Tell us about yourself:

A sessile invertebrate, I protect my territory by secreating toxins to prevent other scleractinians from taking over my photosynthetic space, I filter feed by night and live off of my symbiant zoxanthellae algae during the day... :)

How did you get involved in the saltwater hobby?

In 1993 my gf at the time bought a 25g tank, with an under gravel filter, live rock, we had green polyps, mushrooms and a kenya tree coral growing under multiple standard output flourescent tubes...i was hooked. A year or so later I had my first tank, a 55g with 4 VHO bulbs and an aqua medic t1000 in a "berlin" sump. (thanks crazy roger in albany, oregon)

Tell us about your tank

15g sps nano:
24x12x12 glass tank
tek 5 t5 4 bulb fixture
4 koralia nano powerheads
20 lbs assorted live rock
elos prima line of additives, as well as elos amino acids, elos vitamins, and elos pro skimmer.
prodibio bacteria products.
hob aquaclear filter with carbon and rowaphos
deltec mce 600 that i sold off the tank is now going to be replaced with the new Warner Marine h1/h2 hob skimmer.

How did you become involved with Reef Frontiers?

In 2002 when I was working at Blue Sierra, I was telling Mike O'Brien how much I was hating on Reef Central when he happened to mention that I should check out the new website that all the PSAS members are hanging out on, it was small but awesome...now it's huge and awesome!! RF is still my favorite reefing website of all!!

What is your reef keeping philosophy?

Strip everything out of the water with agressive skimming...EVERYTHING!!! plankton, zoeplankton, additives from your salt mix, foods, waste, mulm, detritus, your mom... take it all out!!! THEN...add what your tank needs, in the form of analytical reagent grade/phamaceutical grade additives, high quality food/carbon sources like rods reef, cyclopeeze, prawn roe, oyser eggs, rotifers... then I add high grade amino acids (ELOS) and bacterial products (prodibio) to replentish what has been removed. The idea is that I AM IN CONTROL OF WHAT IS IN MY WATER, NOT THE TANK !!

What is your dream tank?

ELOS system 70.... has to be the coolest damn nano reef i've ever seen... although I would ditch their crappy skimmer, and lame overpriced lighting for my own, more refined choices :)

Do you have any advice for others?

Get the best, most high quality skimmer you can get your hands on...it's the singularly most important device on your tank that maintains water quality.