Who is Miami Reef Aquariums?

When It All Began...

Miami Reef Aquariums was built on top of more than 35 years of experience in the field of aquarium keeping, but it was not always known by the name we now call our own. In the beginning, it started with one man, and his name is Lorenzo Alvarez (depicted above).  

The picture above is of our founder and president, Lorenzo Alvarez. In the picture, he is putting the finishing touches on a display he did for a larger presentation at the Miami Home Show in the early 90s but, his career in the aquarium industry began at a much earlier time.

The First Aquarium...

 The very first aquarium ever designed by Lorenzo Alvarez was the tank depicted above. The tank was set up in 1977, back when the very idea of keeping marine fish and corals were still a relatively new Idea. The tank hosted an under-gravel filtration system with a hang-on-the-back filter box. The lighting system proved insufficient to maintain coral health at that time, but it was still possible to keep a variety of fish and marine sponges alive in the aquarium.  

1979-1989...

 During this time, Lorenzo Alvarez began experimenting with different coral species and learning how to keep them alive in the home aquarium. One of the first experimental systems set up by Lorenzo was the tank seen in the picture above. This system successfully kept different LPS and SPS corals alive, using a combination of artificial and natural lighting.

1990-1997

In the last decade of the 20th century, Lorenzo Alvarez began using the previous 20 years of experience and started actively designing and installing a large number of marine aquariums. During this time, Lorenzo worked together with the cabinet designers at Simply Wood to produce unique displays at the Miami Home Show.

Additionally, from 1992-1996 Lorenzo Alvarez was also actively collecting shipments of live rock from Venezuela and the Florida Keys. He would then go on to use this rock in his custom displays or sell larger quantities to marine wholesalers in the Miami area. 

1998-Present...

From the end of the 20th century to the present time, Lorenzo Alvarez has continued to use his years of experience and his passion for the hobby of reef keeping to provide his customers with the best service possible. Now under the name and the company of Miami Reef Aquariums, Lorenzo and his staff plan to build even better aquariums than ever before.