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NERM WEEK 2022 - ULTIMATE DESIGN CONTEST - Posting for official entries!!


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Hello Nerms!! Happy NERM WEEK!! I'm excited to host the "ultimate design contest"! This is where anyone who wanted/wants to enter can post for the contest which will run until the 16 when the votes will be tallied and a winner announced! Rules for this contest were posted here: 

ULTIMATE DESIGN CONTEST***Upcoming for Nerm Week 2022 (July 10-16)

Every forum member is eligible to post an entry, every forum member is eligible to vote for a winner- as a reminder point system is as follows: 

  • Blue Heart Emoji = 2 points
  • Laughing Emoji = 3 points
  • Love Emoji = 4 points
  • Trophy Emoji = 5 points

Can't wait to see the entries!!!!

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I'm sorry for the clumsy handwriting, I am just in general not the best when it comes to my printing clearly.  If you need me to translate the hieroglyphics will do! 😂

If you know one thing about me, know that I love sharks. In general, it is one of the most amazing creatures to me and I am genuinely in awe with my fascination for them.  My "ultimate" tank would simply meet a few key requirements:

1.  Holds 1 shark.  There are some species of shark that are anti-social.  The research would be on me to figure out what that is and to provide and care for that animal correctly.  I am perfectly fine with it being a small species, I just want to have one, captive bred, and be able to care for this one animal as best I can.
2.  I literally don't have dimensions for this because they would need to be massive for me to feel comfortable to keep an actual shark.  If I had to guess, it'd probably be 16 feet long end to end and something like 6-8 feet wide.  I would not feel comfortable without having a massive water volume for this little guy.
3.  I would of course need to actually learn a lot more in the hobby and trust myself enough to keep saltwater and I would want all of the things to make that easy.

The design here would be to highlight a few of my favorite regions, but also pay homage to a few of my favorite sharks. 

Kelp Forest:  On the west coast this is one of the homes of the great white shark.  You can see the little image below, a dark bottom, seals as their food, and this amazing little habitat that feels extremely unique to me.  It is one of the places I literally could spend a day staring at it and just feel calm, relaxed, content, and waiting for that big great white to hop up from the bottom.  The way sharks are, the top is dark so that when you look down they are hidden, and then their bellies are white so that when you're below you can't see them in the sun or surface light.  They dive at full force upward and literally can fly out of the water to catch prey.
2huo.gif\

Open Ocean:  This is the home of the oceanic whitetip shark.  They have a unique fin in terms of shape and are just a beautiful animal to me. They tend to be solitary and travel thousands of miles a day to check out a noise they heard or continue searching for food.  They are given a bad rap because when there is some incident that randomly happens in the middle of the ocean, they tend to be one of the first ones on the scene.  They are very adapted to patrol and investigate.
Oceanic whitetip shark warrants 'threatened' listing – Clarion Extra.com

Reef Life:  This is the home of many sharks, but one of my favorites is the nurse shark.  The name alone is great, but this is one of the first sharks I really got to see, appreciate, and admire.  I think I remember Steve Irwin at the bottom of some aquarium and he was talking about them.  A few years later I was able to see one for the first time in Colorado.  They are such cool animals and wouldn't hurt a fly.

Atlantic nurse shark | fish species | Britannica

Second to this, I would actually like to have a rack with tanks one day (freshwater).  I plan to breed amano shrimp, have a ton of them, and just enjoy that process.  I also would like to have 2-3 corydoras species to keep in lowboy style tanks and one "fun tank" that can be filled with plants (dutch style is very beautiful to me).  I would want to keep barbs and a few other cool species that fit with them. 

The one thing I don't want to do is have a billion tanks or to have say... more than 3-4.  I can appreciate having tanks ready to go, but active tanks with fish, I just don't feel like it'd be responsible on my part to have tanks like that and not have some way to ensure the species would be cared for if I wasn't there to do it.  For my shark, I'd absolutely have some number somewhere and a deal with an aquarium who could come in and take the tank as well as the animals themselves.


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Edited by nabokovfan87
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Here's my fish room design. This would be the fish room I would build if I ever got super serious about breeding fish. 

It is modelled to fit in a spare room in the house. It has three racks, each with its own drain/ plumbing system1471107569_Fishroom.png.dc0c9e9ec26c2666ffca0efef39e3464.png

 

1166291381_Fishroom(1).png.0e0140b84688d5bb39dd50ebf17ad871.png

 

387014548_Fishroom(2).png.df5e291071255a3fb42b9dc54d52fc16.png

The first rack would be the grow- out rack.It has 4 10g on the top shelf, 3 20 g highs, and 1 40g B

1632857293_Fishroom(3).png.5bc8927b3b677ebb0b17c2e5d7248887.png

The second rack would have adult fish, shrimp, snail, etc. There are 10 20g highs, and 5 10 gallons on the bottom. The 10g would probably be for the inverts. 

