Carl Strohmeyer; Biography, Pictures, Favorites

Parents: Garry and Mary Strohmeyer

Co Authored by Devon Trigg & Misti King (so some of this will read as a personal autobiography and some of the content will read as written by another)

MY PICTURES

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Co-Author’s Note
Please note that Carl is actually a very private person at heart, but he and others felt that it is important to give at last some background history so others can understand what is important to him and why he conducts himself the way he does.
This said, this biography (re-written in part from his original autobiography) only provides a “rated PG” version of what he has been through, many very personal and difficult family/life details have been left out for obvious reasons to protect his family.

Finally, while there may be some religious and possible political over tones, the purpose of this bio is not to convert, preach, or degrade/disrespect anyone else, this bio is only meant to share a small snip of someone’s life and and for others to take out of it what they may.

Quick Overview
Carl currently lives in Southern Oregon, and has been in the Aquarium and Pet related business since 1977. He owned a Pet store and aquarium maintenance and design business in the Los Angeles area from 1978 until 2002 when he moved to Grants Pass Oregon.

Reference: American Aquarium Products

Carl designed some of his own equipment such as the “Custom 15 watt UV Sterilizer” and Medicated Wonder Shells he also has sold at American Aquarium Products online (as well as many custom aquarium and pond filter installations and designs).
He has done contract maintenance for Disney, the Bahooka Restaurant (with over 100 aquariums, mostly larger than 100 gallons), Coaster Co. (the largest furniture importer in North America, also based in the Los Angeles area), and many more. He also have made excellent business contacts over the years (especially in Asia, UK).
Carl has owned aquariums since I was 9 years old (1968), and at one time had a room with nothing but aquariums on racks two aquariums high, in addition to this I had literally 100s of aquariums in my care in my maintenance business as well.

His wife, Jodie, (Joanne) currently works at Bi-Mart in Grants Pass (a Northwest only Department store similar to Wal-Mart, but smaller and more customer friendly).

Carl went to high school at Los Altos High in Hacienda Heights, CA. and College at Cal Poly University, Pomona.
Carl was in the class of 1977 at Los Altos High School (Hacienda Heights). He went to Hillgrove Elementary, and Orange Grove Jr. High (Middle School).

MORE IN DEPTH BIO (With editing and input from Devon Trigg and Misti King)

Carl Strohmeyer, was born on February 9, 1959 at Hart Hospital in Baldwin Park, CA. His parents (& one older sibling, Janice) were living in an apartment over my Grandfather’s garage in Baldwin Park.
Around his first birthday Carl’s family moved to a new home in a housing tract in the fast growing bedroom community of Hacienda Heights (a Suburb of Los Angeles). Hacienda Heights went from orange groves to a community of 35,000 in around 10 years (it is larger now).

School Years

Carl liked school in his early years, and in particular liked my Kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Wooton) whom he had again in 2nd grade.
However this all came to a crashing end in the 4th grade with Mrs. Eckman whom he stated that “he had the great misfortune to have again in the 6th grade”.

Carl often day-dreamed in class and she called him a vegetable and informed the rest of the class I was doomed to be a failure (on one occasion she took a “doodle” of mine, held it up and stated; “This is what a Failure does”).

From this point on, Carl has stated that “school was pure misery as even when I met new students such as in Middle School or High School, others seemed to be “filled in” as to who I was and what I am in others views”.

He has sstated that “in hindsight, I probably should have tried harder to set things right however, but I had and still have the charisma of a turnip (BTW, this is something others have told me)”.
Carl did make some attempts including joining square dancing at his parents urging, but this ended in disaster for him.

On the last day of the class the boys had to ask the girls to dance and NOT one would dance with Carl (which Carl has stated that he never told his parents the real reason he ran away).
This left Carl in tears for days and resulted in him running away from home, after this he withdrew to spending time with my pets/fish while he sucked in his emotions so others could not see them.
This also resulted in Carl being hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer in the 6th grade.

For the rest of Carl’s life, he has struggled with trying to please others (often in ways that usually goes unnoticed). He often defaulted to often doing anything to avoid hearing the constant criticism he have heard throughout my life from “you suck at this, you cannot sing, you cannot dance, your too skinny, you need to do more”, etc.
This then often resulted in him being used, further bullied, controlled, etc.
Carl has struggled for years with labels placed on him, including by his own family where he is the “weird” uncle Carl and his successes are ignored while his failures (many of which were not even failures) are still judged even by family and friends to this day!

During this time, many who claimed to be Christians also joined in the bullying, so it took me years to find God because of this.
To this date, Carl has has stated and those closest to him have noted that he is getting better and learning to exercise the discernment God has given him, but he still finds that he is often getting taking advantage of, especially to avoid further criticism. Sadly Carl still deals with a lot of bullying/dishonest/hateful persons who claim to be Christians while attempting to help others via online forums (this has gotten much worse with the popularity of social media and platforms such as Facebook where this type of bullying & judging is a common occurrence.

A bright spot was Carl’s family camping trips to places like Utah and Yellowstone that his Dad and Mom would take his family on. His Grandfather, along with my Dad took Carl on a trip to Panguitch Lake Utah, during the first week of 8th grade. It was especially memorable to him, for the beauty and the peace he stated that he felt. When Carl returned to school after the trip, the negative revelations of what persons really thought of him came to light as his class mates “happily” thought that he had moved.
Also, a “flight lesson” with a friend of Carl’s Dad was a memorable birthday present when I was 9 that he stated he will never forget.

