We seem to treasure moving super fast in this hobby. We like to share a lot of pics of new tanks.. the “exciting” stuff.. and we like to get to “finished” so we can move on to the next one. Why? Let’s talk about it!

Everyone knows that Loricariid catfishes consume wood, right? Well, Do they? Let’s discuss this stuff, and maybe go off in some new directions!

Yeah, once again, I make my case for fungi- those gooey, nasty little organisms you see all over your wood and botanicals. They’re one of nature’s most elegant life forms.. and we should embrace them and what they do for our tanks!

What’s behind our mindset-our philosophy of the botanical-method aquarium? We get asked that a lot…Let’s take a closer look at our ideas, our practice, and it’s implications for our animals…

Man, I tend to change my mind on hobby stuff now and then. I will often start a tank, only to break it right down and “pivot” before ultimately arriving at what I really wanted to do. Does this sound familiar to you?

Leaves are critical and key components in the botanical method aquarium. They’re the literal “fuel” which powers the ecology of our tanks.. and yeah, they’re not the best materials to use strictly for aesthetics! There’s so much more to them!

Yeah, we’ve talked about it before, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that botanical-method aquariums are capable of providing supplemental food to our fishes. It’s entirely possible to create and manage a sort of “food web” in your botanical-influenced aquarium. Time to get our heads around this!

Advice is a tricky thing. You can get a lot of it in the hobby. Some is good. Some is completely awful. And we love to blame the “LFS guy or gal” for it. That’s a shame, because most of the worst information you can receive is NOT from the LFS employer. Let’s talk about this touch subject- shall we?

Damn, we place some much emphasis on filters, and a big reinvent on polishing the crap (literally) out of our tanks that we end up fighting Nature in the process. I think we’d all do well to work with natural processes to keep our tanks ecologically healthy. Let’s talk about it!

On the surface, a botanical method aquarium is pretty simple to establish. A leaf litter focused aquarium is the easiest type of botanical method aquarium to get into. It sort of “teaches” you everything to know about running this type of tank. Let’s revisit the idea again!