Doug Wojtczak
Doug Wojtczak has been involved with fish since 1971 thanks to his father who bought him his first tank. After many years of success with freshwater, in January 1998, he walked into the local fish store looking for some food for his freshwater fish and saw something called a reef tank and the most wonderful looking orange fish (Tomato clown) that he had ever seen. That very day, on the recommendation of the store owner, he came home with a 29-gallon tank, a heater, a bag of salt and no knowledge whatsoever of what he was getting himself into.
Shortly thereafter, realizing that he had no idea of how to care for these animals, he found the Internet. At this point he read every bit of information that he could find and after three short months a new 75-gallon tank was being delivered to his home. He had never realized that he was now involved with a hobby that has turned into the most addictive passion that he has ever imagined.
After the first 18 months of learning, studying and researching, his 75-gallon tank was featured in a popular online reefkeeping magazine (AFM online) in November of 1999. After that honor, in March of 2000, he felt that he had enough skills to setup another tank which is a 90-gallon SPS reef tank utilizing all of the information that he learned from other reefkeepers on the Internet and the Reef Central message board where he has been a moderator since January of 2000.
With the help of his wife and son he also keeps a 55-gallon semi-reef tank, and 20-gallon micro reef along with the 90-gallon and 75-gallon reef tanks. He is now in the process of planning "the big one" which is going to be at least a 200-gallon mixed reef tank with all the bells and whistles.
He acts as a consultant to a popular Chicago-land fish store and often offers suggestions and information on how the local fish store owners can advance the hobby by offering propagated corals and tank-raised animals.
On a personal note, Doug is married and has a son. He is Director of Information Technology for a large financial services company in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a part-time web designer, computer consultant and both the Senior Editor and webmaster for this magazine. His other hobbies include bodybuilding, Ham radio, performance cars and reef tank photography, just to name a few.