One friend did truly stick by Carl was Greg, he often defended me emotionally and his friendship helped me feel like less of failure. Another friend (“Bill”) who was maybe a bit of a bully himself according to Carl, also would “physically” stand up for him
Carl had, and still does have, a skinny build. Several persons labeled him as ‘Gay’ for this reason along with high high voice, except not just in those words (others terms such as “worm” were used). This was also a struggle for Carl to deal with. His weight continues to haunt him as persons still treat him this way or go to the other extreme and judge his motives of helping a friend that might just happen to be a female.

Carl also really enjoyed Jr. High (Middle School) band, especially his instructor there, Mrs. Duke. He also had good friends in Jeff Fournier and again Greg S. as well as Luke C.
Unfortunately high school band was much more miserable for him, even though Carl loved music as he was made to feel an inch tall.
He has however stated in hindsight, that “maybe I should have “fought back”, but by this time I had such terrible self esteem, I simply did not have it in me”.
Even then Carl did enjoy the band tournaments and playing at the many football games. He rarely missed the games even after leaving band to concentrate on studies that he hoped would one day redeem himself.

Carl dealt with bullying by often being a “class clown” in some classes, in other classes he was just quiet.
He still to this day deal with sadness with humor as again many of us who know him well can testify to.
Some see this use of humor, others do not.
As an example, when Carl was forced to leave his business and move his family quickly to Oregon to escape a terrible influence who took advantage of his wife’s severe postpartum depression with rape and monetary manipulation, several of his customers were quite surprised when he told them why he had to move his family.
Quoting a few comments: “You always were joking around and seemed happy”

Back to High School, although Carl could not get a date (according to Carl, in part he still felt very insecure due to the past ridicule, as well he was frankly rather socially immature until he got into his 20s).
He finally met a nice girl (Pam) in his senior year who treated him very respectfully & showed a positive side to Christians that would be a seed for later, so thanks go to her!. She was a Junior, who set Carl up with her sister, who was a freshman.

This allowed Carl go to the senior prom. Carl later dated for a while, however her dad felt it was inappropriate for Carl & her to date after he graduated from High School. Which at the time, though he states that he was very mature in how I was very focused on achieving success in business, he was still socially immature and so Carl did not understand ‘why’ since he did know Carl was quite innocent (Carl’s friends even joked with him about my lack of “worldliness”).

Another bright spot in high school was meeting Carl’s friend Randy Viall, he and Carl are still good friends to this day.
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Beginning years in Pet Business and the establishing of my Aquarium Business

After High School life really began looking up for Carl, he met new friends at work. He also began skiing every other weekend which Carl had a natural talent for (unlike some other athletic endeavors), these were some of Carl’s most positive and “happy” years.
While in college at California Polytechnic University, Carl got a job at Archie’s House of Pets and within about 6 months he was the manager of the three stores fish departments and an assistant manager at the West Covina Mall store. His original “boss” was Danny DiGiacamo who was great at tutoring Carl in many ways.
He later left to run his own stores and Debbie Galea took over running the West Covina store (Danny ran all three). She did not have the business knowledge of Danny, but still a good person to work under.

In 1978, during Carl’s time at Archie’s he started his Aquarium Maintenance business (Carl’s Aquarium Service at the time). This unfortunately caused some friction with Debbie’s father and owner of Archie’s.

Archie was not actually active in running his business, so Carl along with Tris Higa (whom he would later marry) left to start their own store in late 1979.

The aquarium service business really blossomed when an employee at the Bahooka restaurant called on Carl to treat a dying Arowana that she had been unsuccessful at treating up to this point. He was able to save her prize fish and she recommended Carl to her boss, Jack, and he soon was maintaining the multiple aquariums at the two Polynesian restaurants.
Carl would add MANY aquariums and re-worked the filter systems on the remainder of the existing aquariums.
The Bahooka Restaurant would foster many other accounts such as the Lobster House (which fostered many itself in Pasadena), an account with Disney Studios and many more.

Also during this time Carl picked up Coaster Co. (via his local aquarium store though) which would eventually grow into hs largest account up to the day he had to move to Oregon to protect his family.

These multi aquarium accounts along with Carl’s own room of aquariums also allowed him to carry out many controlled experiments that helped him better understand many aspects aquarium care and improve his results. Some of Carl’s experiments and research was also met with criticism by a few, despite the clarity of the results and further research later that would both further explain and back up the results.

Carl’s Aquarium to AAP TV Commercial 1980’s | Funny Aquarium Comedy
This video is from TV commercial that ran in selected Los Angeles area during the 1980s when AAP was Carl’s Aquarium

Carl would get to meet many interesting persons during my years of aquarium maintenance, design, & research.
From Medical doctors who would mentor him and correct Carl when wrong in certain “medical subjects”, to persons of different cultures whether it be “close by” Mexico, or his many Asian customers.
This not only helped Carl grow in knowledge, but also in respect for others cultures/religions and differences since (as an example) Carl had to utilize Feng Shui in many of his Chinese customer aquariums/ponds. He also was often treated to gracious hospitality and many different foods such as a very polite older Egyptian lady who felt the need to feed him every time he came over to maintain her working daughter’s aquarium.

