One of the things that we’ve noticed over the years is how our aquariums embrace common elements from Nature- a literal “through line” from Nature to aquarium- one which, if we make the effort to understand- has profound implications for us as hobbyists.

Yes, we keep coming back to the bottom… The incredible influence of substrate on the overall aquatic environment is endlessly fascinating. The wild aquatic habitats of the world are filled with compelling, highly functional substrates comprised of all sorts of materials. They’re ripe for replication in the aquarium.. let’s discuss these natural features and their potential in our tanks!

The idea of changing our tanks up periodically is as old as the aquarium hobby itself. However, you don’t always have to make big changes to evolve your tank…

The aquarium hobby is filled with opportunities, challenges, and chances to develop breakthroughs. However, to get through many things in the hobby requires us to educate ourselves; to understand what’s going on in our tanks, and to tolerate things that might make us uncomfortable. To draw parallels between what we’re seeing in our tanks and what occurs in Nature. How do we do this? We need to compensate…

Yeah, every once in a while, with so many newcomers to our world- it’s important for me to touch on some basic stuff. Today, let’s talk about the elegant, under appreciated biofilms-one more time!

Inspiration in the hobby takes many forms. It comes from many sources. I think that we as a group tend to take more inspiration from other people’s tanks, and not as much from Nature. We need to flip that around a bit…

Patience is one of those “intangibles” that is incredibly important in the aquarium hobby. It’s something not all of us have in droves, but we should. It’s something that helps us all have to best possible outcomes when we apply it…

We’ve been obsessed with botanical method aquariums for decades. We’re collectively, as a hobby, advancing the study of these aquariums more than ever. Yet, a lot of people will ask “Why do you do this stuff?” Today, a simple bunch of talking points for you to share with others when asked this question. Or, perhaps it’s the push that YOU need to try one?

As everyone gets ready to enter those international aquascaping contests, or to contemplate what they’ll do next year, it’s time for me to get on my soap box and trash conventionality- again. Time to urge you to act on the craziest of the ideas floating around in your head. Time for “weird”- done well!