aggieMEDIC

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.

aggieMEDIC do you change ur phone every day or what? ur sig changes pretty often

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.

any pictures to go along with the progress report sir?

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 love clams. But never had one. Im too scared. What do I need for a clam.

I know a small amount.

I need lights. What level of lights? Actinic? high lighting?

Feeding- they are filter feeders. So what do I feed them?

Anything else?

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

Is this what is left? What part of town are you in?

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

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.

...or can pull from their already established tanks and spend $0.

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 would say no. Cannot subsidize one expense for another.

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.

all i know is it measures how strong your lights are in various places in your tank. anyone is south austin have one i could use for a day or so? or better yet anyone want to come over and measure the PAR in my tank? i have no clue what im doing and there were a few people on the board that were wondering about the PAR for this lamp is.

My question was answered about shipping, I feel that it should not be counted as well!

Should it be a year long process? I think the 1 yr mark is a pretty big accomplishment (I haven't made it myself), and that it would be awesome to see the original pics vs. the 1 yr mark pics!

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.

I vote any tank under 5 gallon is possible. If you want to go AIo to try and "expand" your budget then do it. They all have pluses and draw backs.

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.

Just a question, what is minimum time before judging? Seems it would be an important part of the contest to have a functioning and sustainable pico. Anybody can throw a bunch of beautiful things in a small box of water, snap a pic or record a video and viola.. best pico ever. Or does the monthly submissions account for the proof of sustainability? Just curious is all... I gladly bow down to anybody who can keep 3 gallons of water stable. I am still working on 150 gal. :-)

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.

AggieMEDIC, all that sounds fair. we are generally a fair bunch, and figure the less people have to question during the contest the better. so I guess we could spend a month or so getting all the kinks worked out and the rules polished up and this would be fun for all involved.

On a side note on FMV...if someone wins an auction for a 25 dollar item that is usually 50 dollars how much is taken from their budget (and is shipping count against budget as well)?

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 want to figure out how to get pics like these...

I am using my wife's Canon DSLR 10D (yes its old) I am getting a macro lens in about 2 weeks from my dad who decided the one he has isnt "Macro" enough. we should have a photography lesson sometime.

I'd like to get more info on your dino elimination tactics. Just for future reference.

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.

Sweet... let me know if you have any questions about how I did it before. Good luck!

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.

I am hoping to use things I already have, otherwise I won't be able to participate

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"

maybe we should just put a cap on what can be spent on the tank? so it allows for some options...just spitballin' it here

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???

does the equipment budget include the cost of the tank itself?

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.