46713233_Fishroom(4).png.a2f80b7790678ea87112591f2cae082e.png

And finally, the third rack would be for a fry system like Master breeder Dean's, and some extra 20 g longs. 

So in total, 9 10g, 13 20 g highs, 3 20 g longs, and 1 40 g B

What do you think of my fish room design?

 

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Fish room:

The center circle area has a retractable sky roof. There is seating in various places throughout including giant recliners for comfort and stools for close up viewing. All ponds include Japanese trapdoor snails. Mystery and ramshorn snails are dispersed throughout other tanks. 

 

Breeding and Growout Side Room:

This is exclusively for mating pairs and grow out tanks. The fry and juveniles growing out here can have come from a mating pair in this room or from a tank in the main room. 

 

Round Koi Pond:

This pond had walkways that go over it. The pond extends under the middle area for more space for the fish. 

 

G1: 

This pond is for a specific strain of guppies. Which strain is kept is subject to change. 

 

G2:

This pond is for mutt guppies. Always fun to see what comes out!

 

M1:  

This pond is for blue sparkle medaka 

 

M2:

This pond is for a mixed medaka

 

Blue:  

4 10 gallon tanks holding bettas and friends. 

 

1k-1k:

This is a 1,000 gallon tank holding 1,000 rummy nose tetra

 

:

This tank is stocked with diamon tetras, powdered blue gourami, Magenta mystery snails and similis cories. 

 

Red:

Different community tanks. Eggs are pulled from some and put into grow out tanks. 

 

Cories:

12 different species of cories kept in species only tanks. Eggs are pulled and put into grow out tanks

 

Killifish:

A rack of killifish

 

Rainbow:

A rack of rainbow fish

 

Shrimp:

A rack of shrimp tanks. 

 

20220713_163912.jpg

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Well, I'm really skating close to the deadline, but I'll go ahead and post mine anyway. This is just a part of the house I dream about building one day (although it's not likely to happen 😅). I haven't researched if all this stuff would actually work at all since it's a far off dream, but here's what I'm thinking. The house would have a courtyard in the middle and you would be able to access some rooms both from inside the house and from the courtyard. In the courtyard we'd have my husband's vegetable garden, a big koi and/or goldfish pond, and some big tubs that I'd probably use for summer livebearer breeding. I didn't really design it, but I'd like to have a little viewing area with a nice bench to watch the koi pond. 

In the living room I'd have a 125 gallon tank. The one fish my husband has ever said he needs is a pleco of some kind. So the deal is once we have a living room with space for a 125 gallon, he gets to pick his pleco and I'll design and stock the rest of the tank around that fish's needs. What can I say, I love my husband and if there's going to be a massive tank in our living room I want him to be able to enjoy it too! 

Finally, there's the actual fish room. Right now I have the access just through the courtyard; in reality there would probably be access through the other pet room as well. Coming in from the courtyard the first thing you'd see would be the lowboy corydoras tank. I've wanted a lowboy tank ever since I saw a video (I think from Prime Time Aquatics?) on a 50gallon lowboy he had in the middle of his fish room. (To be fair, he also said he hated having it in the middle of his fish room, but hey, as long as I have a nice walkway around it, I think it's a great idea.) I'd stock this tank with just corydoras, maybe a giant shoal of one variety, maybe a few smaller schools of different varieties. 

To the left of the door is the betta rescue rack, probably on one of those big gladiator racks. I have a bad habit of coming across bettas in bad shape and convincing people to give them to me, so I've obviously got to keep a space for that. It would be most five gallon tanks, with a couple ten gallons and several smaller tanks/containers for bettas that need a smaller space than a five gallon while they recover. 

Next to the rescue rack is the supply cabinet for medication, food, extra decor, etc. I'd also have a freezer on that wall for frozen food. 

The back wall is a ton of breeding racks. Since this exists in a world where I have way too much time to devote to my fish, I'd be focusing a lot on breeding. I'll keep breeding platies and neocaridina shrimp, probably try corydoras and guppies as well. I really want to try betta breeding as well, so most of this rack would be dedicated to that endeavor. I want to see if it's possible to breed healthier bettas that still look beautiful, kind of like what Kasia of Creative Pet Keeping does. 

