Well, I was asked to write up a little bio about myself because of a growout that’s going on, figured might as well post it here- that way y’all can choose to ignore or listen to my rants as you wish :tongue: .
Alright, first off- Name is Brian, born and raised in Southern California.
I’m the guy on the right- and yes it was a lumberjack themed bachelor party for my brother (the guy next to me, who’s about 6’3 normally but has had a bit too much to drink already.)
At 16, had some troubles with high school and threw myself into work. First job was at a Petsmart where I was employed as the guy who lifted heavy stuff. Working full time but living at home and having a lot of spare time because of the issues with school, decided I needed a hobby instead of doing something smart like saving for a car or something stupid like drugs or alcohol. So my brother had left an old 35 gallon hex in the garage, and so even though I had never been interested in the tanks he had and had vowed to never set one up, well, set one up. Started with typical freshwater community stuff, and then my collecting binge started. Got into collecting various catfish and plecos, and before too long (and 5 additional setups later of course) decided that I was competent enough to get into saltwater-haven’t looked back since.
Got a job at one of the bigger LFS/pet stores when I was 18 as the guy who lifted heavy stuff and scraped algae, and after about a year took over managing the fish department. At the time also got into herptiles, and expanded my collection habit there. In the 2 bedroom apartment I shared with my brother we had: 100 gallon poison dart frog/pygmy leaf chameleon vivarium, 125 with a Japanese dragon moray and a couple other moray’s, and a tree frog tank all out in the front room. In my bedroom, had: 80 gallon mixed reef, four or five trio’s of leapord gecko’s breeding, a gorgeous Nose Be Panther Chameleon with three girls for him to breed with (separate cages of course,) an Egyptian Death Stalker scorpion (always been into venomous animals-except snakes for some reason,) a baker’s rack filled with 2 gallon tanks for breeding killifish (still not sure why I got into them,) a half dozen poison dart vivariums with different varieties, a cat, and a massive humidity problem. Sadly I wasn’t into photography at the time and don’t really have any pictures of any of the stuff, just a poster my bro made up for the sushi party we threw when I brought the dragon moray home (and yes, I made sure we had both unagi and onagi on hand.)
But here’s a pic of the cat if anyone’s interested
Left the LFS and went to a local high-end plant nursery, where I got a job as the guy who lifted heavy stuff. After about a year and a half, became manager and got real into a few specific varieties of plants as well as grafting, and still carry over a lot of that knowledge on growing into reefkeeping. Getting into college and the managerial duties took up a lot of time, and gradually began to piece out my collections, eventually ending up with only the 125 with the moray, and the cat (cat had gotten fatter, otherwise no change there.) After awhile, even the eel just didn’t hold my interest (specifically the two 35 gallon trash cans in the living room of my one bedroom apt, for RO water and salt mixing, and the floods that came along with it,) and got him out as well.
Fast forward a little and I’ve gone from nurturing and taking care of plants to chopping them up at a lumber yard where I got a job as the guy who lifted heavy stuff (got bored being the manager at a nursery, seemed my job was to watch plants grow.) While there I started talking to a guy by the screen name of Bio-Nut who found out I was a recovering reefing addict, who then promptly started doing all he could to get me re-hooked on that sweet salty stuff. Brother dumped me a red sea max 34 gallon he got from work and suddenly I was back into reefing. When I had first gotten into the hobby PC’s had just come out and were the latest thing, but the guy I originally learned from was anti-SPS, and I always had presumed that I couldn’t keep SPS under the PCs. Decided that if I was going to get back into reefing, I was going to do it the way I wanted to for a change regardless of what I had been told by naysayers (hence my thread https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/new-hobby-sw-beginner-forum/56736-dont-scared-hype.html ) So tore apart the RSM and turned it into what I wanted, a tank that I could basically go to the LFS and buy anything I wanted and not have to worry if I had an appropriate setup for it. Upgraded to a teklight and a tunze skimmer, and then just kept adding to it. I’ll give the details later on.
Decided to leave the lumber yard to work in the construction industry, where I got hired on to a crew as the guy who lifted heavy stuff (I found my niche at a young age apparently.) Worked for them (check out archisects.com if you’re interested in their stuff) and these are a few of the projects I was a part of.