FOR MY FULL AQUARIUM/POND BUSINESS BIOGRAPHY, please follow this link: CARL STROHMEYER; MY AQUARIUM EXPERIENCE/BIO

LATER

In 1989 after a painful divorce from Tris (she left Carl for another man after an affair), he had to sell his first Local Fish Store (after she asked him to prove that he loved her more than his business).
Carl kept his aquarium maintenance business and his brother in law, Gregg, continued with him. Carl is still good friends to this day and Gregg still owns/runs part of Carl’s old service business.
Unfortunately the person who bought this LFS from Carl, quickly liquidated the store and left the country. Carl got a judgment in court, but is was nothing more than a $50,000 piece of paper (all he got was the original deposit that went to his ex-wife).

Shortly thereafter, Carl chose to start training for a career that was his other passion, and that was flying. He did well mostly due to management skills which he applied to cockpit management. Carl has stated that “I know this as my many FAA examiners and instructors had told me this about my abilities”.

Claire Walters, a historic lady of aviation issued my first pilot license certificate.
At the time I did know who she was and her accomplishments until I got back from my check ride and told my instructor who my examiner was (& he let me know that I just had a rare opportunity to fly with a true pioneer of aviation)!!

Carl stated that Claire made him feel very calm during this check ride, yet was very professional and obviously knowledgeable about flying.
What really impressed Carl (and his flight instructor when Carl told him later) is she took the time to also teach him a few things as well.

One maneuver she asked of Carl was a full power on stall under the hood; Carl told her that he had not been trained yet for this, but she assured him that could and in the end Carl was able to pull this off!

The bottom line was/issue left quite an impression on Carl in his 1 hour time spent Claire next to him in the cockpit.
Carl stated that “aviation lost an incredible person with her death”.

More about Claire Walters:
Claire L. Walters dies at 85; flight instructor co-founded Palms to Pines air race

During this time of flight further flight training Carl met and married his now current “sweet & beautiful wife”, Jodie (they married in 1991). Carl got as far as his Multi-Engine pilots license ($35,000 later) and was working on his commercial certificate when Carl canceled his largest maintenance account (the Bahooka).

This was due to sexual comments directed at Carl’s employees working there. Canceling that account, coupled with his first child being born with neural-sensory dysfunction, caused a significant loss of income.
Thankfully the neural-sensory disorder is no longer a direct problem with her, although she has sense been diagnosed with Asberger’s syndrome and still suffers from psychological stress from events will be mentioned later in this bio.

This loss of the Bahooka restaurant had a more “dynamic” fall out than Carl expected as while the income loss was significant, it was also a huge source of publicity and reputation for Carl, generating many new clients.

This coupled with postpartum depression for his wife, which was worse with their second child and severe after their third child was born. This coupled with multiple outside influences that did not have their best interests at heart amplified this postpartum depression.
This then began a very difficult slide down hill for Carl’s wife with more problems to come. Many so called friends & neighbors people did not understand nor see these problems and stood in judgment over Carl & his wife.

They were judged harshly for these struggles, with many casual observers either making rude judgments on Carl or her or both. In fact this only amplified her depression and feeling of isolation.
This also forced Carl to drop out of flight school to help take care of his children and spouse.

Carl states that he still really misses flying, in part because this was one of the few times in his life when he felt so accepted both by the flying community & by friends who saw this as a much more respectful endeavor than Carl’s aquarium work (not to mention the flying community is a vastly more honest and supportive of each other than the often very demanding and even dishonest aquarium/pond keeping community).
Either way Carl still has some good memories and would never give up or trade his family (wife and kids) for anything, even having this part of his life back!

During this time, Carl’s wife was still struggling to cope with is second child Danielle’s feeding issues (resulting in hospitalization at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena) as well as Danille’s constant illnesses when she found out she was pregnant with thier 3rd child Timothy, which her OBGYN said she could never get pregnant again without considerable medical help.
Since she was still suffering from severe postpartum stress, this only added to it, with her mom telling me she got counseling at “Planned Parenthood” that resulted in this organization suggesting she get an abortion before her mom prayed with her and made her realize this was not a good idea (what actually happened was much more “dark” than this PG version and includes Planned Parenthood refusing to even talk to Carl and a near loss of their son as a result).

After Carl’s son was born in 1998, within short order he was diagnosed with meningitis (likely from exposure in the shared nursery after birth). While his son did get over this, he later developed severe issues with not being able to feed along with dangerous aspiration while sleeping even if he did get food down.
This resulted in surgeries and special monitoring machines for the next 6 months. This also really “tanked” Carl’s wife’s postpartum depression with her totally giving up and requiring hospitalization of her own.
During a very difficult week in September of 1998 with Carl’s wife Jodie in the Hospital, and with Carl leaving Timothy in another hospital (Huntington Memorial) for more surgery, Carl also had a pilots medical whereby the examiner refused his license based on the emotional stress in the family (he got the medical back a few years later). As well they had persons actually telling Carl that he was not doing enough, even though Carl was up all night with Timothy when he was home, often re-setting his aspiration monitor, taking care of the other two kids and running my business.

After Jodie got out of the hospital, Carl & Jodie had a social worker who claimed to be a Christian assigned to supposedly help Jodie, but instead was frankly a very evil person who clearly hated men and made several attempts to convince his wife that Carl was controlling even though all he was doing was attempting to stem the constant outflow of money as this is one way she dealt with stress (and how the psychopathic predator was also taking advantage of her and would later harm his daughter in the process).
What was frustrating according to Carl, is most persons who knew him, from neighbors to even his very first girl friend many years ago said he was anything but controlling, rather Carl was a push-over who needed to stand up for himself more.
Anyway, in the end, it took a Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy to physically remove this lady from Carl’s house after she got irate with me for daring to ask for a gasoline receipt from my wife.

