aggieMEDIC

Rules: Budgets: Tank: $150 - unused goes to “slush fund” Livestock: $100 Corals: $150 Equipment: $150 Salt, Chemi pure, Purigen and things that are necessary for livestock health, including supplements and other additives do not count towards this budget, simply for the health of inhabitants. Any free items received from any source must be deducted from the allowed dollar amount, unless all participants receive an identical item. Items posted for free in the “Free” section of the forum will not be deducted from the budget as all participants have access to those items. Live rock will deduct $3/lb and live sand will deduct $1/lb from the EQUIPMENT budget. The costs for shipping and taxes do not count against your budget. You may not increase your budget by selling equipment/livestock/corals from your system. (ex. AIO owners may not sell the original light and add the value to your budget) Modifications Modifications to the aquarium (DIY or AIO) are not required but are allowed, the costs incurred will be deducted from the equipment budget. Plumbing should not be used to increase the total water volume. The cost for plumbing fittings will be deducted from the equipment budget, the plumbing itself is not deducted. Fittings include LockLine, bulkheads, elbows, JACO’s and the like. Participants may not modify or add anything to the aquarium that will increase the water capacity by more than 2.5 gallons. The rear sections of an AIO system are NOT considered a sump. Any used or re-purposed equipment is allowed, cost will be deducted at fair market value unless proof of cost is provided. Use of a controller is allowed but full cost is deducted from your EQUIPMENT budget. (including costs of DIY controllers with the exclusion of wire costs) Heaters, fans, chillers, ATO’s all count against the Equipment Budget. Any circulation pump, powerhead or HOB filters are allowed. HOB filters must conform to the sump rule. If you purchased an AIO and wish to upgrade your filter or return pump you must deduct the cost of the new/used pump (or any mods) from the equipment budget. Any method of lighting is allowed, and will deduct from your equipment budget. Upgrading from the original AIO lighting will deduct the cost of the new light from the equipment budget. Any hardware used to elevate the light above the water is done at no cost. Stand and Canopy are optional and NOT required and do NOT deduct from the equipment budget. Livestock All corals added to the aquarium must be aqua-cultured. In simplest terms this means you must use frags or grow out from an existing system, nothing straight from the ocean Fish additions are preferred to be aqua-cultured but not required. The aquarium may be set up as a reef or fish only as long as all items are marine. The utmost importance must be placed on the safety and health of all inhabitants. DO NOT use anything that cannot survive long term in the pico environment (year+). All tanks must be set up no later than February 15th, and no sooner than January 15th. FMV price should be assigned to all livestock taken from another of the owner’s tanks. Frags obtained in this matter must begin as a frag less than <1” either tall or round. Documentation Each participant will be responsible for a build log (min 3 photos) as well as photos at the beginning of each month (min 1). Final photos (left, right, FTS, and 2 “freestyle is required for final judging. You may include a short (no more than 60 sec) video in addition to the required photos. The aquarium as a WHOLE must be original. Any issues must be addressed during the initial set up and the related photos. 51% vote is required to disqualify an aquarium. Stocking and equipment lists must be finalized 30 days prior to voting. General Rules Any tank under 6 gallons is acceptable. Any disputes will be settled by Manufacturers rated volume or measurements for DIY tanks. Each individual may start any number of aquariums but may only submit one (1) for judging. Anyone breaking the rules or not resolving a problem for any of these rules will be excluded from voting and disqualified from the contest. HAVE FUN AND BE CREATIVE! This is supposed to be enjoyable for all, so please be considerate when making any decisions about what to do (in short, be honest). The contest will end July 4, 2013. Voting will begin the following week. The winner will be announced the same day as the July meeting. You must be a member to participate. Popular vote will decide 3 finalists, a panel of 3 guest judges will determine the winner from the 3 finalists.

thanks for moving this

I would love to get one that eats prepared foods. He will still eat the pods though right? I would love to have one but prepared food is the only way I would for now. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

Very much so. Now just to figure out at what point can I get a mandarin. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

I have pods and other things galore. All those little white things on the glass are little tiny bugs. Some look like a pic I have seen before of rotifers but based on my understanding way to big to be rotifers. I have pods galore all over the back wall and they are everywhere on the rocks. I am sure this is mainly because I really dont any predators for them but who cares I have tons of them. Mysis too. Awesome!!! Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

No I accidently pressed the button to look at the results instead of vote. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

aaargh I pressed the wrong button an nullified my vote. stupid phones with their small screens

I have been looking for an aio and I think I have decided on the aqueon4 as well. But im not totally sure about the light. Will have to see if it will need supplemented or not. I like a bluer look than some. We will have to see. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

+1 ^ Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

Is that going to be enough time for the tanks to get established? Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

+1 to this... Mods...can ya give us a hand? +2 Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

^ correct Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

So since tanks must remain empty until 0001hrs jan 15 we need a way to ensure no one starts early. At midnight I will post a pic and the time. You must take a pic of your empty tank and the timed post. As far as cycling you may use the starter bacteria or do it the old fashioned way. I dont know how others feel but I dont think the cost of the bacteria should come out of budget. As it is for the inhabitants best interest. Anything else? Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

I'm ok with that. I have an idea I would like to do but it sets me back a long way because I would have to build my tank and then come up with lighting etc. So I was going to go with an aio instead. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

So I guess its settled. Starts jan15. Tanks must be empty at midnight the morning of 1-15-12. Unless someone has any problems with the rules as they are currently written they will stand as official rules. 5Gallons or less. How would we be able to get this as a club sponsored thing? Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

