s_tempest
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2019
- Messages
- 182
- Reaction score
- 407
- Location
- Northeast CT, USA
- What state or country do you live in
- Connecticut
After lurking on this and some other forums for several years, I joined so I can post questions and get help with my new tank build. I'm getting a new Waterbox 130.4 delivered in a few days, and plan to document the tank build here on R2R at:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/waterbox-130-4-tank-build.628958/
You are welcome to follow along, ask questions, make suggestions and give advice. This will be by far the largest tank I've had in SW or FW.
About me and aquariums:
I've had FW aquariums since the mid-90s, starting with a 10g in my dorm room at college (Penn State, B.S. Geosciences, 1994). I've had mixed FW community tanks, african cichlids (kribs back when 'The Krib' was my go-to for information), planted tanks with full-on CO2, discus, and my latest FW iteration: a 75g Malawi cichlid tank with a 30g sump in the stand. I built the backdrop myself out of foam and hydraulic cement, and 8 months in I'm pretty happy with how that tank has turned out (pic is below).
My first SW tank began 3 years ago as complete impulse buy. My wife and I were driving home from the vet with the ashes of one of our favorite dogs (our dogs mean a lot to us), and randomly stopped in a LFS to cheer ourselves up. We were captivated by the soft corals in a nano-tank on display, and long-story-short we came home with a 14g nano tank, inspired to try our our first SW tank.
I read everything I could get my hands on about SW tanks, nano-reefs, etc. Lurked on the forums. Found good LFS that gave good advice. Planned weekend drives to visit LFS further afield. Joined FB groups. We started slow (mostly), had some successes and some other losses, and overall fell in love with the idea of maintaining a reef tank of corals and fish. That 14g is still going, with one clownfish and a handful of soft corals, LPS and one montipora growing nicely right under the light.
But, we realized we needed a bigger tank.
So I saved up some cash and did a writing gig to earn some more. And that's why the big tank is coming in a few days.
Some more about me:
I'm a college professor in a Geosciences department at a state university; my specialty is geochemistry and global-scale carbon cycling. After grad school I spent nearly three years as a post-doc at the Woods Oceanographic Institution but never got to got to sea or do any research that was directly marine - my fieldwork was in Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan!
Married 25 years as of last month, no kids.
Our other big hobby is our dogs - we raise and show Newfoundland dogs. We have a bundle of them here at home, and have been fortunate to have some of the top-ranked Newfs nationally for several years, although like anything that success is a combination of good luck, careful planning and some hard work - kinda like a beautiful reef tank!
Thanks for reading, and check out my build thread!
- Steve
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/waterbox-130-4-tank-build.628958/
You are welcome to follow along, ask questions, make suggestions and give advice. This will be by far the largest tank I've had in SW or FW.
About me and aquariums:
I've had FW aquariums since the mid-90s, starting with a 10g in my dorm room at college (Penn State, B.S. Geosciences, 1994). I've had mixed FW community tanks, african cichlids (kribs back when 'The Krib' was my go-to for information), planted tanks with full-on CO2, discus, and my latest FW iteration: a 75g Malawi cichlid tank with a 30g sump in the stand. I built the backdrop myself out of foam and hydraulic cement, and 8 months in I'm pretty happy with how that tank has turned out (pic is below).
My first SW tank began 3 years ago as complete impulse buy. My wife and I were driving home from the vet with the ashes of one of our favorite dogs (our dogs mean a lot to us), and randomly stopped in a LFS to cheer ourselves up. We were captivated by the soft corals in a nano-tank on display, and long-story-short we came home with a 14g nano tank, inspired to try our our first SW tank.
I read everything I could get my hands on about SW tanks, nano-reefs, etc. Lurked on the forums. Found good LFS that gave good advice. Planned weekend drives to visit LFS further afield. Joined FB groups. We started slow (mostly), had some successes and some other losses, and overall fell in love with the idea of maintaining a reef tank of corals and fish. That 14g is still going, with one clownfish and a handful of soft corals, LPS and one montipora growing nicely right under the light.
But, we realized we needed a bigger tank.
So I saved up some cash and did a writing gig to earn some more. And that's why the big tank is coming in a few days.
Some more about me:
I'm a college professor in a Geosciences department at a state university; my specialty is geochemistry and global-scale carbon cycling. After grad school I spent nearly three years as a post-doc at the Woods Oceanographic Institution but never got to got to sea or do any research that was directly marine - my fieldwork was in Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan!
Married 25 years as of last month, no kids.
Our other big hobby is our dogs - we raise and show Newfoundland dogs. We have a bundle of them here at home, and have been fortunate to have some of the top-ranked Newfs nationally for several years, although like anything that success is a combination of good luck, careful planning and some hard work - kinda like a beautiful reef tank!
Thanks for reading, and check out my build thread!
- Steve
Last edited:
Let's see some pics of the doggies.