The next wall is kind of the oddball rack for whatever I end up not having a good spot for elsewhere. Plants I'm trying to get to grow, weird experiments I'm doing, and other stuff like that will go there. I'll also probably have quarantine tubs on the bottom of this rack for new stock. If I ever get brave enough to try live food, which I'll need to with a fish room this size, I'll have everything for that over here too. 

Finally, we have the rack for my pet fish, which is basically a spot for bettas that I rescue and then get way too attached too. I'll probably also have cull tanks on this rack, since the culls I can't sell usually end up becoming my pets. I don't like killing them if they have a good quality of life, so they'll hang out with me. I also have a nice chair in this corner so I can watch the fish. 

That's about it! Thanks for reading my absolute essay if you made it this far! 😊 

Edited by Emrie G
The text copied twice and that's just obnoxious to read.
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On 7/15/2022 at 4:49 PM, Emrie G said:

Coming in from the courtyard the first thing you'd see would be the lowboy corydoras tank.

I am a huge fan of the centerpiece cory tank.  I found one that's a 60G lowboy.  Instead of it being slightly too short for equipment on the 50G it's 12" tall and should be a lot easier to setup.  Just a heads up for your future awesomeness!

 

 

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Here's my skin of my teeth entry:

FishRoomDimensions.jpg.f4c270e1c710fec467a03f72698057ad.jpg

 

FishRoomView.jpg.25a36df4effdb107b6548d35ced7e2ee.jpg

I removed the walls in the second image to show the sink, racks, rack dimensions, and desk. TinkerCad doesn't have sinks or faucets, so I got creative😂

The 200" x 200" is the inner grid work or "Working Plane" and I built out from there. Used the dimensions of my living room, where I just built my first real rack, with each of the 4 shelves rated for 2000 lbs. Patient Spouse™ is definitely becoming a  Reluctant Nerm™!

 

<Edit: First "real rack" since I moved back to NM in 2009, figured I should clarify.>

When I bred before, I custom built most of my aquariums... in the 90's that was frequently less expensive than buying aquariums (except when Kmart and Walmart put all their fish rooms on clearance). All tanks here are either 10 -14" tall (middle shelf) or 21" tall (bottom and top shelves) for ease of cleaning and access. So 5 gallons, 10 & 15 gallons, and 25, 55 75, & 125 gallons on the bottom and top shelves (unless I custom build).

Far right  would be NANF, with the back SANF, and the short left 2 shelves high dedicated to breeding from the rest of the world. Small tanks would be dedicated inverts from the region of the shelf. Heat mats under dedicated tropical species on top shelves, but room would probably stay at 69 F - 72 F for my comfort and for the comfort of NANF.

Edited by Torrey
Clarification, forgot to copy over bottom 2 paragraphs
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On 7/15/2022 at 7:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I am a huge fan of the centerpiece cory tank.  I found one that's a 60G lowboy.  Instead of it being slightly too short for equipment on the 50G it's 12" tall and should be a lot easier to setup.  Just a heads up for your future awesomeness!

 

 

I love that you have a space of other pets including guinea pigs!!  I was just talking with my friend about how I need to put this fish room into an entire imaginary hobby farm including at least 2 of every rodent. Well like 10 rats lol. Guinea pigs, gerbils, hamster, ferrets, and that's just the small animals haha. 

Totally quoted the wrong person sorry. Meant @Emrie G

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Hi fishy friends! Well as promised I've closed the votes on this NERM Week 2022 design contest and the winner is....

@nabokovfan87 !!!! 🥳CONGRATULATIONS🥳 !!! Yea sorry just digital high fives for entering but it's fun to exercise the imagination and celebrate all things NERMy!! Good work!

I'd like to acknowledge all of you who threw your designs out there- there are some really awesome ideas here- inspirational and MTS in the making! So thank you to @SandBkeeper, @Cinnebuns, @Emrie G and @Torrey for participating in this event. 

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On 7/12/2022 at 9:30 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Kelp Forest:  On the west coast this is one of the homes of the great white shark

You can experience diving in a kelp forest in a game called Subnautica. It’s a cool underwater survival game, you can build an underwater base, etc. (And put aquariums in it too)

I see the black tip reef sharks while diving. Also nurse sharks. On one of my night dives I remember the first thing I saw was a nurse shark. They are cool.

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On 7/19/2022 at 11:52 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Time to bust out the superglue again, seal up the cut so you can work in the tank.

Need to get to the store, lol.  Waiting for a ride.  I have that liquid bandaid stuff. would not recommend.  Because of the worms I have gloves / bandaid and do everything one handed.

I don't recommend trying to eat a taco left handed. Don't ask why. LOL.

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