thE TINT

the art and science of botanical method aquarium keeping.

  • THE BREAKDOWN ON DECOMPOSITION…

    If there is one aspect of our botanical method aquariums which fascinates me, it’s the way they facilitate the natural processes of life- specifically, decomposition. I use this term a lot around here…What, precisely does it mean? de·com·po·si·tion- dēˌkämpəˈziSH(ə)n –the process by which organic substances are broken down into simpler organic matter. A very apt descriptor, if…

  • NATURE’S GOT THIS THING DOWN…

    The term “Nature” is really used a lot in the aquarium hobby. It’s important that we recognize Nature as the ultimate inspiration for our tanks.  Nature, however, can be a rough place. The natural aquatic world doesn’t take lightly to those who seek to edit it, parse it, or circumvent it.  It’s true. We know…

  • CONSIDER GOING DEEPER INTO THE NICHES…

    One of the most nitrating things about our era of aquarium keeping is that we have access to an enormous amount of information about the wild habitats of our fishes. If you make the effort, you can find scientific research papers on just about any fish, locale, and habitat you can think of. With all…

  • RESTLESSNESS. AND PATIENCE. KEY INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESS!

    One of the things that’s so fun about the hobby is the ability to “tweak” and even “evolve” tanks intentionally as the years go by. Of course, it’s not a “given” that you have to. Yet, I think that if you poll a random sample of hobbyists, almost every single one would want another aquarium!…

  • The HARDEST PART? OR THE EASIEST PART? OR, BOTH?

    The idea of creating an aquarium filled with leaves, seed pods, and other botanicals is as much a leap of faith as it is a practice. We’re talking about adding all of this stuff to your tank and then letting Nature “do her thing” to a certain extent. As I’ve (painstakingly) analyzed over the years,…

  • NUANCES.

    There is a certain allure- a fascination…even obsession about considering our aquariums as little closed ecosystems, reacting to both internal and external inputs, stimuli, and environmental pressures. When you think of aquariums in this manner, they become a whole lot less of a “pet holding container” and a lot more of a little slice of Nature…

  • A MOST INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP, AND THE PRACTICE OF “OPERATIONAL ECOLOGY…”

    When you consider the types of aquariums that we work with, I would imagine that it is probably funny to outsiders, or those new to our obsession, to hear us going on and on about utilizing dried leaves, twigs, and seed pods in our aquariums with words such as “methodology” and “technique” and the like. I also can’t help but…

  • WHERE WATER AND LAND MEET…

    If you think a bout it, the typical aquarium “startup” process is to add some sand, add some wood, maybe plants, and…BOOM! Aquarium. Okay, there is more to it than that. However, it’s interesting to me that little consideration is played to the idea of starting an aquarium in a more functional way…Like, yeah, the…

  • BACK TO THE JUNGLE!

    Ever since I was a kid, with my first aquarium in my bedroom, I had this vision of the underwater environment as a complex tangle of aquatic plants, branches, twigs, etc. This idea was probably put in my head from some reading I did on jungle streams and such, and the “vision” never really left…

  • ABOVE AND BELOW THE WATERLINE, AND COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!

     I am not at all joking when I tell you that I’d take an aquarium that can faithfully replicate the scenes above or below the waterline in form and function- decomposing leaf litter, algae, sediment and all- over any IAPLC “Grand champion’s” meticulously-planned, beautifully executed aquarium. Like, any day of the week. With zero hesitation at all.…