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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 into 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 of what
he was getting himself into.
Shortly thereafter, 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 into 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 reefkeeping 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 reefkeepers
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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