MOVE TO OREGON (& REASON FOR MOVE)

Carl moved to Southern Oregon in December of 2002. Michelle, their oldest, had been sent ahead for her protection & mental health, in early November.

Carl and family moved to be near his sister Jan (along his brother in law Cary Cound) and to escape bad influences (IE a Psychopath who continued to stalk our family as of 2011) who took advantage of Jodie’s severe Postpartum depression that peaked after our 3rd child was born, which resulted in $80,000 debt.
Carl still owed $30,000 of this as the sale of their LA home could not pay it off. He did not declare bankruptcy, to protect his credit, keep jobs at his business he left behind, and other personal reasons.

Moving also provided more help with Carl’s special needs children, along with Carl and his wife.

What was so frustrating and embittering to Carl was that he said little as to how much time he generally had to invest in taking care of his family as Carl’s wife was simply not able to at the time until she got better (it is noteworthy that this PG bio barely scratches the surface of what really happened as it is too personal, private and frankly “too evil” to share publicly). YET many have made critical statements that had no reality in the facts (although there were core persons that knew the truth such as Bob Mendoza).
Jodie’s family over time finally realized this as well.

Others, especially at Carl’s old Church, in West Covina California, chose not to look below the surface. He constantly “picked up the pieces” so as to not drag our family and his wife through the gutter. Although they did know about her hospitalization for postpartum depression.

Many chose only to listen to untruths and half-truths that Carl did not do enough, despite the fact that he fed, bought groceries, did ALL medical care of their son Timothy and in general performed 75% of most home care for his family during this time (although Bob Mendoza took note and attempted to help on several occasions).

All the while Carl had been working long hours including recycling cardboard and bottles/cans on the side (often starting at 4 am) to help pay for the constant bills that these issues, including the bad influence ran up.

One couple at this Church in particular were especially hurtful at the time (whether intentional or not, Carl has stated that he will let God be the judge).
They said very hurtful things about Carl’s children and in one meeting about his son Timothy after recovering from early medical issues and after his Autism diagnosis, things were said in both Carl and his wife’s presence where Carl stated that he could “literally see the life leave his wife’s eyes” as she went into a very deep depression.
Within the week, she had allowed this bad influence back into our life (after she had initially gotten away from him as she WAS doing better) and their oldest daughter was also harmed during this time in ways Carl cannot share online (even as of 2018, Carl is still paying off bills from counseling from what happened).

For Carl, he stated that this added to his struggles with bitterness which did not help him be as understanding as he could have been, especially since Carl just buried these feelings rather than give them to God.

In most cases any other man would have taken the kids and left. However Carl sought legal help that showed that he could gain full custody if he desired, but this was and is not good enough for others that stood in judgment of Carl and his wife.

Sadly some people continue to judge Carl (& his wife/family) to this very day.

In fact Carl read a very judgmental Facebook comment about him even though this person who wrote this clearly knows NOTHING about Carl, unfortunately this was by someone with a degree in Psychology none the less! As per FB, this seems to be common, where persons, even persons who think they know Carl (or others) will make comments about him or others without apparently knowing anything about me (or others) based on the comment.
This sadly happens often in in social media fish keeping circles where person refuse to know how much Carl has given up for others & his family and state that he is only about making money (this despite the fact as of 2018, he makes less than minimum wage for his many hours spent in his business and helping others with their fish keeping issues directly and with his constantly updated articles).

One positive note during this difficult time were LA Sheriff deputies that DID see through the lies and regularly checked in on Carl’s family and business, this included an attempt to make him look controlling when all he was doing was trying keep his family finances from totally going down the toilet.
This attempt by a social worker resulted in one of the Sheriff Deputies calling on our home, where Carl’s well documented collection of credit card receipts and more (compiled over a few years via his calls to credit card issuers, banks, etc.) was presented to to the Deputy Sheriff. This Deputy immediately realized that these charges were bogus & made note of this for “future problems”.

As noted earlier, Carl’s son (his 3rd child) was very sick when he was young. He had Viral Meningitis, gastro-intestinal problems and more. He now has “high functioning” autism which unfortunately caused much rejection, even from our previous Church in West Covina, CA. In fact this rejection was the final nail in the coffin for Carl’s wife Jodie.
Their daughter Michelle still struggles with depression, in part due to her Asbergers and due to what happened in LA.
Jan, Carl’s sister, has been a blessing beyond words in helping their kids as well as Carl (with his struggles with bitterness) and his wife, Jodie, who is also doing much better at coping with life (in fact she is now quite the take charge person both at home and in her work place (& they have Jan and others at their church in Grants Pass to thank here)

Despite the ongoing difficulties, another light here in Grants Pass, besides my sister, has been my Church, in particular friends in the “Holy Rovers” group: Bethany Presbyterian , they have prayed, mentored, and helped with our children (especially Michelle). Special thanks goes to Roger and Bob from Stephen’s Ministries and the entire Holy Rovers group.

Carl & family were essentially homeless after the sudden move to Oregon to protect their family. They lived in their old 27 foot Class C Motor Home for 18 months in Jan & Cary’s driveway (for which Carl & family appreciate his sister/brother-in-law allowing this) while Jan also home temporarily home schooled the two older kids. During this time Carl helped around their house by cutting wood and paying electric bills, etc.
To try and pay off the bills and hopefully get back on thier own and re-establish his business in some form, Carl went back to recycling during early morning hours (often while it was below freezing in the early morning hours), this was no where near as productive as it was in Southern California, but with a lot of hard work with often frozen fingers, this still slowly helped Carl get back on our feet and into a home (albeit old and small/ built in 1928 @ 950 square feet).

