Tell us about yourself: 

My name is Alberto, AKA DGASMD. I am an anesthesiologist currently living in South Florida. I guess if you were to ask my neighbors about me they would tell you I am the guy that lives in the house with all the blue/purple light coming from it that is always in the garage tinkering with some water treatment facility equipment. I am also the father of 2 boys and the husband of the most understanding, loving, and well grounded woman I have ever met.

How did you get involved in the saltwater hobby?

Oddly enough, I sort of got started in the hobby when I got my first computer. I had kept and bred fancy collectable goldfish for over 10 years and was pretty successful at it. Before that, I also kept other forms of freshwater fish like cichlids and other tropical mixed tanks. Back in 1994, I went to a LFS in IL where I was living and saw what I now know is a softie reef tank. I was so amazed by it that I stood there for about 45 min staring at it. I decided I wanted a saltwater tank then. I bought a book and read a little about it, but between trying to finish two degrees and trying to get into medical school, there was not much time or money for a saltwater tank. Towards the end of my last year of medical school, I finally got a computer and while browsing I came across this site called Reefs.org that had tons and tons of information on reef tanks and they would even answer questions about it. I registered and shortly after a group of RDO members decided to go make their own site, reefcentral.com, to which I also became a member. I read for about 2 years almost daily until I moved to Maryland to do the last 3 year of my Anesthesiology residency. We were buying a small townhouse and it seemed like the good opportunity to finally switch my 125g tank to a reef tank. I had the builder add a couple of extra 20A breakers and the 125g reef rolled right in. The rest has been downhill from there…………..

Tell us about your tank? 

My current tank is the natural progression of an obsession with aquariums that really began when I was 9 y.o. because my dad would not buy me a 3g bowl with a beta and 3 fancy guppies!! The tank’s dimensions are 120”Lx48”Wx30”T with ¾” low iron Diamante glass. It houses 97% SPS and the other 3% consists of fish and LPS. It is the result of 2 years of learning, planning, saving, and collecting equipment.

Lighting: consist of 5 x 400 watt radiums on Lumenarc3 reflectors powered by PFO HQI ballasts and 740 watts of VHO actinics on Icecap ballasts.

Flow: consist of 5 close loops. There is an AM3000 under the tank that takes water via 2 bulkheads in the bottom at one end and return it under the rock structure via a spray bar that spans the entire length of the tank. Then, there are 4 Sequence Barracuda pumps (5500 gph each) discharging from above via 4 outlets. The return from the sump is an Iwaki 100. The tank is bare bottom.

Filtration: The most frustrating thing I found while researching for this tank is that there seems to be a huge gap in equipment availability for tanks between 600g and 2000, so I decided to have someone (GEOsreef.com) build the equipment for me. I have a 8”Dx24”T kalk reactor, 2 media reactors that are 6”Dx24”T for phosphate removing media and one for carbon. The Alk and Ca are taken care of by a custom made Ca reactor that is 8”Dx36” tall with a recirculating pressure rated little giant 2 pump. The sump is a 150g Rubbermaid tub. The skimmer is a beckett driven Aerofoamer 848 with an Iwaki 100, soon to be replaced by a much more efficient custom air stone skimmer. Chiller is a 2 HP Pacific Coast Unit with another sequence Barracuda supplying the chiller, the 2 media reactors, and the Ca reactor. I use a filter sock and some ozone too.

Aquascaping: In order not to have to sell a kidney to buy 3 tons of LR, I decided to do something a little different. I place milk crates upside down in the middle of the tank and covered them with about 600 Lb of Tonga branch rock. It left plenty of open spaces and places for the fish to swim through. I also did this with the vision that about 1-2 years from now when the tank is completely grown in nobody could even tell what I did with the rock in the first place. I placed lots of corals that will branch out and staghorn acroporas to the top so they grow more upwards and the bushy colonies towards the sides.

Top off: It is achieved via a Litermeter pump taking RO/DI water from a 55g drum and passing it through a kalk reactor.

Water source: consists of a 100 gpd RO/DI unit with a pressure booster pump. It can make about 160 gpd.

Maintenance: I try to pass a magnet twice per week, vacuum one side of the tank every other week, feed the fish once to twice per day, and change 60-70g of water with every vacuum session.

How did you become involved with Reef Frontiers? 

A friend I met at MACNA in KY a couple of years back and I were talking. I told him how I was growing unhappy with the way some of the board moderators are treating a lot of people in some boards and how I was unhappy with the direction they were taking those boards altogether. He tells me I should check out RF and the rest has been history. I am glad I did check it out because unlike other places that have thousands of daily post, this board actually has more content.

What is your reef keeping philosophy? 

I like to do what makes sense and goes along with as much proven science as possible. I also like to keep things as minimal as possible and yet be efficient. Form must follow function. There is a fine line that divides people in this hobby with some on the side of fun and the others in the side of work. As complicated as this system may seem to some, most things are automated and have redundancy built into them. Even with a strict maintenance schedule it takes very little to maintain the system. I still think I am in the fun side of the line. The moment I cross that line, I will get out of the hobby altogether as I want nothing to do with more work.

What is your dream tank? 

My current tank is my dream tank. This is as big as I will ever go because I sincerely believe that if I want to do it right it will be more work than fun to get something bigger.

Do you have any advice for others? 

Double your budget, double your time, and double your patience. Have fun and enjoy it, and from time to time remind yourself this is not the ocean. This is just a glass box with some colored sticks and some small fish you can’t even eat. It seems like you can always do more and better, but putting things into perspective will help you clear your head when needed.