aggieMEDIC

That is certainly an option that we as the participants must decide. Also another reason why I liked having options to choose from. As long as the tank purchase is not included in the budget this will work. So look at it this way. What ever comes in the original manufacturer's box with the display tank is a freebie. The rest is out of your budget. Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

They were using 6 months. I like the idea of 6 months, any shorter is just throwing stuff together and longer begins to really try your patience. I would love for mine to be sustainable for at least a year. I was trying to think of something in July that would mark an end date. Maybe the 4th. Must meet all requirements by July 4 to compete including upkeep of build threads etc... we miht be able to get a Pico contest section for us with rules thread and a place to put our builds. I don't know who all the mods are but if we can get that ok'd it would be a start. Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

to answer this i will give a few examples, based on how i understand their rules. 1 - I own a JBJ ATO and put it on my pico, that would normally run $50 used, i would take $50 from my budget 2 - I buy a JBJ ATO that normally runs $50 used for $10, then only $10 come out of my budget. 3 - I win a JBJ ATO in a club raffle etc that is normally $99 new, then $0 comes out of my budget. because I didn't pay anything for it (you could also include the cost of the raffle ticket if that is what we decide on) I also do not think shipping should count at all. I hate shipping costs but understand they are necessary. thats usually why i buy local instead. Group buys are a good idea too because you can save on shipping and get discounts. Something else I read that I think would be cool. is each person could donate a frag at the begining, grow it out during the contest and the winner gets a kick A$$ frag pack to go home with. again all of this is up for discussion prior to the start date. Speaking of... Jan sounds good? Say tanks must be empty as of Jan 15th. As of Jan 16 0001hrs you may start.

oh on a seperate note, my purple digi isnt purple its still brown... suggestions. backstory: i placed it high on the rocks originally but i believe in too much flow as the polyps started to receed, so i moved it to the sand bed. the polyps are returning but still all brown, so i moved it back to the top but in much less flow and no newly receeding polyps but still no purple. I can tell that it is growing though because some parts are bigger than they were when i got it. 2 little stems on the base have doubled in size. Suggestions...

I believe he pm'd you but just in case, as it is part of how i built my tank. I dosed hydrogen peroxide at 1ml per 10 gallons (of actual tank water) i started at 1.5ml but decided it should be more like 2ml. so i upped it after 2-3 days. within a week the dyno's were 99.9% gone. I decided to continue for 1.5-2 weeks after the last noticeable dyno was gone just to make sure it wasw really gone. im still having some kind of algae outbreak on my sand and glass but again my params are great. not exactly sure how to fix that problem. i understand algae is going to be a constant battle but man i HATE algae. Oh I also dosed some of the starter bacteria because as Ty explained to me it oxygenates single celled organisms, which include bacteria. so i dosed a bit just to recover any that i might have lost during the H2O2 stuff.

I am assuming pull off the black layer, fill chamber 1 with rubble, 2 with cheato. I would also like to make some kind of barrier with egg crate that i can set my purigen bag onto, but not sure if i put it at the top or bottom (before or after Cheato) i dont want to block any pods from escaping. or should it go right at the start by the overflow? id like to keep the HOB fuge, but now im thinking i might use it for the pico contest if it get going.

again i dont have any problems with that, just remember to include the Fair Resale Value (FRV) in your equipment however the tank itself is "free"

Here is the problem they ran into. some people bought the AIO system with lights pump and filter, and none of that counted toward the equipment cost. where as others chose to start from scratch and did have to include lights HOB filter etc. then arguments about sumps and etc came about. they start on page 7 mostly im open to whatever, just thinking about refining their process so we dont have the same problems they ran into. Capt, Im all about options. maybe have 4-5 tanks to choose from of varying prices???

After reading through the 9 page thread, I honestly think it will make things easier and skip a LOT of bickering if we all use the same tank. group buy or whatever, that way everyone starts out at the same spot. in either case no the original cost of the tank is not included. because honestly you could blow the entire 150 on the tank itself (this one for example). I like the idea of using that one or something like it but I also dont like its pricetag. whereas the JBJ comes in at around $50 1/3 of the cost. in the spirit of fairness i think using the same tank would save everyone a little.

