Category: Aquascaping

Last Tuesday, around midnight, a message pinged on my phone. It was from a client I’d helped set up a massive 200-gallon planted discus tank the year before—a dentist with more money than free time who’d wanted an impressive aquascape but lacked the hours to maintain it properly. (I’d been back to his house four…

Let me tell you about my most embarrassing moment as a professional aquascaper. I was giving a workshop at a local aquarium club, demonstrating some basic techniques for creating naturalistic aquascapes. During the Q&A, someone asked what I thought was a reasonable budget for a beginner looking to create their first planted tank. Without thinking…

The first time I tried to incorporate mangrove roots into an aquascape, I flooded my apartment. Not a little “oops, grab a towel” spill, but a legitimate, call-the-downstairs-neighbor-to-apologize kind of flood. It happened because I’d failed to properly secure a massive piece of root system that decided—approximately three hours after I’d left for dinner—to shift…

I killed my first betta fish. There, I said it. Despite all my current knowledge about aquascaping and fish keeping, my first attempt at creating a betta habitat was a complete disaster. I didn’t understand their needs, their behavior, or how to create an environment where they could thrive rather than merely survive. His name…

It is mesmerizing how each aquascape is unique and intricately crafted. An aquascape tells the story of an entire ecosystem while simultaneously being a world unto itself, composed of nothing but water, plants and rocks. For years, I attempted to create tanks that contained all the elements, but they were somehow lacking the depth of…

I hadn’t slept in nineteen hours, and the only thing fueling me was a long-neglected cup of coffee and manic energy from binge-watching Japanese aquascaping videos at 3am. My then-girlfriend (now, just a friend who constantly reminds me of my worst choices) had gone away for the weekend, giving me precisely 53 hours to construct…

An aquascape’s background is like a painting’s canvas: it is often overlooked and underestimated, but it is absolutely pivotal to the overall effect. I learned this the hard way after spending three weeks perfecting a Dutch-style planted tank for an important client, only to step back on installation day and notice the stark white wall…

My first encounter with a rimless tank was at an international aquascaping competition in Singapore. After a twenty-hour flight, jet legged me, and dealing with the scrutiny of customs (bragging about a TSA’s playground plant scissors is a risky proposition), the icing on the cake was the astonishing stone-cut tank with pristine water perfectly encompassing…

The first time I encountered an underwater world was when I was seven years old. My interest was not piqued by the huge and mysterious ocean; that would happen later. Instead, my attention was captured by a perfect miniature mangrove ecosystem that was hidden in a corner of the Florida Aquarium. It fascinated me how…

Only a week ago, I experienced the joy of seeing my prized Anubias bloom for the very first time in three years. The small, white blossom that was modestly jutting out from beneath the water surface felt like a win in and of itself, not because I had taken any steps to promote its growth,…

Knowing how to multiply a single plant into multiple plants makes designing an underwater forest easier. After aquascaping for years, going through multiple failures, I have recently come to view propagation, albeit reluctantly, as a form of moving meditation. Being able to watch small tree cuttings grow into little forests able to enhance the charm…