- Joined
- Apr 4, 2019
- Messages
- 252
- Reaction score
- 370
At the beginning of the year I felt like I was ready for a bigger tank. I decided i was going to switch my 46 gallon bow front freshwater tank to a reef tank. I have had saltwater tanks for over a year, all nano. A 5, 10, 13.5 and 20 Long was my biggest. I condensed my 2 freshwater tanks into one 29 gallon tank (neither the 46 or the 20 was heavily stocked). After moving tanks around the living room my wife said "Why don't you just buy a bigger tank?" So I started researching what I could get. Do to the space I had available, a Red Sea Reefer 350 would fit nicely. Well then Covid-19 happened and rather than spending the money I had saved, I kept it in case we needed some emergency money. I went ahead and converted the 46 gallon to a reef, and really love having a bigger tank. Well my wife and I are doing good and she came to me with a proposition. She is a massive book lover and collector, and wanted to basically convert our bedroom into a library. She said what would she have to do to make it happen? I told her I would like to take out one of the book cases in the living room so I could get a bigger tank. To my surprise she agreed.
After getting her library set up lol, I began researching bigger tanks. Even though I had the room, I decided that I wanted to stay in the 48" wide range but try to get 100 gallon in the display. I looked at the Red Sea tanks, but was getting worried about some of the issues people were talking about. I also looked at the Waterbox 130 which seemed like it would fit the bill. Then I saw the mode aquariums with external overflows that had no box of any kind in the tank. Unfortunately as a company they have bad reviews. Both on their tanks, and on their customer service. After a little more research I found the Innovative Marine EXT tanks, but was bummed they didn't come with sumps. I did like the aluminum stands though. I began researching sumps, and realized that picking out my own sump was a better thing anyway. Low and behold I checked back on their website a couple of days later and the Nuvo 100 ext was $200 dollars off! I pulled the trigger right then and there and ordered it. The website said they won't ship until the end of July so I had time to start pulling all the other stuff together. About a week later I got an email saying my tank had Shipped! Almost 2 weeks early. I thought it was nice that someone from the company called and talked me through the shipping process as I have never had a LTL shipment to my house before.
As of today my tank is in Portland and hopefully I get a call in the next day or 2 to schedule the drop off. I plan on the next few posts will be about the equipment I decided on, and then the arrival and setup of the tank. I plan on assembling and testing everything in my garage before moving it into the house. I have been wanted to start a build thread so I finally sat down and typed all this up to get it started.
After getting her library set up lol, I began researching bigger tanks. Even though I had the room, I decided that I wanted to stay in the 48" wide range but try to get 100 gallon in the display. I looked at the Red Sea tanks, but was getting worried about some of the issues people were talking about. I also looked at the Waterbox 130 which seemed like it would fit the bill. Then I saw the mode aquariums with external overflows that had no box of any kind in the tank. Unfortunately as a company they have bad reviews. Both on their tanks, and on their customer service. After a little more research I found the Innovative Marine EXT tanks, but was bummed they didn't come with sumps. I did like the aluminum stands though. I began researching sumps, and realized that picking out my own sump was a better thing anyway. Low and behold I checked back on their website a couple of days later and the Nuvo 100 ext was $200 dollars off! I pulled the trigger right then and there and ordered it. The website said they won't ship until the end of July so I had time to start pulling all the other stuff together. About a week later I got an email saying my tank had Shipped! Almost 2 weeks early. I thought it was nice that someone from the company called and talked me through the shipping process as I have never had a LTL shipment to my house before.
As of today my tank is in Portland and hopefully I get a call in the next day or 2 to schedule the drop off. I plan on the next few posts will be about the equipment I decided on, and then the arrival and setup of the tank. I plan on assembling and testing everything in my garage before moving it into the house. I have been wanted to start a build thread so I finally sat down and typed all this up to get it started.