Unfortunately during this time many rumors also circulated as to why Carl & family lived in his sister’s driveway, mostly stating that Carl had failed in business, was mooching off his sister/brother-in-law (not at all the case as this was probably the most humbling period in his life according to Carl). In fact one source of the rumors was a local Church in Grants Pass

Within a couple of months of moving to Oregon, a couple (Paul & Trina) Carl intrusted to manage his aquarium store and some of his aquarium maintenance accounts and whom were part of the reason Carl did NOT declare bankruptcy so as to prevent their job loss would betray his trust resulting in the loss of most of Carl’s store business and the literal (& illegal) taking of many of his service accounts by telling customers false information.
Thankfully Gregg stepped in and told many of the customers the truth of why Carl suddenly left for Oregon and what Paul and Trina were up to.

The loss still was in the tens of $1000s when both inventory and goodwill business is considered, but at least Gregg salvaged $10,000 of the business, and in the end there was some justice in that their poor business management and lack of any real knowledge as to this business resulted in the failure of what they stole.

As noted earlier in 2004 after getting some of Jodie’s credit in order, Carl was able to get a small, 950 square foot home. They initially tried to rent, but no one would rent to us past 2 kids, the same problem was encountered with Mobile Home parks and space rental.
Sadly if they had not moved, their previous home in Southern California would have paid off in 2019 and with its value as of 2018 could have bought this home in Grants Pass outright and have $350,000 Plus left over.
On a positive note, that while this home is old and drafty with many issues, it also came with a large shed (900 square feet) that while in worse shape than the house, it provided Carl with an inexpensive place to re-start his business, so in the end, God was clearly looking out for us as a Rental likely would not have worked out in Carl’s favor.

Carys of Oregon

Carl went to work at Cary’s of Oregon English toffee as a factory worker and later production manager for about 3 years while re-starting his aquarium business on the side, which he now runs full time.
He felt God had a purpose for him, to help his brother-in-law fulfill his dream!
Especially since one of Cary’s strengths is being a dreamer of great ideas along with phenomenal engineering talents and making them a reality (as well as incredible mechanical/engineering skills), while one of Carl’s strengths is managing (as many who have known him over the years professionally in LA have stated and continue to state during his business trips and other professional contacts).
Unfortunately the rumor mill as to what brought Carl here to Oregon prevented this from happening to full fruition.
However, he was very happy to have had the opportunity to help Cary, whom he loves very much and thought much of long before he moved to Oregon to protect his family.

MORE CURRENT BIO

Carl set up an internet “aquarium/pond information” business based on his experience and ongoing research in Aquarium maintenance and design with 1000s of aquarium/ponds during this time, as well as the vast amount of tests he performed over the years prior to moving to Oregon.
Initially this was to be an information driven website that pointed to ocean decor and similar to pay the bills, but it never quite worked out for a multitude of reasons, so Carl evolved into selling online much of what his research and experience had shown to be best.
As per the information gathered over the previous 3 decades, along with Carl’s sudden move made saving this impossible as he had no where to keep much of the documentation paper work. So in the end he had to painstakingly put together many of his articles from his memory.

Carl continued to run his business as he had before, treating employees with respect; selling customers only what they need and the products that his experience and research showed to be the best per a specific budget, which in years past meant even turning down potentially profitable contracts (despite rude & libelous comments often made online, see later in the Life’s Work Section)).

Thankfully between the “Everything Aquatic Forum” (not the copycat website everythingaquatic.net that is using his legally registered .com name with a .net to get around the legal issues), many articles that have garnered compliments from pHd researchers from as far away as Pakistan.
Carl has stated that he gives credit to God for lifting up his business at a time when he had no choice but to let God take charge due to severe family issues once more. His Internet business has been successful enough to at least compliment his wife’s take home and provide employment for a few excellent individuals here in Grants Pass Oregon

This was done with some initial help from Rachel Owen Oliveri and now even MUCH more help from Tommy Butler (who has helped me both professionally and with just being there as a friend), Steven Wright (most of the picture art is his), Devon Trigg, and Misti King (who aided me in editing my articles for grammar, since this is weakness of mine).
Although the business did grow initially, the income has always been rather marginal for the hours spent, partly because he sells products that Carl knows will work, not just what have great mark-ups.
More importantly, much of Carl’s time is spent helping others at no charge as well in further research to keep my free information content up to date.

Carl now spends at least 70-80 hours per week just answering email questions and writing/re-writing (updating) articles.

Carl also tends to concentrate on items such as these where he has considerable expertise:
*UV Sterilizer; for Aquarium or Pond
*UV Replacement Bulbs
*AquaRay Aquarium LED Lights
*Wonder Shells Aquarium Mineral Blocks, only sold at AAP
*AAP Unique Medications such as Spectrogram, Wound Control, Naladin

Carl has found time (and money) to go camping, often with the Holy Rovers of Bethany Presbyterian.
Besides his perennial favorites such as Yellowstone and much of Utah, Carl enjoys several spots here in Oregon including: Crater Lake, Newberry Volcanic Park, Wallowa State Park, Diamond Lake, Seven Feathers RV, Indian Mary and Gold Beach, just to name a few.

