Ideas for contest

[DieselPowered]

I'm not sure how limiting your budget increases your construction palette. Try implimenting day/night timers, foggers, misting systems, intriquet backgrounds with well design, constructed, and implimented false bottoms on a small budget. I appreciate someones ability to grab waste product and transform it into something useful, especially a center piece showcase for your house, but using that as a limiting criteria on a grand prize is...limiting.

Technically, all the items purchased or aquired for the vivarium currently under construction in my condo have been given to me for my services. That brings my total cost for the project to $0.00. Assuming that restrictions will be put in place to reduce these kinds of claims, could the same not be said about left over tile? Someone had to pay for it...unless you stole it. Dirt and rocks are limited to location.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, as nice as it would be to be able to obtain all the glass, rocks, materials, pluming and control equipment for the project for free, it's not likely to happen. The glass alone for my tank is roughly $500.00. That doesn't include any plumbing, lighting, heating, decorations (substrates, false bottoms, wet/dry features, plants, backgrounds), or live inhabitants.

I guess I COULD go to a second hand store and look for a second hand 10g tank. As well, I could probably head down to the river and grab some river rocks and drift wood. Since my theme has now changed from tropical to Canadian river system I don't need a heating system any longer. Lighting is crap in Edmonton so I don't need much for lighting anymore. I can go catch some awesome Edmonton river fish and maybe some aquatic toads or frogs from the river beds and rail track ponds.

Or...

I could build my tank according to the design plans that I require and follow the parameters which I've set out and make no comprimises to my setup. Do you understand what I mean by limitations.

Recycled anything will not be as good in quality as new and by limiting an individuals materials because of costs your reducing the overall list of supplies which in turn dampens the diversity.

I will add that money doesn't always buy a better product, but taking it out of the picture completely, definitely ensures it.

On a side note: The multi prized system would require smaller prizes. I like your idea of eliminating the multiple winners and using the category selections as criteria for a stand alone winner.

Whatever you eventually decide will be better than nothing and I'm sure will promote activity on these forums. A similar contest was done a couple years ago and inspired me to begin researching the idea...which eventually led me here. Contests promote creativity!

Good luck with your thought process.

[froggsong]

Well, no one said you had to enter the contest, did they? No offense meant, btw.

The purpose of this particular contest will be to encourage people to build no matter what their budget is. If you think that a nice tank requires hundreds of dollars of equipment and materials, that's you. If it's a cheapest vive contest and your vive costs waaaaaaaaay more than everyone else's then you'll either not enter, or you'll lose. If the purpose is to be a cheap vive contest, then the cheap vives will win. Money spent does NOT always equal value. Macy's sells Martha Stewart products. Martha Stewart is a Kmart product. I can guarantee that the products we have at Macy's have no greater value than the ones they sell at Kmart, but we charge alot more for them. A new product we just got in is a juice dispenser type thing (a jug with a spout, basically), it looks like glass, but when you take a closer look and tap on it, it is thin plastic. It costs over 100 bucks. Cheap in value, but high in price.

If you or someone in your household didn't buy it, it was free, regardless of it having been paid for by someone. Being paid for services with goods is one of the things I will have to work out, because obviously, there is a price there, the price was your time and effort for whatever service you provided. Picking up broken tiles for a project is free, and responsible, because otherwise they would likely end up in a landfill. How is eggcrate recycled from a store that would be throwing it away of any less value than some new eggcrate I just purchased from the store? If you have some lying around from a previous build that you can use, that is free, because you didn't buy it for that build, it doesn't make it any less valuable than a new sheet from the store if it is enough for you to use, or at least reduces the amount of new eggcrate you will have to buy.

You make it seem like encouraging people to recycle or look for deals so that they can have a beautiful tank for their animals is a bad thing. Or that you feel like it is excluding you somehow.

If I can find a $200 canister filter on craigslist for $50, and that's what I need for a tank, I'm going to buy the one for $50 and spend my hard earned money on something else. If that isn't something you want to do, that's you. If the contest is cheapest vive and I only spend $50 for my filter, but you spend the full $200, I'm going to win, simple as that. Because it wont be as simple as everyone building the same thing and seeing who can get the better deal, there will have to be complex, strict rules to be sure we choose the right person for the winner. Like I said, I want it to be up to a vote. If we have say... 10 entrants, I want them all to be voted on for multiple things, most creative, best background, etc. The amount of money spent on the project will be assigned a point system of some sort, as will each voting category, and then everything will be tallied together to get the winner.

I promise, though I am thinking up the contest for the site, I'm not making it up to please everyone. This is the contest idea that has shown the most response, and it is the one I am going to get written up and started first. It is a contest that everyone can enter, even a child. It is simply to encourage the most creative vive with the best use of money. Yes, limiting your budget somewhat limits your "palette", but there are MANY ways to get the things you need to build a wonderful vivarium, and NONE OF THEM include STEALING.

