The Tint

Our friend, detritus has been maligned for decades as “bad” in aquariums. I once again rush to the defense of detritus, and even pay a small tribute to Geos in the process! What more could you want?

Like most of you, I have a number of fishes which are obsessions of mine. And interestingly, when I analyze it, I’ve found some interesting commonalities among them that help explain why!

I preach a radical form of patience when managing botanical method aquariums. I also maintain that you can and should make changes- even rather radical ones- if you feel the need. There is a way to let your tank evolve naturally, even when making such changes. You can switch a design- you can’t interrupt Nature’s processes. It’s a sort of “yin-yang” thing… let’s talk about what happens along the way in your tank’s evolution…

Yeah, the idea of creating unique substrates from. Lays, sediments, and soils, or adding botanical “stuff” to our substrates is too much for this geek to resist. Our little hobby niche has benefited from all sorts of interesting experiments with substrates. Let’s revisit what we know about the cutting edge work with weird aquatic substrates!

Our unique botanical method aquariums have a few characteristics and “behaviors” that you can almost “depend on” as they establish themselves, don’t they? Let’s revisit a few here!

The beginner in the aquarium hobby may have an advantage over us “vets…” he/she/them are not burdened by their own experience. Everything is new and exciting. They operate in an environment where sheer joy becomes the driving force. We can learn from beginners, can’t we?

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…