2008 Forward

Events of February, 2009

Although much of Carl’s family’s personal life was improving, in part due to close friends and family, which is the reason he & his family moved in the first place, once again ghosts from the past came upon our family.
The unfathomable evil presence Carl and a couple close friends (such as Roger and Bob Mendoza) felt reared its ugly head once again. What is/was frightening were several evil communications were sent to Carl that were eerily similar to the false charges made against Carl.

Unfortunately an anxiety “melt down” by Carl’s oldest daughter at school (which has roots in the past and threatening correspondences that our local PD and Department of Human resources refused to address) combined with dishonest rumors from the past caused our local DHS/DCS to once more get involved without any investigation.
Unfortunately a counselor at Grants Pass High played a role in attempting to destroy Carl’s family, even if unintentional (although use of the word “unintentional” is rather generous considering this counselor at the High School was warned/told of this potential issue by others, including Jan, and even Michelle’s therapist).
Sadly my younger two kids were literally told what to say by these one lady in particular who worked for Oregon DHS people which caused them much mental stress as they knew the truth.

Carl has stated that this situation where morally corrupt persons from the Oregon DHS got involved and moved his family out while away on a business trip, although 100% wrong and evil at its core, has been used by God for good as the outpouring of support from several persons from Carl’s ‘Holy rovers’ camping group was “emotionally moving” beyond description.

Many honest persons talked with the kids and quickly saw through the obvious lies that were being used to manipulate the kids and this came out in court with the many persons and testimonials that came out.

This includes those who knew that Carl spend zero time or $$ for on himself, as 99% of Carl’s waking time is spent either caring for his family or helping others with their aquatic problems as noted earlier.

However even this was used against Carl since he was often answering phone calls and emails at all hours attempting to answer customer (and mostly non customer) questions or similar. The Oregon DHS construed that Carl was more interested in others problems than his own family (of course his family history proves this to be a lie too).

The support from Carl’s sister & brother-in-law (Jan and Cary) in the early hours of this tragic event (for which there is MUCH more too) were truly God sent and his thanks cannot be expressed enough.

Carl and his family has also learned who their friends REALLY are and that unfortunately many DHS/DCS officials as well as the media that Carl and friends attempted to alert (but turned a blind eye as that did in previous events in his life) simply are not interested in the truth (even when the court sees this and dozens of persons tell them the facts in testimonials, etc.).
Nor would the GPPD communicate even though they are well aware of our situation, the rather lazy GPPD took the opposite approach of simply looking the other way when they could have helped prevent this with the copious amounts of threatening emails turned over to them over the years.

Unfortunately, there were and are those that got upset that Carl had to cut back on after hours emails/phone calls to answer questions that he generally already have provided the answer to in his dozens of updated articles and took to leaving bad reviews and even profane messages demanding more of Carl’s time.
Reference: Aquarium, Pond Information Articles

Carl has stated that a lesson learned was that he too that had to give his bitterness to God and to forgive (but not necessarily trust those that have hurt his family), as Carl had attempted to deal with his bitterness from past issues by simply cramming it deep inside himself rather than letting it go with the Lord’s help (especially with very blunt but caring help from Roger S. too).

Continued Bio:

CARL’S LIFE’S WORK:
Unfortunately of late (starting in about 2012 as un-moderated Social Media grew to prominence), while Carl’s article readership continues to grow, there is a small but vocal segment who half read and have no respect for his controlled aquarium experience with 1000s of aquariums and think he or staff can answer their rude attacks via email or in forums.
This is especially common in Reef Central and in PNWMAS forums as well as certain individuals who actually have little in depth experience, but go around Facebook making libelous charges. Most often that he is all about selling stuff when in fact his life’s history and current finances clearly show he has ALWAYS been about placing others first as this bio points out.
Sadly even a Facebook forum run by a person who claimed to be a Christian allowed this type of attack to go forward and even though Carl said nothing to defend himself, banned all his articles (it is noteworthy that Carl had given this person a considerable donation of product and his time helping others in this forum). This does however point out one of Carl’s weaknesses and that is to please and help others, even when good discernment says otherwise and he was warned in this particular case by a staff member that he felt this person was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” (in other words a false Christian who never truly supported what Carl was about and only “buttered him up” to get something from him and when he got what he wanted simply tossed him aside).

Most of these recent attacks are straw man, Red Herring, and Ad hominem attacks. Even when some facts are disputed little or evidence is presented and references are never followed.

Using PNWMAS as an example; the PNWMAS forum is in Carl’s backyard of Portland & Eugene Oregon, yet even though he have financially supported this forum, there has been no support of his scientifically proven products or even his very in depth and unique articles, rather this forum has often rudely chosen to attack him indirectly or his employee (Devon) directly who manages forum sponsorships & simply attempted to defend him and his life’s work.
Rather than support his life’s work that he has received positive feedback internationally in the many articles he has written that appear on American Aquarium, Aquarium/Pond Answers, & Fish as Pets, this forum not only did not promote and say: “Wow, great cutting edge science based content, and it is all from a web site in our own back yard”, rather they made rather dishonest vile attacks, including in private messages

In the end, even as of the most recent updates to this bio in 2018, rarely a week goes by without someone (primarily in social media of late, but sometimes by email & other methods) attacking Carl’s life work with nothing more than hateful personal attacks, clearly demonstrating they never even read the material and its citations. In fact just in July of 2018, in speaking with Carl, he dealt with a very hateful person in FB attacking some of his most in depth work in aquarium UV Sterilization, and going off on Carl after he asked to her to simply read the article and its resources in full with an open mind.

