El Dude
New member
Hi everyone!
My name is Al. I live in Riverside, Ca. I've been a casual lurker on this site for a few months but I just decided to register. I am an active member of SoCaliReefs, a sister site.
I have been in this hobby for 12 years now. I started in high school with a 15g DIY setup. I mean tuperware sump, a trickle filter made of my old green toy soldiers and a ****-eyed counter current skimmer with a limewood airstone. Yeah it was ugly, and one heck of a learning curve, kinda like CRASH...restart...CRASH...restart...CRASH...CRASH...CRASH. I got my first job at 15 years old working at mcnasty's to fund my endeavor.
I fell in love with the science of the process and decided I wanted to be a biologist. I went to Humboldt State University (Northern California) and earned two bachelors, one in Aquarium Sciences, one in Aquaculture and a minor is Scientific Diving...blah blah blah...I got a chance to be a fisheries biologist for the USFS, NPS and aquarist/collector at the Catalina Island Marine Institute.
I've been a biologist, scientific diver, aquarist, collector, fish hatchery manager, water quality technician, SCUBA divemaster and fisheries instructor at HSU. Long story short, I've been around...and government jobs in California are not the most stable jobs on a count of our budget situation...
I currently have a 60g mixed reef with a yellow tang and a pair of ORA stubby clowns. I'm upgrading to a 150 currently so I'll begin a build thread soon. The longer I stay with this thing, the more I realize I still have a lot to learn. I'm hoping to make some friends and learn a thing or two from you windy city reefers. Sorry for the long intro, I kinda get carried away. So I apologize in advance for my long-winded posts. Anyway...
HELLO EVERYONE!
My name is Al. I live in Riverside, Ca. I've been a casual lurker on this site for a few months but I just decided to register. I am an active member of SoCaliReefs, a sister site.
I have been in this hobby for 12 years now. I started in high school with a 15g DIY setup. I mean tuperware sump, a trickle filter made of my old green toy soldiers and a ****-eyed counter current skimmer with a limewood airstone. Yeah it was ugly, and one heck of a learning curve, kinda like CRASH...restart...CRASH...restart...CRASH...CRASH...CRASH. I got my first job at 15 years old working at mcnasty's to fund my endeavor.
I fell in love with the science of the process and decided I wanted to be a biologist. I went to Humboldt State University (Northern California) and earned two bachelors, one in Aquarium Sciences, one in Aquaculture and a minor is Scientific Diving...blah blah blah...I got a chance to be a fisheries biologist for the USFS, NPS and aquarist/collector at the Catalina Island Marine Institute.
I've been a biologist, scientific diver, aquarist, collector, fish hatchery manager, water quality technician, SCUBA divemaster and fisheries instructor at HSU. Long story short, I've been around...and government jobs in California are not the most stable jobs on a count of our budget situation...
I currently have a 60g mixed reef with a yellow tang and a pair of ORA stubby clowns. I'm upgrading to a 150 currently so I'll begin a build thread soon. The longer I stay with this thing, the more I realize I still have a lot to learn. I'm hoping to make some friends and learn a thing or two from you windy city reefers. Sorry for the long intro, I kinda get carried away. So I apologize in advance for my long-winded posts. Anyway...
HELLO EVERYONE!
