What do you need to do to maintain a botanical style aquarium with a bed of leaf litter? Let’s talk about it!

The bottom- not just sand, gravel or other traditional substrate materials.. it can be comprised of twigs, leaves, and botanicals. It can foster a huge dynamic aquatic ecology! Let’s talk about it for a bit....

Every botanical-style aquarium reaches a stage, early in its existence- where our initial work is done, and Nature takes over. Accepting and savoring this moment, and the transformations which begin to occur from this point- is foundational to our philosophy of the botanical-style aquarium.

With so many hobbyists getting into botanical-style aquariums, there’s a lot of talk- a lot of ideas floating around out there in the hobby. Not all of them are correct. Let’s look at a few and try to clear up a few things!

As aquarists, I think we have reached the time when it’s possible to replicate the changes of natural habitats over time in the confines of our aquariums. Replicating seasons and the varying conditions they bring is a fascinating challenge for the biotope aquarium enthusiast in all of us!

We tend to overlook substrates as areas of interest in our aquariums. A real shame, because in Nature, substrates are an amazing habitat for all sorts of creatures.. so much to learn and interpret here!

The flooded forests of South America give us enormous inspiration to create the ultimate biotope aquarium. And it all starts with- you guessed it- a dry forest floor!

As we’ve been saying for years, there is a lot more to botanicals than just their pretty looks! Hers the most tentative and brief look at what these botanicals actual provide to the aquatic environment!

Isn’t it amazing to see all of the crazy things we obsess over in the hobby? It is! Yet, it’s easy to get into some unhealthy hobby obsessions, too.

Seems like most of what we do in the aquarium hobby requires us to get out of our own way and accept challenges. When we look at some of the things that we need to do to be successful in the hobby- and accept them- it gets real good! We make mental shifts that push us forward.