Ty, I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. Needed to wait until payday for the rubble for the first chamber. And I'm going to look at home depot for a light for it. I have some cheat in a HOB fuge (got both from captain obvious) powered by a minijet. Borrowed a light from btw the cheato has completely filled the fuge and I need to either trim or move it now. I'm assuming there are pods in it but I can't find any. Aqua dome is going to love me tomorrow Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

I will take and post pics tomorrow. Called in sick for work both today and tomorrow. Feeling better today but still need some recovery time. I'll have plenty of time tomorrow for some good pics. On a side note my dad does a lot of photography on the side and is giving me one of his old macro lenses that he doesn't use anymore. But I can't get up to dallas for another 2 weeks to get it. The pics should roll in much better after that... Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

Rules: 1. Modifications to the aquarium are not required but are allowed as long as you do not exceed $150 in additions or changes. Items may be used, new, or already owned (should a value be deducted or no). Chemi pure, Purigen and things that are necessary for livestock health, including supplements and additives do not count towards this budget, simply for the health of inhabitants. 2. 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. 3. Fish additions are preferred to be aqua-cultured but not required. 4. Live rock, live sand or any other in-tank decorations may be used. Live rock will deduct $3/lb and live sand will deduct $1/lb from the EQUIPMENT budget. 5. Coral additions may not exceed $100 of the CORAL budget. 6. Livestock additions may not exceed $100 of the LIVESTOCK budget. 7. Any free items received from any source must be deducted from the allowed dollar amount, unless all participants receive an identical item. 8. The aquarium may be set up as a reef or fish only as long as all items are marine. 9. The utmost importance must be placed on the safety and health of all inhabitants. DO NOT use anything that can not survive long term in the pico environment (year+). 10. Each participant will be responsible for a build log (min 3, max 10 photos) as well as photos at the beginning of each month (min 1, max 3 photos). Additional photos (min 3, max 10) or a short video clip (max 30 seconds) is required for final judging. 11. 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. 12. Participants may not modify or add anything to the aquarium that will increase the water capacity by more than 50%. i.e. If the Tank is 3 gallons it may not hold more than 4.5 gallons of water in the end. 13. Each individual may start any number of aquariums but may only submit one (1) for judging. 14. Anyone breaking and not resolving a problem for any of these rules will be excluded from voting and disqualified from the contest. 15. 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). 16. Each participant must donate $10 to the contest, which will be used as the prize. 17. Any tank 5 gallons and under is acceptable. 18. All tanks must be set up no later than April 7th, and no sooner than April 1st. 19. The contest will end ___________. Voting will begin the following week __________, and will last the whole week long. 20. You must be a member to participate.

Lucky for me my uncle sells lightning dwarf snowflake (not so)Great whites. he has been saving an egg laying pair. it will be perfect for this contest

as far as pre-owned equipment and such believe they required you to find a similar product for sale and give it a similar price.

there is another thread where they work out the details... I believe they decided on $3/lb on rock dry or live, and $1/lb for sand. I agree $100 is a lot (they were using $150 for corals and $150 for livestock) but i figure we can work the rules how we choose.

I creep through the other texas groups on a regular basis using Tapatalk, so today while at home sick i was using my laptop and found this idea on the DFWMAS site. I guess it never caught my eye because of the app but this time it did. I love this idea. I am wondering if there is enough interest here to get it started. We could use the rules they created or make our own. I will paste the rules they used below for reference. If we could get this sponsored by the club that would be great. depending on the number of people we could have prizes etc. another idea that I like is to do a group buy for the tank so we all use the same tank. limit the budget to $150 equipment, $100 livestock, and $100 Corals. I think that should be plenty being that it is only a few gallons. http://www.dfwmas.or...p?f=173&t=95198 there is the link for the rules and other about info. once the tanks are established for x months we vote on the best/prettiest/coolest/austin-est? its kinda short but C4 could be an end date. (any other date would work just fine too) your thoughts????

