dotcommer
Active member
My first large build is finally coming to fruition, so I thought it was time to start my build thread. Below is a quick background about me.
Since I moved to Arizona at the age of 11, I have been fascinated with fish keeping. During my teenage years, I kept African Cichlids for several years and moved onto a saltwater swim tank for about a year back in the late 80’s.
After moving out of my parents’ house and living in apartments I never was able to find the place and time to get back into the hobby. My first wife wasn’t too keen on me getting a huge aquarium, thus a wife no longer :mixed:, so I waited and got married again to get back into the hobby.
Joking aside, I always had a passion for fish keeping but with my business and traveling so much it just wasn’t the right time.
About two years ago after several years of trying to start a family, my wife and I started the adoption process of our two sons Joseph and James who are now 8 & 9 years old. During that time we were blessed with our son Chance who is now 22 months old and we just became legal guardians for our niece Cyndi who is 9 years old. Since we went from 0 to 4 kids within two years and having two boys and a niece at an age to start appreciating the hobby, I decided to buy them a 30 Gallon Bow Front Tank and fill it up with Fresh Water fish. (Turning point in my life)
Having so much fun going to Local Fish Stores, picking out fish and setting up their tank, I happened to stop in at a LFS called Reef Culture in Scottsdale AZ. Walking through the store and seeing their incredible reef tanks, I WAS HOOKED. Immediately I started researching the Internet, going to every LFS, asking questions, joining forums to learn as much as possible while searching for my first reef tank. I finally found a great deal on craigslist for a Redsea Max 250 (60 Gallon) and started my reef keeping craze.
After months of looking at my 60 Gallon and seeing all of these beautiful tanks in the “Large Reef Tanks” section of RC, I had to get a larger tank. I told my wife that the only way to really learn this hobby is to get a larger tank that has a sump, protein skimmer, reactors, controllers etc.. to practice on so I can make my mistakes now before I will upgrade to an in-wall tank in the living room. She agreed to let me get a larger tank and put in the basement so I would stop bugging her.
I found a nice 125 Gallon tank and stand off of craigslist's and after a few weeks of searching for items and seeing what kind of money I was getting ready to spend, I knew I wouldn't be happy with the size of the 125 and felt it would be ridiculous to double buy things since I would want to go larger. So I decided to put a halt on my purchases and started searching for a larger tank.
I decided not to tell my wife that I was searching for a much larger tank, I figured it would be better to ask her for forgiveness than permission.
A few weeks later when my wife tried pulling into the garage, she was met with this monstrosity of acrylic which just so happened to hold 300 Gallons of water.
So here we are today with my 300 Gallon Build thread.
Since I moved to Arizona at the age of 11, I have been fascinated with fish keeping. During my teenage years, I kept African Cichlids for several years and moved onto a saltwater swim tank for about a year back in the late 80’s.
After moving out of my parents’ house and living in apartments I never was able to find the place and time to get back into the hobby. My first wife wasn’t too keen on me getting a huge aquarium, thus a wife no longer :mixed:, so I waited and got married again to get back into the hobby.
Joking aside, I always had a passion for fish keeping but with my business and traveling so much it just wasn’t the right time.
About two years ago after several years of trying to start a family, my wife and I started the adoption process of our two sons Joseph and James who are now 8 & 9 years old. During that time we were blessed with our son Chance who is now 22 months old and we just became legal guardians for our niece Cyndi who is 9 years old. Since we went from 0 to 4 kids within two years and having two boys and a niece at an age to start appreciating the hobby, I decided to buy them a 30 Gallon Bow Front Tank and fill it up with Fresh Water fish. (Turning point in my life)
Having so much fun going to Local Fish Stores, picking out fish and setting up their tank, I happened to stop in at a LFS called Reef Culture in Scottsdale AZ. Walking through the store and seeing their incredible reef tanks, I WAS HOOKED. Immediately I started researching the Internet, going to every LFS, asking questions, joining forums to learn as much as possible while searching for my first reef tank. I finally found a great deal on craigslist for a Redsea Max 250 (60 Gallon) and started my reef keeping craze.
After months of looking at my 60 Gallon and seeing all of these beautiful tanks in the “Large Reef Tanks” section of RC, I had to get a larger tank. I told my wife that the only way to really learn this hobby is to get a larger tank that has a sump, protein skimmer, reactors, controllers etc.. to practice on so I can make my mistakes now before I will upgrade to an in-wall tank in the living room. She agreed to let me get a larger tank and put in the basement so I would stop bugging her.
I found a nice 125 Gallon tank and stand off of craigslist's and after a few weeks of searching for items and seeing what kind of money I was getting ready to spend, I knew I wouldn't be happy with the size of the 125 and felt it would be ridiculous to double buy things since I would want to go larger. So I decided to put a halt on my purchases and started searching for a larger tank.
I decided not to tell my wife that I was searching for a much larger tank, I figured it would be better to ask her for forgiveness than permission.
A few weeks later when my wife tried pulling into the garage, she was met with this monstrosity of acrylic which just so happened to hold 300 Gallons of water.
So here we are today with my 300 Gallon Build thread.
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