Tell us about yourself: 

Gee... MOTM. I've wondered how one became MOTM. Now that I've been asked to be MOTM I'm humbled and don't really now what to say.

My name is James Rosenfelt and I'm 35 years old. I'm in the IT field and work for Cisco Systems and specialize in voice related technologies (VOIP). I was born and raised in Washington and it's where I call home. I've been married to my wonderful wife for 3 years. I have a daughter that is 11 years old and growing up faster than I'd like.

How did you get involved in the saltwater hobby?

I've always had a freshwater tank since I was little and it wasn't until little over 2 years ago that I thought I would give the saltwater thing a try.

I'd go the stores and see all the SW stuff and admire the fish, corals etc, but never really thought it was something I could do. My first SW tank was a 29g tank that was more or less my little experiment to see if I could do it. Well I was able to sustain life in the 29g for 6 months without any losses so I quickly upgraded to my current tank. Of course no one told me this hobby is more like an addiction. :)

Tell us about your tank 

My current tank is a 75g tank work in progress. The sump and all filtration equipment has been recently located out in the garage. I have an AquaC EV120 skimmer, Geo 618 Calc Reactor, PC CL280 chiller, Sequence Dart for a return and Eheim 1262 for my chiller. Lighting is supplied by 2xPFO MH ballast with Reeflux 10k bulbs along with 4xVHO super actinic powered with a IceCap 660. As for tank inhabitants I have blue & yellow tang, fire fish goby, mulitbarred angel, bi-color fox-face and a pair of ocellaris clowns. My favorite and oldest fish in the tank is the angel, I think it's just a cool little fish. I'm trying to migrate over to more of a SPS dominated tank but my wife, as lovely as she is, loves the softies and LPS. So I'm working on something to fix that. I'll start a thread when that happens... :) Of course my wife says therapy! Ha-ha

How did you become involved with Reef Frontiers? 

I just happened to stumble across it while looking for a local aquarium group. I found the PSAS web site and it linked me on over here and I've been here ever since. It's been a great community to increase my knowledge and also a great place for me to help others.

What is your reef keeping philosophy? 

Ummm. My philosophy..... Learn as much as you can, the small creatures in their glass houses we call aquariums depend on you.

What is your dream tank? 

Something big, I'm not sure how big, but something large enough that it could home pretty much whatever I could want. Of course this would probably cost more than I could afford or the wife would allow. But you asked what my dream tank would be. :)

Do you have any advice for others? 

Take things slow and research as much as you can. Just when you think you've got it figured out, read it again cause I'm sure you missed something along the way.

Keeping a reef tank can be challenging, but at the same time one of the most enjoyable hobbies I've ever done. I had a fellow reefer say something that's stuck with me for a while. I'm sure they heard it from someone else, but remember "nothing good happens in a reef tank fast" and as we can all attest that's the truth.

Thank you Reef Frontiers for selecting me to be MOTM.