iannarelli
Community Member
Hi everyone! I'm a longtime fishkeeper—I've kept koi and goldfish in ponds since high school (~20 years)—but only have a couple years of experience with aquaria. I am an architect by trade, but also am a gadget/tech nerd who loves to tinker and build things. I also love to travel and have snorkeled all over the Caribbean.
During the height of COVID in March of 2020, I left NYC to hide out at my parents house outside of Atlanta thinking I'd be back in the city in my apartment in a few months, boy was I wrong. Anyway, I loved working in the pond after almost 10 years, and decided to bring some of that passion, enjoyment, and excitement inside.
I started with a 29g planted community tank, and while there are some really cool freshwater species to keep, I was always wowed by their marine counterparts at the LFS. At he end of last year my parents sold their house and moved to Florida, and I transferred everyone into a 40g breeder that I set up at my brother's townhouse in Atlanta. I'm about to close on a co-op in Jackson Heights, and have been prepping a 75g to become an Amazon/South American biotope tank, which left me wondering what to do with the 40g breeder.
Enter youtube's suggestion algorithm... I stumbled across BRStv's "Five Minute Guide" and rabbit-holed into reading half of this website (it seems) and also watching a bunch of other series and videos by BRS and some other popular channels. They used a 40g breeder as one of their beginner tanks, and I was set on that until I saw the press release about Aqueon's new 60g breeder. I'm still in the planning and education stages right now (I'm still reading forums and watching as many videos as I can), but plan to used the 40g as a sump, and purchase a new 60g once I'm settled in. I will start up a build thread maybe this weekend, but the basic idea is a peninsula style mixed reef (attaching some basic renderings below). I'm going to build the stand myself, and I'm sizing it to fit and support a 48"x24"x24" 120g if I want to upgrade in the future.
Anyways, that's all for now. This quick "hello" turned into a much longer post that I planned! I'm excited to join the r2r community and can't wait to get my tank set up. I'll be attending Aquashella in Orlando at the end of the month, maybe I will see some of you there!
During the height of COVID in March of 2020, I left NYC to hide out at my parents house outside of Atlanta thinking I'd be back in the city in my apartment in a few months, boy was I wrong. Anyway, I loved working in the pond after almost 10 years, and decided to bring some of that passion, enjoyment, and excitement inside.
I started with a 29g planted community tank, and while there are some really cool freshwater species to keep, I was always wowed by their marine counterparts at the LFS. At he end of last year my parents sold their house and moved to Florida, and I transferred everyone into a 40g breeder that I set up at my brother's townhouse in Atlanta. I'm about to close on a co-op in Jackson Heights, and have been prepping a 75g to become an Amazon/South American biotope tank, which left me wondering what to do with the 40g breeder.
Enter youtube's suggestion algorithm... I stumbled across BRStv's "Five Minute Guide" and rabbit-holed into reading half of this website (it seems) and also watching a bunch of other series and videos by BRS and some other popular channels. They used a 40g breeder as one of their beginner tanks, and I was set on that until I saw the press release about Aqueon's new 60g breeder. I'm still in the planning and education stages right now (I'm still reading forums and watching as many videos as I can), but plan to used the 40g as a sump, and purchase a new 60g once I'm settled in. I will start up a build thread maybe this weekend, but the basic idea is a peninsula style mixed reef (attaching some basic renderings below). I'm going to build the stand myself, and I'm sizing it to fit and support a 48"x24"x24" 120g if I want to upgrade in the future.
Anyways, that's all for now. This quick "hello" turned into a much longer post that I planned! I'm excited to join the r2r community and can't wait to get my tank set up. I'll be attending Aquashella in Orlando at the end of the month, maybe I will see some of you there!