Custom Concrete Table
For this backyard that was also scratch built (including the fireplace)
Another project I was a piece of was this house that went from a 400sq ft granny flat into a 2200 sq ft family home (all while owners lived in it amazingly)
School was getting a bit more intense as I got closer to transferring to a four year, so left the construction business and went back to the lumberyard as the hours and workload on the brain (which is at best a low-end device.) Got more into reefing and made the horribly great decision to move in with a fellow reefer. Instead of a voice of reason, we both found excuses to set up just one more tank. Also got myself introduced and into the forums, which eventually led me here to reef2reef. By wisely timing my decision to go back to the lumber yard at the exact time the housing market in San Diego crashed, and then the entire economy collapsed, I found myself with a nice layoff notice. Decided to just throw myself full time into school and got transferred to UCSD to get my aerospace engineering degree. Also set up more tanks and spent a lot of time on the forums learning everything I could (and still can) and getting my collecting habit firmly re-established.
Have hit a few self-erected roadblocks in my academic career, do my best to deal with them and reefing definitely helps me stay sane on more than a few days. So these days I’m not currently lifting heavy stuff (perhaps why I feel so odd so many days of the week,) and just working on expanding my coral collection and getting my education back on track. Pipe dream someday is to have a full-blown coral farm going on in a greenhouse/garage that I can fart around in on the weekends and after a “normal†job, but still tempted to go for it and try and setup a business doing it full-time. Until I figure all that stuff out, at least once a day I can be found looking pretty much like this.
In short (for those who like the tl;dr forums.) Hi, I’m Brian, I’ve been reefing on and off for a little over a decade keeping reefs as small as a 1 gallon home tank to systems of several thousand gallons for commercial applications. Have no problem admitting that I have a serious collecting addiction and like to have as many varieties of pretty much anything possible, though I’ve realized it’s much easier to collect corals than fish. Love the propagating, trading, and selling side of the hobby as it allows me to justify and keep adding to my collection, feed my creative/green-thumb side, and interact with fellow reefers and chat about the hobby I enjoy.
So hi there :bigsmile:
Alright, first off- Name is Brian, born and raised in Southern California.
I’m the guy on the right- and yes it was a lumberjack themed bachelor party for my brother (the guy next to me, who’s about 6’3 normally but has had a bit too much to drink already.)
At 16, had some troubles with high school and threw myself into work. First job was at a Petsmart where I was employed as the guy who lifted heavy stuff. Working full time but living at home and having a lot of spare time because of the issues with school, decided I needed a hobby instead of doing something smart like saving for a car or something stupid like drugs or alcohol. So my brother had left an old 35 gallon hex in the garage, and so even though I had never been interested in the tanks he had and had vowed to never set one up, well, set one up. Started with typical freshwater community stuff, and then my collecting binge started. Got into collecting various catfish and plecos, and before too long (and 5 additional setups later of course) decided that I was competent enough to get into saltwater-haven’t looked back since.
Got a job at one of the bigger LFS/pet stores when I was 18 as the guy who lifted heavy stuff and scraped algae, and after about a year took over managing the fish department. At the time also got into herptiles, and expanded my collection habit there. In the 2 bedroom apartment I shared with my brother we had: 100 gallon poison dart frog/pygmy leaf chameleon vivarium, 125 with a Japanese dragon moray and a couple other moray’s, and a tree frog tank all out in the front room. In my bedroom, had: 80 gallon mixed reef, four or five trio’s of leapord gecko’s breeding, a gorgeous Nose Be Panther Chameleon with three girls for him to breed with (separate cages of course,) an Egyptian Death Stalker scorpion (always been into venomous animals-except snakes for some reason,) a baker’s rack filled with 2 gallon tanks for breeding killifish (still not sure why I got into them,) a half dozen poison dart vivariums with different varieties, a cat, and a massive humidity problem. Sadly I wasn’t into photography at the time and don’t really have any pictures of any of the stuff, just a poster my bro made up for the sushi party we threw when I brought the dragon moray home (and yes, I made sure we had both unagi and onagi on hand.)
