Kickin' It Old School 2.5g Pico Reef Competition! 😎🎓

[William]

Seems like it would be hard, I make terrariums in them and that is a really difficult task. Making a reef tank in it seems impossible to me. Unless you just planned to have a sandy or crush coral bottom. The wide mouth might be more doable, but instill think it would be difficult to do.

[seabass]

1 hour ago, William said:

Seems like it would be hard

That's the appeal for me.  Upping the difficulty level should invite creativity.

 

Some ideas would be a pond foam aquascape, or even a painstakingly assembled, glued, rock rubble aquascape.  I could see some people using it upright, while others might lay it on its side.  I wouldn't even necessarily rule out cutting the glass for equipment and/or access.  Such a contest would be unique, creative, and interesting.  Plus a number of people already have pico equipment which might be usable.

[Wingy]

Its to bad the quality was all over the place on those Tiny Tanks Mini Complete Tanks that were popular last year.  That would have been something almost everyone could fit in somewhere. 

 

Corrected.

1/1 I misspoke it was not Tiny Tanks  that had the quality problems  it was the Mini Complete Tank.  

[seabass]

6 gallon wide mouth plastic carboy. 

Advantage to people with skinny arms. 

[William]

7 hours ago, seabass said:

6 gallon wide mouth plastic carboy. 

Advantage to people with skinny arms. 

If they made it in glass .... 

[seabass]

14 minutes ago, William said:

If they made it in glass .... 

This one is made of glass (even has a wider mouth): https://www.amazon.com/Big-Mouth-Bubbler-Gallon-Fermentor/dp/B00W3PYBMS/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=wide+mouth+carboy&qid=1576944936&sr=8-6

 

Lots of options with a carboy reef challenge.  Just sayin'.

[Christopher Marks]

How did everyone feel about the 7 month length of this past contest? Was 6 months better or should we go even longer in the future?

 

A concept for a new nano reef competition is coming together, I'm exploring potential timelines. 🙂 

[spectra]

4 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

How did everyone feel about the 7 month length of this past contest? Was 6 months better or should we go even longer in the future?

 

A concept for a new nano reef competition is coming together, I'm exploring potential timelines. 🙂 

I think it was fine if I would have kept the tank updates going and also the tank...........

 

Cant remember how long the 14 gallon one went for either ? maybe a year long contest ?

[Tamberav]

57 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

How did everyone feel about the 7 month length of this past contest? Was 6 months better or should we go even longer in the future?

 

A concept for a new nano reef competition is coming together, I'm exploring potential timelines. 🙂 

Even though I shut mine down when I moved I like longer contests to see things change and grow or fail...or succeed 🙂

[MainelyReefer]

14 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

How did everyone feel about the 7 month length of this past contest? Was 6 months better or should we go even longer in the future?

 

A concept for a new nano reef competition is coming together, I'm exploring potential timelines. 🙂 

I vote for longer... at least a year.  My drop off has just started to stabilize and growth is now visible on most frags.  I think the first 6-7 months of a tank are often tumultuous.  I still have tanks running from 2 competitions and two others plus my freshwater so I likely won’t join the next competition anyways but would like to see other people’s systems really hit the sweet spot before voting on a winner.  With that said the winners of this past competition probably would have won a year in anyway because they made such incredible systems.

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said:

How did everyone feel about the 7 month length of this past contest? Was 6 months better or should we go even longer in the future?

 

A concept for a new nano reef competition is coming together, I'm exploring potential timelines. 🙂 

I'd say longer as well. But while the first 7 months for me were pretty uneventful, I'm now running into issues that didn't show up before the contest ended.  Also, I've added enough corals now that I'm finally starting to see the impact to parameters between water changes.   And for those that had a rough 7 months, I think they'd like to document some stability and growith. 

 

Can't wait to see what the next contest is....but I'll probably just be spectating this next time.  

[Christopher Marks]

The summer tends to be the hardest time to stay on track with the hobby, ending a competition then is probably not ideal, which had me thinking of going longer.

 

A year would be pretty cool! The concept for this one might be perfect for a long term timeline, if there's enough interest. Rather than competing with very specific equipment, the next competition would allow for a broader range of tanks.

[Tamberav]

A broader range may gather more interest, people can use creative freedom and potentially use equipment or tanks they already own.

[MainelyReefer]

32 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

The summer tends to be the hardest time to stay on track with the hobby, ending a competition then is probably not ideal, which had me thinking of going longer.

 

A year would be pretty cool! The concept for this one might be perfect for a long term timeline, if there's enough interest. Rather than competing with very specific equipment, the next competition would allow for a broader range of tanks.

I’m starting a lagoon 25 soon are we talking that kind of broad range? Haha I could hold off on getting it wet if so

[Clown79]

I like the idea of a longer contest.

As others have mentioned, the first few months can be filled with issues and little growth. 

 

Watching the systems develop and change is as fun as seeing the creativity.

[Wingy]

4 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

I'd say longer as well. But while the first 7 months for me were pretty uneventful, I'm now running into issues that didn't show up before the contest ended.  Also, I've added enough corals now that I'm finally starting to see the impact to parameters between water changes.   And for those that had a rough 7 months, I think they'd like to document some stability and growith. 

 

Can't wait to see what the next contest is....but I'll probably just be spectating this next time.  

I have run into issues as well. Heck I am still finding new hitchhikers.  I think a year is probably a good length.  

[Clown79]

Looking forward to the next contest, waiting patiently for the announcement 

[Tired]

I still like the idea of a macroalgae-dominant tank contest. Macros don't tend to be too expensive (especially if you order online), and there's a lot of variety that can get really overlooked. Say, 80% macros with 20% coral/other sessile animals for some color pop? 

[seabass]

[William]

9 months to a year would be best 

[Wingy]

On 12/20/2019 at 6:30 AM, Wingy said:

Its to bad the quality was all over the place on those Tiny Tanks that were popular last year.  That would have been something almost everyone could fit in somewhere. 

I misspoke it was not Tiny Tanks  that had the quality problems  it was the Mini Complete Tank.  

[Tempestas]

I fully agree that a longer contest would be better. I feel like my tank is finally settling down now, and it's been 8 months since it was started.

[kimberbee]

A full year contest? Hmm...? 

 

The 2020 Mega Nano Contest!!

[Weird Fish]

With a longer contest it may be possible to have a selection of prizes at the half way mark to keep interest going and another set of prizes at the end, or just voting and bragging if that is too many prizes.

[Wingy]

I hope @Christopher Marks will drop some hints soon.  I need to upgrade some equipment and since I can only have 1 tank choices count.