIY and aquascaping, which is always interesting & helpful.

Yup!

To clarify; the limits would only be on the # of species (and possibly the budget, but not sure) , not on limiting it to purely beginner varieties. I think a trend toward those types of corals would be an organic result of this restriction. It would make the contestants carefully think about what they're going to stock. Pico's practically have this restriction built into them; but specifically limiting variety places extra emphasis on the more interesting *visual* design decisions.

 

I've read the concerns with this idea, but I'm really curious to see what people could do within the confines of this restriction! There are so many accomplished and creative hobbyists on this site! Even if contestants just created picos with several frags of their top ~5 favorite corals we'd have some very diverse results! Sort of like a "calling card" style of pico. It's only 6 months long right? I get that many people would like to start a pico...because they want to have/continue-having a pico. Anyone who is interested in continuing on with their contest entry can drop the restrictions the moment the time is up.

 

 Just spit-balling here. Thinking about the other posts I'm seeing about having a range of sizes and equipment options/categories; what if the categories were based upon your chosen amount of species (genera?)? So, tank size and equipment are irrelevant, but you're competing against everyone else in the "only 3 genera" category. This could be further varied by an optional "single 'type' of each genus (i.e. only 'green slimer' acropora frags as one of your picks)" category and a "as many varieties as you wish so long as they're 3 distinct genera (i.e. the acropora genus is one of your picks and you proceed to stock different varieties in a way that would make @teenyreef blush)" category.  Though that does sound like it could dilute the categories somewhat prohibitively on further thought. 

 

Number of genera could potentially be related to some scoring metric too. For instance; the base amount is 5 genera/species and you get +X points for every type <5 that you keep (and still make it look "good"; these are voted on correct?). Vice versa you can add >5 species to your total, but it docks you -X points per addition. I'm not sure what X is equal too but then again, I'm not a doctor....and this is the first time I've thought about this.

 😁

I'm down for this contest no matter what! I've long been wondering what sorts of really interesting nanos or picos one could create with a "nature aquarium" approach; I've been really wanting to experiment with visuals and constraints. Other than some of the "Japanese style" aquascapes, I haven't really seen this direction explored in the hobby recently. Emphasis has mostly been placed on fitting as much diversity as one can into a box; I'll reiterate that I want to see the many different kinds of less-is-more looks "competitive" hobbyists (beginners and veterans!)can produce when encouraged.

1 hour ago, seabass said:

Grundler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops, back to my self imposed time out. 

Thank you! 🤗

[CD_Scapes]

I like the idea of a 1 gallon and  under, 3 gallon to 1 gallon, and a 5 gallon to 3 gallon categories. I also like the natural tank idea with 3-5 coral SPECIES

[WV Reefer]

7 hours ago, seabass said:

Grundler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops, back to my self imposed time out. 

 

Why are you in time out?  Were you bad?

[seabass]

3 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Why are you in time out?  Were you bad?

Haha... Nah, I just felt like I was over-contributing to this thread, which is really about what the community wants.  I threw out some ideas, now I'll let some others chime in.  Even though it can be hard for me to keep quiet (as I always think my ideas are so good).

[MainelyReefer]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

I just felt like I was over-contributing to this thread

I feel like I’m doing that too!  Oh well.  Haha just Incase the competition does happen with a 2.5 I picked that deep blue one up, my wife has never been more sure she married a nerd.

they didn’t have the deep blue lid so I had to settle with an aqueon one but I bet I can find the deep blue one before any form of competition happens.

now if we don’t go with the 2.5 just make sure it falls into comp specs please haha(even though for $20 who cares!).  Funniest part of the day was when I asked the owner if he had the Lee’s undergravel filter sized for this tank, to which he rudely replied that no one uses those anymore, people prefer to remove the crap from their tank rather than trap it at the bottom.  Clearly this guy didn’t know about unfiltered air driven picos or making a sale.

[seabass]

3 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

I picked that deep blue one up

Nice!

[hayseed777]

What about a Reef Roulette theme?

 

Random.org could be used to select the number of corals and the species each participant is allowed. 

 

I think it'd be interesting and would force people out of their personal comfort zones.

 

[This guy is extra salty]

I think I’ll start drawing up an acrylic AIO

for 2.5g with media basket 😂 

 

 

[vlangel]

14 hours ago, Grundler said:

Yup!

To clarify; the limits would only be on the # of species (and possibly the budget, but not sure) , not on limiting it to purely beginner varieties. I think a trend toward those types of corals would be an organic result of this restriction. It would make the contestants carefully think about what they're going to stock. Pico's practically have this restriction built into them; but specifically limiting variety places extra emphasis on the more interesting *visual* design decisions.

 

I've read the concerns with this idea, but I'm really curious to see what people could do within the confines of this restriction! There are so many accomplished and creative hobbyists on this site! Even if contestants just created picos with several frags of their top ~5 favorite corals we'd have some very diverse results! Sort of like a "calling card" style of pico. It's only 6 months long right? I get that many people would like to start a pico...because they want to have/continue-having a pico. Anyone who is interested in continuing on with their contest entry can drop the restrictions the moment the time is up.

 

 Just spit-balling here. Thinking about the other posts I'm seeing about having a range of sizes and equipment options/categories; what if the categories were based upon your chosen amount of species (genera?)? So, tank size and equipment are irrelevant, but you're competing against everyone else in the "only 3 genera" category. This could be further varied by an optional "single 'type' of each genus (i.e. only 'green slimer' acropora frags as one of your picks)" category and a "as many varieties as you wish so long as they're 3 distinct genera (i.e. the acropora genus is one of your picks and you proceed to stock different varieties in a way that would make @teenyreef blush)" category.  Though that does sound like it could dilute the categories somewhat prohibitively on further thought. 

 

Number of genera could potentially be related to some scoring metric too. For instance; the base amount is 5 genera/species and you get +X points for every type <5 that you keep (and still make it look "good"; these are voted on correct?). Vice versa you can add >5 species to your total, but it docks you -X points per addition. I'm not sure what X is equal too but then again, I'm not a doctor....and this is the first time I've thought about this.

 😁

I'm down for this contest no matter what! I've long been wondering what sorts of really interesting nanos or picos one could create with a "nature aquarium" approach; I've been really wanting to experiment with visuals and constraints. Other than some of the "Japanese style" aquascapes, I haven't really seen this direction explored in the hobby recently. Emphasis has mostly been placed on fitting as much diversity as one can into a box; I'll reiterate that I want to see the many different kinds of less-is-more looks "competitive" hobbyists (beginners and veterans!)can produce when encouraged.

Thank you! 🤗

I really like this idea!  It might spawn some very interesting creative ideas.