Bay Area Reefers

President - David (aka lattehiatus)
As a lifelong student, David has made more than his fair share of mistakes. He began keeping freshwater fish while staying in the dorms at UC Berkeley, where he studied biology and political science. The simple 5-gallon setup quickly ballooned to a 46 gallon freshwater planted tank, then progressed into a 50 gallon reef to which the dormitory administrators thankfully turned a blind eye. Since then, David has oscillated between freshwater and saltwater. He has bred freshwater shrimp and tetras, and is currently involved with breeding clownfish. To obtain funds for aquaria, David works as a business consultant for an electronic imaging hardware company. His favorite phrase is, "If the _______ were so great, why are they dead?"

Vice President - Jim (aka gimmito)
Jim got into the hobby interestingly enough when his two kids came home from a birthday party with 2 goldfish. He quickly familiarized himself with the LFS, and made the classic mistake of walking down the saltwater fish aisle. Captivated by the colors of these fish, he soon came home with a 55 gallon and no idea what he was getting into. The 55 gal soon turned into a 75 gal before they had to be torn down due to a second story addition.
Jim then made a deal with his wife - she could do anything she wanted with the rest of the house. The only thing he was interested in was the wall with the unused fire place (seems innocent enough - ed). Thus, he embarked on the journey of his present 450G tank a.k.a. "The World's Longest Build Thread" on BAR. Jim also moonlights as a mailman and is known to crash BAR meetings in full uni's. His other interests include sports (Go Giants, Raiders, & Sharkies), remodeling, audio/video, mixing live sound, and volunteering as a soundman at his church.

Treasurer - Mike (aka mray2660)
Mike grew up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland looking after fresh water planted and brackish aquariums (collected his own fish, crabs, etc.) He went to college in Florida and obtained an undergraduate degree in Chemical Oceanography. Mike’s first involvement with saltwater fish was when he helped some of his classmates to collect fish in The Keys for their own aquariums. Mike worked for a number of years in the environmental water quality field before moving over to the pharmaceutical field to work in the research and development of drug delivery systems. That led to moving to Bay Area seven years ago. Mike is an avid soccer enthusiast, and you can routinely catch him at a college soccer game. For over 20 years in Florida, Mike was an administrator and coach for the state and national youth soccer associations. Currently Diane and Mike have 120g AGA saltwater tank along with number of fresh water tanks. The saltwater tank is really Diane’s tank. Mike is just the maintenance guy. The first BAR meeting that we attended was a swap in which number of members help us stock our first tank with beginner corals (brown palys, Kenya trees, etc.). Mike and Diane say "We were amazed at the help everyone has provided us which during our involvement with BAR for the past few years."

Sponsorship - Mike (aka Coral Reefer)
Mike wanted you to know he is 30 years old, grew up in Alamo (East Bay) and obtained a BA in Geography from UCSB. He was hooked by a friends dad's in-wall tank with a huge lionfish in first grade. He started with a 10 gal fresh water at age 7, got into fish only salt water in college and more recently reef tanks (such as his home 120.) Mike says "BAR has really helped me learn a ton, and make some really good reefing buddies." His other hobbies include attending Giants games, listening to baseball on the radio, and hanging with his dog.

Secretary - Bob (aka tankguy)
Bob has not written his bio - please let him know you want to learn more about him!

Officer at Large - Mike (aka bondolo)
Mike has been using his handle "bondolo" since 1983, about 28 years longer than he's been keeping reef aquariums. Mike got interested in reef aquariums after being reminded of the beauty of fish and coral while diving in Hawaii on vacation. Mike enjoys the science, engineering, DIY and careful observation and management needed for a successful reef tank. Mike is a software developer and telecommuter. He spends many hours a day working right in front of his tanks. Mike has a 200l curved corner display tank with primarily LPS, softies and fish and a 220l frag flat with LPS, softies and just a few SPS.

Webmaster - Denzil (aka denzil)
Denzil is probably the only BOD member without a tank (blasphemy, you say?). He graduated from San Jose State University with a B.S. in Computer Engineering. For his senior project, he and his team built a set of tangible music blocks out of scratch where the sequence of music clips can be moved by hand: http://goo.gl/hnfmI. While Denzil may not have a tank right now, he's currently in the process of building a 40B with 20L sump-fuge.

Facilities - Steve (aka patchin)
A Graduate from UC Davis in Plant Science many moons ago, Steve has worked in landscape maintenance for 30 years. He has had a saltwater tank for about 10 years, but have gotten more serious about it in the last couple of years. He and his wife, Theresa are very active in the Alzheimers Association and have participated in the Memory Walk on Treasure Island for the last several years. In that time they went from 2 to 41 team members in a year. Steve enjoys fly fishing (not often enough) and sports.

Membership Administrator - Gregory (aka GDawson)
Gregory began his fish career at age 5 when his parents setup a tank on top of the piano filled with Bleeding Heart Tetras. At age ten his great aunt helped him start a 20 gal freshwater community tank. where Gregory learned quickly that the glass was on the thin side when he lightly tapped it with a pool que and flooded the dining room. The next planted tank had a sand substrate where he found washing the sand in the bathtub is not how you do it and only serves to clog the internal plumbing of 4 apartments. Gregory’s first reef tank was in the early 90s as the Berlin vs the plenum methodologies were first being discussed and wet/dry filters were all the rage. He kept it going for 10 years before taking a break. He now has a 75gal softie only tank with some really interesting uncommon specimens. Most weekends when not at BAR you’ll find him and his wife at a Renaissance Faire decked out in full garb with a suitable libation.