Many reef hobbyists enjoy making the additional activity of making something themselves. Some reefkeppers are do-it-yourselfers to feel a greater sense of accomplishment that they made something themselves, while others are DIY'ing out of necessity due to the lack of a commercially available solution or the need to save some funds for corals instead of equipment. Either way, this contest is a great chance for you to share your great ideas with fellow enthusiasts and have a shot at winning an awesome prize!
So let your reefkeeping skills and creativity show! If it can be DIY'ed, then you can use it as a topic for this contest. This will be a very easy going contest so have fun and be creative with it.
Prize
Share your DIY project with us and have a shot at winning the following from Unique Corals:
a $100 gift certificate!!!!
In addition to this great prize, the winning entry will become famous! We will feature the winning DIY project thread (and possibly others) on the CaptiveReefs.com homepage as a featured article.
Contest Dates
The DIY Contest will run from now until April 30, 2011. Semi-finalists will be posted on May 10. General membership judging will be from May 10 to May 31. The winner announced on June 1.
Judging
The entries will be initially judged by CR Staff. CR staff will select the semi-finalists which will total 10% of the entries. The Semi-finalalists will be posted for the general membership to vote on their favorite. In the event of a tie, the tied entries will be reposted for a tie breaking vote with the general membership. Should we receive 10 or less entries, CR Staff will decide the winner.
The following criteria and weight factors will be used to select the semi-finalists:
Thoroughness
Members should be able to follow your DIY idea and implement it themselves. There must be documentation sufficient to communicate your idea. At a minimum, documentation must make clear what it is your DIY idea is intended to accomplish, a materials list, project cost, and step by step instructions. Documentation includes written, photos, and/or videos.
Innovation
This will count as 30%. Basically this is whether your idea is original and/or a cleaver way to implement someone else's idea. The DIY project doesn't have to be a big one...it can be something simple that you have figured out a better way to do.
Follow-up
Members are encouraged to discuss the DIY project with the contestant. This portion of the judging will be how well the contestant responds to members discussion and answers questions.
Presentation
Overall appearance of your DIY thread itself. CR has many options for making a custom thread (text color, background color, making titles bold, etc.). This is accomplished through use of bbcode. Quality of the writeup, photos, video, etc. will be counted as part of Presentation.
After the semi-finalists are determined using the above criteria, judging will be done by the general membership. General membership can vote for their favorite...either using the criteria above or just pick your favorite.
Rules
For this DIY contest the rules are as follows:
Post your DIY Contest entry in the DIY Forum. The thread title should be your project title and then "- Contest Entry" after it so we know who's in the contest.
Each entry must have at least one photograph of the finished project.
There must be a minimum of 4 steps to take to achieve what you are trying to do.
You may enter multiple DIY projects under different threads. Although only one per person can be selected as a semi-finalist. (So entering multiple projects may increase your chances of being a semi-finalist.)
You may enter the same DIY project as someone else. For example if Joe is doing a DIY project for a gurgler buster, John can also enter with a gurgler buster. Although originality may be impacted, we realize there are many ways to accomplish our goals and we are interested in seeing your idea.
You can use an old thread if you choose (from here or another forum) and update it and make it look good. You must copy/paste the idea into a new thread in the DIY Forum and the thread must originally be yours! All content should be your own. Use of photos from other users without permission and/or wording from someone else's thread elsewhere should be reported and you will be eliminated from the contest.
Looking for some ideas...Reply to this thread to see some potential projects to get your creativity going:
Some of the ideas you can do include: DIY gurgle buster, DIY sump, DIY filter socks, DIY skimmers, build your own tank, DIY stand or canopy, LED lighting, fish/coral food, etc.
DIY Contest - sponsored by Unique Corals
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