The Tint

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!

When does a botanical method aquarium reach a "finish line?" When does it start looking "mature?" Why do hobbyists even ask this question? We spend a lot of time pondering when our tanks will hit some magical point where they have "arrived." I think that we need to focus on a different part of the equation here...

Ever gotten into one of those online disagreements about some hobby topic? Was it an all-day, tit-for-tat drag- out? A thoughtful debate? Was it just plain nasty? And did it even matter? Here’s a story from one of my “online discussions” that may make you chill a bit.. or not.

Perhaps in no other aquarium hobby speciality other than the botanical method do we even think much about the color of the water in our tanks. And that means accepting not only a different function- but different aesthetics…

Utilizing different materials in our substrates is a “foundational approach to botanical method aquariums.. we need to keep working with them and pushing the limits!