But here’s a pic of the cat if anyone’s interested
Left the LFS and went to a local high-end plant nursery, where I got a job as the guy who lifted heavy stuff. After about a year and a half, became manager and got real into a few specific varieties of plants as well as grafting, and still carry over a lot of that knowledge on growing into reefkeeping. Getting into college and the managerial duties took up a lot of time, and gradually began to piece out my collections, eventually ending up with only the 125 with the moray, and the cat (cat had gotten fatter, otherwise no change there.) After awhile, even the eel just didn’t hold my interest (specifically the two 35 gallon trash cans in the living room of my one bedroom apt, for RO water and salt mixing, and the floods that came along with it,) and got him out as well.
Fast forward a little and I’ve gone from nurturing and taking care of plants to chopping them up at a lumber yard where I got a job as the guy who lifted heavy stuff (got bored being the manager at a nursery, seemed my job was to watch plants grow.) While there I started talking to a guy by the screen name of Bio-Nut who found out I was a recovering reefing addict, who then promptly started doing all he could to get me re-hooked on that sweet salty stuff. Brother dumped me a red sea max 34 gallon he got from work and suddenly I was back into reefing. When I had first gotten into the hobby PC’s had just come out and were the latest thing, but the guy I originally learned from was anti-SPS, and I always had presumed that I couldn’t keep SPS under the PCs. Decided that if I was going to get back into reefing, I was going to do it the way I wanted to for a change regardless of what I had been told by naysayers (hence my thread https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/new-hobby-sw-beginner-forum/56736-dont-scared-hype.html ) So tore apart the RSM and turned it into what I wanted, a tank that I could basically go to the LFS and buy anything I wanted and not have to worry if I had an appropriate setup for it. Upgraded to a teklight and a tunze skimmer, and then just kept adding to it. I’ll give the details later on.
Decided to leave the lumber yard to work in the construction industry, where I got hired on to a crew as the guy who lifted heavy stuff (I found my niche at a young age apparently.) Worked for them (check out archisects.com if you’re interested in their stuff) and these are a few of the projects I was a part of.
Custom Concrete Table
For this backyard that was also scratch built (including the fireplace)
Another project I was a piece of was this house that went from a 400sq ft granny flat into a 2200 sq ft family home (all while owners lived in it amazingly)
School was getting a bit more intense as I got closer to transferring to a four year, so left the construction business and went back to the lumberyard as the hours and workload on the brain (which is at best a low-end device.) Got more into reefing and made the horribly great decision to move in with a fellow reefer. Instead of a voice of reason, we both found excuses to set up just one more tank. Also got myself introduced and into the forums, which eventually led me here to reef2reef. By wisely timing my decision to go back to the lumber yard at the exact time the housing market in San Diego crashed, and then the entire economy collapsed, I found myself with a nice layoff notice. Decided to just throw myself full time into school and got transferred to UCSD to get my aerospace engineering degree. Also set up more tanks and spent a lot of time on the forums learning everything I could (and still can) and getting my collecting habit firmly re-established.
Have hit a few self-erected roadblocks in my academic career, do my best to deal with them and reefing definitely helps me stay sane on more than a few days. So these days I’m not currently lifting heavy stuff (perhaps why I feel so odd so many days of the week,) and just working on expanding my coral collection and getting my education back on track. Pipe dream someday is to have a full-blown coral farm going on in a greenhouse/garage that I can fart around in on the weekends and after a “normal†job, but still tempted to go for it and try and setup a business doing it full-time. Until I figure all that stuff out, at least once a day I can be found looking pretty much like this.
In short (for those who like the tl;dr forums.) Hi, I’m Brian, I’ve been reefing on and off for a little over a decade keeping reefs as small as a 1 gallon home tank to systems of several thousand gallons for commercial applications. Have no problem admitting that I have a serious collecting addiction and like to have as many varieties of pretty much anything possible, though I’ve realized it’s much easier to collect corals than fish. Love the propagating, trading, and selling side of the hobby as it allows me to justify and keep adding to my collection, feed my creative/green-thumb side, and interact with fellow reefers and chat about the hobby I enjoy.
So hi there :bigsmile: