Reefing Competition

[The Gurg]

One thing that advances many fields is competition. With reefing, you could know almost nothing, go into a fish store and buy a bunch of beautiful coral and then artfully arrange the coral take a picture and then submit to an online competition.

So, I had an idea for a competitive reefing format. If an organization running the competition rented a warehouse, you could mark off equal sized areas, maybe 50 squares with electricity. Each competitor gets a square. You'd be restricted to a tank size, and the competition would provide organic components that were weighed to be equal. So everyone would get several coral frags that each weighed the same, the same amount of sand and rock. You'd be allowed to bring in any equipment under some dollar amount, maybe ten grand. At the end of a specified time frame, say three months, the competition would be judged. Could be by weight of the corals or could be by aesthetics or maybe both.

Would a competition like this work? Would it be prohibitively expensive? Would people be unwilling to participate for long timeframes? If the competition format seems feasible, in what ways could the idea be improved?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Interesting idea. I agree, competition fosters innovation. It would be difficult to coordinate the logistics. Putting all the tanks in one space, as you propose, might work on a local level, like say, a 'Springfield Reef Club Competition'. But otherwise, a world-wide competition would have to be virtual.

Heck, I'd be happy to see a return of "Tank of the Month"!

 

[Opus123]

I think cost would be the biggest issue. You would be asking people to invest a lot of money in something they may not be able to use after the competition, meaning they may not have the room for another tank at home. Finding a place to rent would also be difficult I would think. We have trouble finding places locally to hold frag swaps because of the money wanted and/or they don't want all that water in one area. I would think you would want each person to pay for their own electricity so you would have to come up with a way to do that.
There would also need to be a way to keep the tanks secure. Competition can foster innovation but it can also bring out the worst in people.

 

[KafudaFish]

I think the competition should run a minimum of five years before judging the tanks.