ok a couple questions, first.. Can there be an up to 28 gal display PPPpllllleeeeassseeee
I don't want to have to buy another tank and I have two 28's sitting in storage LOL
Also this one is a question about the budget. why do we have a hard ware budget and no livestock one, why not no hardware budget and only a live stock one. IMHO what people see is the tank and whats in it. To me it would make sense to have restrictions like , no more than 1 fish for every 5 gal, no more than 1lb of live rock for every 2 or 3 gal, ect.. give people limits in what they can work with and see what they come up with. with budgits there is always a work around. say I buy a broken pump for 5 bucks and it needs some electrical repair myself.. I just got a 200 buck pump for 5 bucks.. same goes for a skimmer, get a brokin one for cheep, fix it your self..... but if you tell me I can only have a skimmer, a single primary light with suplamental lighting, 15lbs of live rock, 3 fish, 6 corals, and 3 total pumps. It will make me do some serious thinking about what I want for my tank and how to do it. IMHO this is the best way to get creativity out of people.. give them stuff to work with and see how they put it togeather.
Personally if I did a 20 gal, it would be a SPS dominated tank and it would have MH/T5 lighting and a big skimmer. and either a kalk reactor or maybe even a dosing set up.
My thinking is I am not going to set up a tank just for the sake of setting one up. it is going to be done right, if that means I need to buy some stuff so be it but I am not going to cheap out and cut corners for the sake of a contest. we owe more than that to the eventual inhabitants we are going to have.
but entering this contest I am hoping that people are looking at it as a way to have fun with a build they already would have been doing and not just setting up a disposable tank for the sake of competing.
for the record, I can build my own skimmer, lights, reactor, ect.. got the acrylic tubing and the tools to do it, but.. even doing it your self there is no way you can buy the parts for under 300,
Steve