thE TINT

the art and science of botanical method aquarium keeping.

  • 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.…

  • EDITING.

    Yes, I’m sort of riffing off of the topic of “Continuity” that I touched on the other day. Why? Well, continuity and change, and the way you embrace both define your hobby experience. And it’s important to understand what your motivations and inspirations are in this hobby, and kind of important to have some insight…

  • CONTINUITY.

    Like many of you, I occasionally get…well- bored- with some of my aquariums. You know the feeling: You’re just kind of tired of the same thing, and you have a limited number of aquariums to work with, so you make that tough decision to break it down and start over with something new. It’s part…

  • LEAF LITTER: THE BASIS FOR EVERYTHING?

    Of all of the botanical materials that we employ in our aquariums, none are more common, well-studied, or simply ubiquitous in aquatic habitats than leaves. In Nature, leaf litter zones comprise one of the richest and most diverse biotopes in the tropical aquatic ecosystem, yet they are seldom replicated in the aquarium. Now, more so…