Things are looking up lately. Lots of new zoos and a purple digi from the frag swap. Then some more zoos from a north austin trip and a purple haze from jeeperty. Got a big algae bloom so Hunter at aquadome recommended a foxface. Man he did a good job. GHA was gone. He did So good in fact that he started on the dyno when it began to bloom. 2-3 days later he was found gasping for "air" and was immediately moved to a qt so I could monitor him. He didnt make it. Went to work and found him stiff as a board when I got home. My daughter is in first grade and has these math memorization tests. We have been bribing her with marine life when she passes. She passed one of them she was having a lot of difficulty with and earned herself an anemone. Well of course she wants a pink one. And so began the search for an rbta. I can find them in houston and dallas all the time. But when the budget lines up I can seem to find one here. Aquadome has one now but its too big. I have her convinced that green is good too. No clowns until the last test. The ultimate goal for a 6y/o: Nemo. She is close but still no clowns yet. Oh for the dyno we dosed h2o2 at jeeperty's recommendation and after a little research started. Man it did a good job. Just have to add some starter bacteria to help it along. Thats all for now. Pics to come. Sent from my Galaxy SIII which is cooler than your phone.

I want this but cant get it until at least tomorrow. I guess if it ends up sold thats fine. What part of town? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

things are coming along. I'm going out of town for some training for a week and just yesterday got a big cyano and gha bloom. Went to pick up some CUC. Stopped at PETCO their astreas were only 1.99. And picked up a tiny 1/2" ricordea they didn't know they had so he gave it to me for free. then headed over to aqua dome. Looked around for a bit to see if I ha missed anything yesterday and saw some cute little frog fish they have. I want one but after someones post on here about them I was able to resist. But for you aggies out there THEY HAVE A MAROON ONE!!!!!!!! Anyway, because of the gha problem I was talking to hunter about wishing I could get a diadema, but I know they grow too fast for my little 24. As a matter of fact, someone brought one in that had gotten too big in just 2 months. But hunter mentioned the tuxedo urchin. So guess what I brought home? He is cool. I like how he moves around. He is about an inch wide now. A bright blue color. I know he is going to rearrange some things but im OK with that. Pictures to come in a little bit. Also picked up a single zoo polyp that is bright orange on the outside. Also did a water change today and things are looking great. Can't wait to get some clowns but I made a deal with my daughter that we couldn't get any clown fish until she passes her big math test. So I'm waiting. That's all for now. Thanks for listening. Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

As far as feedings go. obviously the damsels need fed, and they get some freeze dried brine daily (sometimes twice when i dont know they have already been fed by the little one) any suggestions for any of the other stuff? never had torch or galaxia before. i remember feeding phyto years ago but have a serious case of CRS (cant remember s...stuff). I dont think at this point i need to be feeding anything else, am I correct?