I agree. Maybe we can get a forum section for it, for build logs, rules. Etc. Who do we need to ask about that? Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving everyone... I feel i need to rant for a minute about how my tank and some of its inhabitants annoy me. Here are some of my problems, ALGAE!!!! aaaarrrrgh its driving me crazy. cyano, dyno's, GHA, and whatever that green crap is growing out of my sand. The stuff wont go away. Now I understand i cant make it ALL go away, but as long as i can remember my tanks have always had algae problems. so I had a dyno problem a few weeks ago. Wrapped the tank in blankets etc for 4 days, problem mostly gone, then i treated it with H2O2 and have been for almost 2 weeks. Yesterday we went to the Dome and as usual everyone there was awesome, my daughters favorite part is Hunter lets her feed the fish. we got a sand sifting Gobie, a purple Firefish, and a GBTA. we also got a new piece of RR and some rubble. once at home we noticed one of the pieces of rubble has a lot of GHA on it so I stuck it in a QT so it could get a week of darkness. Bonus: I found a whole colony of Zoa's on it 2 different kinds that i didnt see at the store. So as BTA's do this one found a nice spot until the lights went out ant then he went roaming. which is fine. the fire fish went in and immediately hid under a rock near the front. the Gobie sneaked to the back center of the tank under the rockwork and started digging, again im fine with this because its what he does, i just wish he would do it where i could see it. I was able to get 1 of the 2 damsels out and put into a temporary holding tank, the other is just too smart. more on him later. I also put the new RR in and i totally love the aquascape now. its a tall curve if that makes sense. So today since the kiddo is staying with Grammie and we decided to NOT go shopping. I started with hacking off the long plug parts on all those frag plugs and gluing them to some rocks. While I did this the lights went off and when i came back i noticed the firefish not doing well his eye half out of its socket kinda lying on the sand. it also looked like his skin was starting to fall off around his head. so first i reached in and he actually let me pick him up. so i pulled him out and put him into the holding tank with the zoos covered in algae. Now that the firefish looks bad im concerned about the gobie, so the search begins. I see his tail but cant see the rest. wait where did the GBTA go? crap, spent 5 min searching and figured, i guess he will come out when he is ready. crap the damsel is bullying my new goby (not that its a suprise really) well he must come out then no if ands or buts about it. crap need more water, RO/DI filters arent here yet and i have become suspicious of the HEB RO water from the filter machine outside (i figured it was better than from the tap but now im not so sure) guess ill hit AD tomorrow when i take back my dead fish and get 15gal of water. So out comes the LR into a bucket until all thats left is the goby and a damsel and what does that pesky brat do? he hides under the goby. after a laugh i got him out and put him in the holding tank with the other damsel. Anyone want 2 damsels? im sure they will be great in some big gigantic tank where there are some tangs for them to bully. maybe someone with a big lion fish could use them. you know as food. back in the LR goes just jumbled this time because i needed more sand anyway and im going back to the LFS tomorrow. ok Rant part is over. here are some problems i have realized i have. 1. no RO/DI, - ordering in 2 weeks until then will buy LFS water. 2. Damsels - enough said 3. impatience - Didn't QT the firefish, but then again i dont have anything to QT them in. so its a catch 22. 4. stupid damsels 5. dont do a major tank overhaul on thanksgiving when NOTHING is open. 6. find a way to clean up the detritus, tank looks like a huge dirty snowstorm came through, do I need more flow in the tank to keep it suspended? and wehre does it go? it will float into the back and then wha just sit on the bottom? with the LR in the tank i dont need the sponges and bioballs so they went bye bye. i have cheato in the back too. so what should happen to all that detritus? I guess I am destined to suctions it out during water changes. which sucks because my tank was looking better without water changes than it had been with them (another reason i am suspicious of that HEB water filter machine) Anyway thanks for listening, tonight with my tank has been a comedy of errors, so I needed to vent a bit. any suggestions im open to them. I want my tank back together because i saw 2 little gobie's at AD that i want. a rainford and harpers? its black with yellow stripes. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

HAHAHA. multiple devices... Tapatalk on my phone (Galaxy S3) then i use Tapatalk on my Hacked Android Touchpad. then over the last few days since i have been sick at home i have been using my laptop. so different sig depending on what device im using. honestly i never really thought of it being different.

I took some today but spent most of the day making the lens shroud for underwater. PVC and Acrylic baby... I took this one while learning to play with the RAW settings, the actinics are on only. ill take more tomorrow when the lights come back on.

I like the veto idea. The participants or an unbiased third party should be able to veto a cost and assign a different price if one is reported outrageously low. But at the same time if you can prove you paid $20 for an entire acro colony because you found some awesome deal on CL then great for you. That's why I suggest finding a similar item on this board or another board and pricing it accordingly. If Capt obvious sells something for really cheap tomorrow it may help all of us. It may also hurt all of us. We just have to be fair in our pricing, and should have some system for resolving disputes. I am not the person to do it (because I'm cheap) but we need to find someone who is willing who knows about pricing these things. Finding things cheap on the boards is the best way to stay in budget. If you ''sell'' something to your Pico from your main tank. If its not fairly priced it could be looked into. Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

If they pull from their own system, just like equipment fair market value will be assigned. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

I agree Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

Works for me. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

I do like the idea of a year but I worry about people losing interest. Anyone else have any thoughts? Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.