thE TINT

the art and science of botanical method aquarium keeping.

  • THE “FUNGAL FILTER”-FREE FOR THE TAKING…

    You saw the title. What exactly am I talking about here?  Today, I want to talk a bit about our gooey friends, the fungi- for just a few minutes. Despite their off-putting appearance to some, they may be among the most beautiful, elegant, and useful organisms we encounter in the aquatic world. Why do I…

  • TRANSIENCE, EMBRACING THE EPHEMERAL…AND AN APPRECIATION FOR “WABI-SABI.”

    I recently had one of those hardcore fish discussions with an old friend who is as much a philosopher as he is an aquarist..Real “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, “Aquascaping Jedi”-type. He had this amazing viewpoint on all things aquarium. It was a fun talk. We all know a hobbyist or two like him, huh? Inspiring, interesting…intelligent. And…

  • STREAMING ALONG…

    Okay, in order to really appreciate some aquatic environments that we like to replicate in our aquariums, we have to take a “deep dive” into them. And the insights we gain by straying outside of “conventional aquarium hobby literature” are manifold. Let’s explore a habitat where many aquarium fishes come from in Nature. A habitat…

  • OAK SPRINGS ETERNAL.

    I’m easing back into sharing my love of botanical method aquariums after a years-long detour, an abandoning of the retail sale of botanicals, and a diversion back into reef aquariums. It was fun to take a bit of a break, but the call of tinted water, decay, and fungal growths is just too hard to…