Hello, I decided to start a build log. so here it goes. Back in 2005 I received this 24g JBJ NanoCube. I loved it. Then in 2006 we moved here to austin as i started a career and we started a family. this tank fell to the wayside and long story short ended up on a shelf in the garage wrapped in blankets. fast forward 5 years. Our daughter is now 5 and has been asking about a fish tank. we got her a small plastic aquarium from pets mart and some neon tetras. I started thinking, and while she didnt tell me at the time my wife had started thinking too. All throughout this time we visited aquariums everytime we had the chance and i wanted it back up more and more. we finally asked ourselves why are we NOT building this tank. Honestly the answer is because I dont have any patience when it comes to this kind of thing. I will throw myself in with both feet and i want everything. so with that said I'm pretty sure I am on a short leash (not necessarily a bad thing). Last Saturday we went bowling with some friends and I made a bet. If I won she would come with me to RCA while I just looked. Sunday the blanket came off. I think the wait was over by the time we left RCA, but I didnt know she would need so little convincing. I said "Ok, I want the tank up, I cant wait any longer." her answer was "OK". We started looking for sand. I had used some really cool pulverized limestone made by Pavestone a long time ago so we went looking for it and were unsuccessful. So we ended up at AquaDome. I asked Randy some questions and as always he was knowledgeable and friendly. He had lots on suggestions for a reef on a budget. We left with some livesand and a small bag on salt. Within 2 hours the tank was cleaned and filled. I began looking for all those boxes labeled "Fish". I found some old rocks i had held onto knowing they were completely dead. By 3am the tank looked barren but still better than it had in a long time. I checked the ammonia and Nitrates every day and sometimes twice. Zero! Knowing i had to wait for it to cycle I sat patiently and checked my test kits. Wed my daughter passed her math test and not thinking she would pass it this quickly we had promised a fish. So off we go. We ended up leaving Petco with a 2# piece of LR, a Blue Devil Damsel, and a black and White Striped damsel. I love Damsels, they are so fast, I do understand they can be difficult but ok. The upside is that my tank might speed up the pace on this cycling thing. Im finally happy, tank with fish. not perfect but it does qualify as a saltwater aquarium at this point. I dont have any pictures of the damsels yet but they are damsels in a mostly empty tank, use your imagination. Thanks to H2OCool I got a new light knowing that my stock bulbs from half a decade ago needed replacing. I convinced the keeper of the money to let me get this new LED light setup. I dont think she was convinced at the time but i think she is now. Picked that up Friday at Ryan's place and btw if you havent seen his tank you should its beautiful. I love the zoo's and Rics. and that light AWESOME!!! Its going on my wish list. Now I have a problem. I have this great light but nothing to show off. again i have been carefully monitoring my nitrates and ammonia. She I think decided we needed more LR so off we go to AquaDome again. I spend some more time talking to Randy and while looking for a possible timeframe i hear the most glorious words possible. "You've done everything right it may not have a spike, you used live sand and live rock." GREEN LIGHT. GO...... [Tire squealing sound effect here] The wife and I start looking for some of the heartier stuff just in case. $5 mushroom tank here i come. We did a lot of looking and eventually made a few decisions. 2 new pieces of LR, 1 Torch Coral with 2 heads, 2 Green mushrooms with these cool blue spots, a small zoa rock, and a few $1 frags from the bottom of the tank including this very tiny Galaxia (maybe a half inch). make it home and commence drip acclimation. 45min later frags go into the tank. at this point I am still using the ugly old stock nanocube lighting because i dont have/havent built the bracket to hang/support the new LED's. WAIT... WHAT??? I have these cool new lights but no way to put them over the tank. UNACCEPTABLE! out to the garage to fashion a temporary support out of whatever i have lying around. 45min later i have something that will work until its permenant replacement is decided upon. up until this point anytime the new light was over the tank to test it out (play) with it i was standing so i havent seen what it really looks like. finally i get a chance to sit down and enjoy a good lighting system over my tank. the new Zoa's are opening up the other things are starting to perk up. I have never seen things pop like this in my own tank. It always looked so washed out. not anymore, everything green turns orange. purple turns pink. its awesome. even the black and white damsel has this thin blue line on the posterior side of all of his fins. Now of course the camera comes out but i want to take the pics without the whites to get the pop of the orange. not happening guess i need a crash course in photography. i get some good pics but nothing outstanding. will have to talk to a buddy with a better lense and get some pointers. I will get some more pics on monday while I am at home and the whites are on. As I am typing this I realize allt he pictures i have up to now are not on the computer I am typing with so I wil edit and add pics while I am at work tomorrow. Thanks for listening/reading. I hope to make this a long thread with LOTS of updates (mostly ones shorter than this). Thanks AggieMedic I am so excited now. I have to be at work in 5 hours, but im too excited to sleep.

Years ago the big ting was to convert maxijets into power heads using a prop. I realize that they come with the conversion kit now but I have a few older maxijets that I would like to convert. Anyone know where I can get just the kit? I'm having trouble finding the kit by itself. Sent from my hacked HP Touchpad running Android ICS using Tapatalk.

Yeah I got a little poke to my index finger and its still got a little hole in it too. once the sand clears I would love to see pictures of her in her new home.

aaron, i would love to see some pictures every once in a while if you dont mind. thanks My living room is so much quieter without the tank running its eerie

Everything is gone, thanks aaron. I dont know if he is keeping the clown or not you may ask him. Rob