One of the most common attacks is that Carl is a shill or is using a marketing scheme of attempting to sell bogus products via his articles.

Let’s Look at these charges:

• Just based on Carl’s background;
  Would a shill or similar against his lawyers advice just to maintain jobs dump a growing and profitable business just to move into near poverty in Oregon?
  Would such a person dump his largest, most prestigious & profitable customer just to show his staff that people are more important than profits (this alone cost Carl tens of 1000$ of in profits and new prospective customers and prestige)?
  
  He continues to help many after hours, 7 days per week all while making $7 per hour when all this time is factored in.
  He also now works a 2nd job collecting bottles most every day to maintain staff and keep up the fees involved maintaining his many articles (collecting bottles allows him to work around his business and time spent answering questions and update articles better than a traditional 2nd job would).
• Carl is accused of bribing forums to get his products promoted.
  Incorrect; with one exception, ALL forums & YouTube Channels have approached him first (this includes one that later got what he wanted and then threw him under the bus)!!!
  
  One product line in particular, TMC does not sponsor forums and instead promotes products by getting them in the hands of professionals
• Bogus Products; while one can agree to disagree, the products sold are at least 80% product his maintenance companies have used over the years or meets the criteria laid out in his articles.
  The Sponge filter line sold is USA made too, which cannot be made by most other sellers of similar products.
  The AquaRay LED lighting line was not even available when the Lighting article was written nor after many updates. It was only sold after it met certain criteria that included he would use it for his own clients.
• His articles are rare in that most others are rarely updated. Carl or staff update these regularly, including when evidence that might contradict what he has stated (he has never been afraid to admit when he is wrong).
  Examples include information in his Redox, Nitrogen Cycle article, & Lighting article.
  With the Lighting article in particular while the long term accepted view (& still held as per a recent PBS Nova episode) is/was green light is useless. Newer evidence showed in a closed environment that green light can be used by plants, it is just much less efficient and can actually stunt growth when used at certain percentages.

Here is his most popular article, that has also been at the root of these dishonest and personal attacks
Reference: Aquarium Light Information

Here is a blog Carl wrote dealing with some of the contemptible persons who make false statements against him all the while they bully an employee who simply attempted to “set the record straight” over at Reef Central (sadly as per reading their own forum rules they perform very selective enforcement of their rules):
Reef Central Review; the Mr. Burns of Aquarium Forums

One article that he is very proud of the content has been totally dropped from Google Search in the summer of 2013 after Black Hat SEO practices by Amazon and copyright infringement by About.com is his UV Sterilization article.
He asks that readers please help get this one back out with shout-outs on Facebook, Google Plus, personal blogs, etc.
Reference: UVC Sterilization; Correct Level 1 UV Sterilizer Use

Please consider using DuckDuckGo search or Bing over Google.
Please re-post articles on Facebook, Google Plus, or private blogs.

A FEW EVENTS

Carl was also blessed in that he was finally able to replace their 20+ year old motor-home in 2010 with a nicer trailer & vehicle to tow it (the motor home had broken down on almost every trip in the last 12 years and even had issues when brand new)

Carl’s article readership continues to grow, with many compliments from those they have helped, but also with the usual “straw man” attacks from the same few suspect forums (he only wishes he could find a way to monetize them better or sell them so as to cease the need at all to sell products to pay bills).

Carl’s son is doing very well with school and became an exchange student to Germany for early summer 2015. We had to raise the funds for this as my wife’s actual take home has decreased due to considerable hikes in her insurance premiums (thanks to the ACA) and while his article readership continues to grow, a continuing higher and higher percentage of persons use these articles and Carl’s email/forum help to purchase at Amazon, eBay or similar..

Carl did however graciously get help from Bethany Presbyterian Church in sending Timothy to Germany

While Danielle had some learning difficulties in her school years, she was able to get her CNA license and now works for a home care business as well as a growing home cleaning business.
She is also very loving and charismatic, and often senses when others such as Carl, Jodie, Michelle, or Tim are depressed and is quite the loving comforter.

Michelle is still often withdrawn and will not communicate fully what is wrong or what happened has happened in the past, however she is improving with her anger issues and really seems to understand the sufferings of others and is excellent at discerning good from evil.
She still struggles with taking things personally, especially when she tries to do the “right thing”. Often hurtful comments or actions by others that lack any remedial discernment (sadly even coming from church), even if not always intentional, hurt her very deeply.

Marriage in the last 8 years have been great with Carl calls his “increasingly beautiful wife” Jodie, as both of them understand better what they need to contribute to help each other. God has really blessed them with great support too in the last decade

Carl still asks of others to support his business and the many articles he provides free of charge that often have information that can be found nowhere else by occasionally thanking him with a sale or donation.

HEALTH

As of May 2010 & June 2011, Carl’s heart health which had struggled since a serious staph infection in 2004 and a later diagnosis of a hole in his heart arterial wall combined with problems with Carl’s heart rhythm.

Carl had multiple heart tachycardia events, numbness/ “pulsing” in the left side of his neck and left side in general during this time, as well a halter monitor and other tests showed a considerably elevated heart rate, even at rest (150-170 beats per minute resting).
Carl underwent more nuclear stress tests and other tests to determine why.
On positive note the Beta blockers which he Carl was placed on have helped considerably with his heart, which to the most recent update of this bio is doing well!

