Tell us about yourself: 

My name is Darryl Casteel,(AKA) Dr. Dee. I'm 47 years old and I live in beautiful Bakersfield Ca, Just me and my spouse, two sons, three dogs, one cat, and two birds. Also I forgot the most important of all ... the (Fish Man) Yeah I have a lot of fish tanks because it's a hobby and a business now. I came into this hobby in 1988 when I purchased my first salt tank. A 20 gallon and then a 26g, then I got a 40g, 55g, a 100g tank. Man I was crazy for fish and still am. I got that name Dr. Dee from a good friend because he kept killing his fish and need some help so I did help him and now I'm the doc.

How did you get involved in the saltwater hobby?

Well when I was a little boy I had fresh water fish and I stayed in trouble for going to the local canal (AKA) the Kern River. Well another buddy of mine worked at a local fish store and told me that I should come over and work with him also to get rid of the fresh water so I did.

Tell us about your tank

My tank today is a 220g with two built in overflow boxes. I have about 195lbs of live rock in it and no sand at all, better known as bare bottom tank. I have 3x400 watts MH and two 165watt VHO for lighting 1,530 watts in total. Two refuge, a calcium reactor, ozone reactor, Deltec Skimmer and for my return pump is a barracuda. My closed loop is a snapper and 1hp chiller ... you need that for BAKO 110 degree plus at times! Oh and many more stuff hooked up to the tank.

How did you become involved with Reef Frontiers?

I got involved with RF back in 2003 when a very good friend told me about this site. One day he said that if you need some info on reef Coral/Invert and fish i know about this forum that has real cool people on it that can help you out with the salt water. Hey Terry M. Thanks man wherever you are. And thats the rest of the story!

What is your reef keeping philosophy? 

Learn more about your hobby before doing it and be more like Boomer and Randy, Martin Moe, and Thiel. Try to duplicate the most stable environment on Earth and that was the ocean.

What is your dream tank? 

My dream tank is the ocean. I like to one day just have that thing right in my back yard!

Do you have any advice for others?

Keep up on your tank maintenance. Its ok to do water changes sometimes.