Doug Wojtczak has
been involved with fish since 1971 thanks to his father who
bought him his first tank. After many years of success with
freshwater, in January 1998, he walked in to the local fish
store looking for some food for his freshwater fish and saw
something called a reef tank and the most wonderful looking
orange fish (Tomato clown) that he had ever seen. That very
day, on the recommendation of the store owner, he came home
with a 29 gallon tank, a heater, a bag of salt and no knowledge
whatsoever.
Shortly after, realizing that he had no
idea of how to care for these animals, he found the Internet.
At this point he read every bit of information that he could
find and after three short months a new 75 gallon tank was
being delivered to his home. He had never realized that he
was now involved with a hobby that has turned in to the most
addictive passion that he has ever imagined.
After the first 18 months of learning,
studying and researching his 75 gallon tank was featured in
a popular online reef keeping magazine (AFM
online) in November of 1999. After that honor,
in March of 2000, he felt that he had enough skills to setup
another tank which is a 90 gallon SPS reef tank utilizing
all of the information that he learned from other reef keepers
on the Internet and the Reef
Central message
board where he has been a moderator since January of 2000.
With the help of his wife and son he also
keeps a 55 gallon semi-reef tank, and 20 gallon micro reef
along with the 90 gallon and 75 gallon reef tanks. He is now
in the process of planning "the big one" which is
going to be at least a 200 gallon mixed reef tank with all
the bells and whistles.
He acts as a consultant to a popular Chicago-land
fish store and often offers suggestions and information on
how the local fish store owners can advance the hobby by offering
propagated corals and tank raised animals.
On a personal note,
Doug is married and has a son. He is Director of Information
Technology for a large financial services company in Chicago,
Illinois. He is also a part time web designer, computer consultant
and both the Senior Editor and webmaster for this magazine.
His other hobbies include Bodybuilding, Ham Radio, performance
cars and reef tank photography just to name a few.
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