In the late Spring of 2011, Carl was diagnosed with quickly advancing case of neuropathy with exact caused unknown since he am not diabetic (the most common and treatable cause), so it remains basically un-treatable but for medications to ease the pain. As well Carl has a couple of ruptured discs in his back that often add to the pain and may be part of the cause according to a therapist along with some sort of general ongoing inflammatory issue.
Besides a diagnosed couple of ruptured vertebrae, the doctor suspects stress as a factor for the neuropathy, especially since 80% of the symptoms (including heart issues) cleared up during a two week vacation in August of 2011, only to return within a couple of days of Carl’s return.

As of 2013, Carl was continuing to learn to work through my constant pain from neuropathy, and in fact he is doing MUCH better with the neuropathy.
Carl has stated that he is also “blessed in that his heart in general is doing better” (this includes no problems with a diagnosed hole in my heart atrial wall) and part of the cause of neuropathy has now been traced back via a MRI to two ruptured discs in my spine.
As of 2015, Carl is actually having slightly less pain with the ruptured vertebrae in his back (possibly due to more regular exercises)

In the summer of 2014 Carl had a bout with viral meningitis, followed by severe loss of weight, and gastrointestinal issues (at one point he had a false positive for stomach cancer resulting in an Carl had a severe middle gut bacterial over-growth issue also known as SIBO, which as of late 2015, the SIBO infection is not responding to traditional treatment in any permanent way.

Thankfully, as of 2016 the SIBO has done better via multiple herbal treatments, which includes anti-inflammatory therapies/treatments since chromic inflammation (possibly auto-immune issues too) seem to be the cause for this as well as the Neuropathy.
However eating can still be a negative experience, no matter what Carl claims he eats. Eating makes him very tired and he states he has an almost allergic type reaction to a meal that the best he can describe as feeling like one feels with the aches/cramps one would get with the flu. This said, Carl has found that a Vodka screw-driver shortly after dinner helps alleviate this (wink).
Later a Doctor has confirmed that undetermined allergies are adding to his inflammatory issues, including now inner ear issues resulting in vertigo

END OF MAIN BIO

This quote from John Chapter 8 helps but also perplexes me as I have shown this mercy (as I feel is asked us all by God) under the darkest of circumstances yet it is I who is often judged by others to this very day?

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

SUMMARY(or what I have learned to this date):

KEY EVENTS

Please note that out of respect for Carl’s privacy, this is the rated PG-13 version of key events

• Born 1959
• Started School 1964
• 1969; Ran away from home after event at school
• Graduated High School 1977, started work at Archie’s House of Pets, & started college at Cal Poly Pomona
• 1978; Started aquarium maintenance business & obtained Bahooka Restaurant contract
• 1979; Opened local aquarium/pet store
• 1981; Married first wife Tris
• 1989; Sold store and was divorced by Tris. Achieved Private Pilots License
• 1991; Married current wife Jodie
• 1993; First Child Michelle born. Also obtained Multi-Engine Pilots license. Later this year Carl dropped his most high profile aquarium maintenance client to support a friend
• 1996; Daughter Danielle born
• 1998; After almost losing son to abortion, son Timothy born. Most of his first year spent very ill with hospitalization and around the clock monitoring when home
• 1998 -2002; Family hit with many tragic events that Carl will not share beyond close friends, resulting in the family fleeing to Oregon to protect family (leaving business and everything behind)
• 2005 Restarted business online
• 2009; Events that caused severe issues from 1998 to 2002 once again strike family
• Graduations from High school of children; 2012 for Michelle, 2015 for Danielle, & 2016 for Timothy

While this biography & autobiography may not read as a very “happy story”, Carl has stated that he has grown in his love of family and God through all the many trials and set backs and realized that this has also allowed him to relate to many others that have gone through similar trials (such as my friend Misti King).
Also to take this less than happy biography in context, a reader should spend time in Carl’s 100s of articles and then realize that this often dark but honest telling of his life experience is but just a part of him; easily more time is spent in maintaining these articles to keep the content as fresh as possible, such as Carl’s Aquarium/Pond UV Sterilization article.
As well, the rest of Carl’s free time is spent in forums and email helping others in a positive manner!!!
A Few References:
*Aquarium and Pond Information
*Aquarium/ Pond UV Sterilization; Sterilizer Use
*Aquarium & Pond Answers

Finally, while Carl often got judged often for his autistic son’s behavior in his younger years, often by persons that should know better (although many men seem to understand him much better), he has stated that he would never trade him for anything in the world!
Carl has also stated that he is also learning from his true friends (such as Bob Mendoza & Randy Vial), that despite the many judgments heaped upon him, especially since moving to Grants Pass, that he is doing the best he can to follow God’s will and that includes still using his God given talents of management, which many of his articles reflect since much of the content is gleaned from Carl’s understanding other’s talents and research and applying their research to his own knowledge/experience and research.

Another major positive is (via the Lord’s and friends help), is Michelle is doing better, Jodie has really blossomed and I have been much better at giving up my bitterness and hurt from the past!

*Thanks also go to my long time friend Bob Mendoza, and friends Bob Krause and Roger Stewart for their encouragement and support, often during the most difficult times.

LUCIA MICARELLI –

KANSAS; CARRY ON WAYWARD SON

JOURNEY; OPEN ARMS (Live)

Go-GOs; Head Over Heals

Unchained Melody Les Baxter Orchestra 1955

For the Los Altos Band playing Conquistadores click here
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