If anyone feels too limited by the contest, they can either wait for a different one, or create something within the limits (which is really the whole point!). If you wouldn't have fun doing it, then don't do it.

[froggsong]

One more thing, I'm not the only one that can write up rules for a contest, or even post a thread to the contest forum starting one. If someone wants to get something started of their own accord and offer some sort of prize, then please, go ahead! If you want to write up some rules for a contest and want rep or something to be the prize, then PM your rules to me, I'll go over them and make any changes I feel are necessary, and then post it and give rep for a reward to the winner. I have lots of stuff to do, my life is alot busier than it used to be. I can't spend the amount of time on the site that I would like anymore. I don't just sit around all day with a pen and paper writing down contest ideas, lol. I think about it when I have little bits of free time, and as soon as I have a couple of hours to sit down and write it all out, I will get it done.

[DieselPowered]

Having a bad day?

I will add that money doesn't always buy a better product, but taking it out of the picture completely, definitely ensures it.

Cheer up!

If the contest contains low cost restrictions, then you're correct. I will not win. But that's not why I'm making suggestions in here...to better my chances. For arguments sake, there is no contest yet! Lol. Which brings up another point; you should make some time restriction as to when the vivarium had to have been constructed. 2006, 2009, last 6 months, etc.

Anyways, clearly my suggestions are creating more negative feelings then inspirational thoughts. I'll leave the topic and continue browsing the construction forum for cool new ideas and progressions.

[froggsong]

No, no, no... I think you got the wrong idea. I wasn't saying your ideas aren't valid, but that the point of this particular contest will be to spend the least amount of money. To get the creative juices flowing with what you already have available. It certainly can't be the deciding factor alone, but I don't think this will limit people as much as you think it will. The object isn't to build it for free, but to reuse things to make something beautiful. I know you weren't trying to make the odds better for yourself, I never said that. Nor was I having a bad day, lol. You're fairly new to the site, so I don't think you are as familiar with my writing style as some others may be. I tend to cut straight to the point, sometimes it is very easy to take it wrong.

As for your quote, I never said that the vive had to be constructed for free, though that might be another contest with a totally different set of rules (and much easier to get written up, too, lol). Something like that would probably go better as a nano vive contest. But, the idea isn't to just cheap out, if there is someting that you think is necessary that is more expensive, there are tons of other places to cut cost. For example, instead of buying styrofoam insulation to do a BG or faux rock, post an ad on freecycle or craigslist asking for styrofoam packing material. Then you can get as much of that as you need, for free. The same can be said for some of the plants.

For some of us, automation isn't so important. I, for example, concentrate on making the best enclosure for my animals that I can on a very small (practically non-existent) budget. My bearded dragon enclosure, which I WAS planning to enter into the contest, but I can't wait for myself to get everything written up before I get it done at this point (they grow so fast!!!), is almost free for me to build. I might spend 30 bucks for a 64"x20"x24" enclosure. I have alot of left overs from previous builds, and I am using free wood for the construction. The glass for the front is also free (and why the tank is so long... she told me it was plate glass, but alas, it is tempered). I am planning to construct another cage to go on top of this one, that will porbably cost me no more than 50 bucks. Not only that, but putting the next enclosure on top will save on my heating bills, because I will be using the considerable heat from the beardie cage to heat the snake enclosure on top. I even got the artificial plants I'll be using for one or the other of the tanks for free (at least $100 worth of good quality artificial plants, probably closer to 200, all I had to do was wash and disinfect them). There are just so many things that people want to be rid f that we could use for a vive. People give away bath tubs thy have removed in remodels all the time. I have seen some wonderful vives constructed from bath tubs with shower surrounds on top. I've got an old console TV that I'll be converting to a vive. You might be surprised how many people are giving away free glass, all for the cost of you going to pick it up. Lots of people being rid of cracked tanks as well, that can be easily repaired for someone not keeping fish inside. The possibilities are limitless, as long as you use your imagination and stay on the lookout for good deals and great finds. It's sort of like antiquing, but for vivariums, lol.

[lowcountryfire]

I don't know if this was mentioned before, but I think we should do like a Picture of the week.... The winner will have the picture posted on the main page or something for the week, until someone else gets the "crown" or something similar... Or pic of the month, w/e.... It can be like a beauty shot, funny pic, w/e no specific categorys, just a thread where we can post a picture with a little caption at the bottom, and say it starts on monday, then runs until friday (the contest) a poll is added to the thread, and we vote on sat/sun for the winner, and then, the winner gets the picture posted somewhere visible on the site until the following monday....

[froggsong]

That would be great if I knew how to post a pic to the front page... I don't though. I could ask Marty, I guess. We could start that this Monday and give a couple of rep points for the "prize" until we can figure out how to do the picture thing.