I was picking up some plant fertilizer at my usual aquarium shop last week when I witnessed something that made my blood pressure spike – and trust me, after thirty-two…
My neighbor Jim knocked on my door last week looking absolutely baffled. “Elena,” he says, “I swear my car smells like someone left a bucket of minnows in there for…
The betta community has this bizarre obsession with keeping these fish in what basically amounts to underwater prison cells. You know what I’m talking about – those depressing setups with…
So there I was last Tuesday night, kids finally in bed, doing my weekly tank maintenance when I spotted this weird fuzzy stuff growing on my driftwood. After four years…
My neighbor Janet knocked on my door around 11 PM last Tuesday, looking completely frazzled. “I can hear your fish tanks through the wall,” she said, which honestly confused me…
I was at my local aquarium store last week picking up some plant fertilizer when I overheard this conversation that made me cringe a little. A customer was pointing at…
The first time I walked into an aquarium store with my then three-year-old daughter, I was completely unprepared for how overwhelming it would be. The smell hit us first –…
You know what they say about learning the hard way? Well, I’m apparently a slow learner because I’ve made just about every possible mistake with aquarium glue over my five…
Okay, so you know how some fish just make you feel like you’re not good enough at this whole aquarium thing? That’s exactly what happened the first time I saw…
Last Saturday I was helping my buddy Dave set up a sump in his basement, and honestly, it looked like a Home Depot plumbing aisle had exploded all over his…
My buddy Steve texted me at like 11 PM last Thursday – “Marcus, my car smells like death. Help.” Turns out he’d been helping out this local fish store, transporting…
I was at the Petco near campus last week grabbing some fish food when I witnessed something that made my eye twitch. This employee was confidently telling some poor customer…
You know what really bugs me? When someone dismisses mollies as “just beginner fish.” I used to do it myself, honestly. Had this whole mental hierarchy where mollies were training…
Walking into PeaceHealth Fisher’s Landing Primary Care Clinic last Tuesday, I couldn’t shake this weird feeling – like maybe, just maybe, this healthcare visit wouldn’t completely suck. I’d been putting…
I was at my local fish store last month when I witnessed what might be the most painful conversation in aquarium retail history. This mom and her daughter, maybe seven…
I was checking my tank thermometer this morning – you know, that obsessive ritual all fishkeepers develop – watching it bounce between 76.2 and 76.8 degrees, when my daughter asked…
Looking back at my aquascaping notes from 2016, I can see where I wrote “Bolbitis = DISASTER” in red pen with about five underlines. Yeah, that was after my first…
So I thought I was pretty hot stuff at planted tanks, you know? Had a couple successful nano setups running, plants were thriving, fish were happy – I was basically…
Three weeks ago my neighbor Sarah basically ambushed me at my front door with what she described as “either brilliant or completely insane.” She’d been staring at her depressingly bland…
Standing in the aquarium section at Petco last weekend – you know, the one where half the fish look stressed and the water’s always slightly cloudy – I watched this…
Man, I never thought I’d be the guy with forty cherry shrimp living in a tank on my kitchen counter, but here we are. Started with aquascaping, got obsessed with…
So there I was last Tuesday night, both kids finally asleep, doing my weekly tank maintenance ritual with a podcast playing in the background, when it hit me like a…
My roommate texted me yesterday asking if he could borrow my car to go fishing with some friends from his engineering classes. “Sure,” I said, “but you’re gonna hate trying…
Man, I used to be absolutely terrible at cube tanks. Like, spectacularly bad. My first attempt was this poor little 10-gallon that I basically turned into an underwater hoarder’s paradise…
You know what nobody tells you when you’re starting out with aquascaping? That choosing fish is way more complicated than just picking the prettiest ones at the pet store. I…
Welcome to the future of aquariums, folks! It’s a world where technology meets tranquility, and where your fish tank does more than just house your aquatic pets. I’m talking about smart filters, lights, and monitors that are revolutionizing the way we run our aquariums.
Imagine having a filter that not only purifies the water but also alerts you when it’s time for a clean-up. Or how about lights t
You know, when I first got into aquascaping a few years back during my whole life-falling-apart phase, I thought bigger was automatically better. I mean, that makes sense, right? More…
So I’ve been scrolling through aquascaping Instagram again (productive use of my evening, obviously) and kept seeing these incredible setups with these twisty, branch-like structures that looked like underwater trees.…
You know that feeling when you’re standing in a pet store, surrounded by empty glass boxes, and somehow they all look identical? I used to think picking an aquarium was…
You know that feeling when you’re standing in a fish store, completely overwhelmed by rows of empty tanks, and the employee keeps asking what you’re looking for? Yeah, that was…
I was scrolling through Reddit at 2 AM (as you do when you should be sleeping) when this photo stopped me dead in my tracks. Someone had crammed what looked…
You know that feeling when you look at someone else’s aquascape and think, “How the heck did they make a 20-gallon tank look like it goes on forever?” I spent…
You know, after all these years of setting up aquariums – I’ve lost count, honestly, maybe forty or fifty tanks at this point – there’s something about a 5-gallon planted…
You know how sometimes you think you understand something, and then one small detail completely flips your perspective? That’s what happened to me with invertebrates in my tanks. I’d been…
So you’ve got your aquarium set up and it’s time to pick your fish. But wait, it’s not as simple as just choosing the prettiest ones. You need to think about fish compatibility. Just like us, fish have their own personalities and preferences. Some fish get along swimmingly, while others…well, let’s just say they’re not the best of buddies.
Creating a harmonious community within your aquarium isn
I was elbow-deep in my 40-gallon tank last Tuesday night, trying to wedge a piece of dragon stone into place without knocking over the entire hardscape I’d spent three hours…
So I’m sitting in my apartment last winter, staring at my 40-gallon tank thinking it looked boring as hell, when I got this crazy idea to try building what basically…
You know how sometimes you walk into a pet store looking for one specific thing and walk out having spent way too much money on stuff you didn’t even know…
I used to think aquascaping was just… putting plants in a tank and making sure they didn’t die. Sounds ridiculous now, but honestly, that’s where my head was at when…
I never thought I’d be the guy mixing cement in my apartment kitchen at 11 PM on a Tuesday, but here we are. Started about eight months ago when I…
Okay, so I need to confess something embarrassing that’s been eating at me for months. I was scrolling through one of my aquascaping Facebook groups – you know, the fancy…
I’m sitting here at 2:47 AM with my third cup of coffee gone cold, and my daughter’s been asleep for hours while I obsess over YouTube videos of Japanese aquascaping…
Last August I found myself lying face-down in swamp muck somewhere in the Florida Everglades, trying to get my camera close enough to the water to capture how the light…
So here’s the thing about most aquariums – they’re designed to look good from one angle, usually straight on from the front. Makes sense, right? That’s where people typically view…
Look, I’ll be honest—when I first saw the Fluval Spec 5 Gallon sitting on the shelf at my local aquarium store, I almost walked right past it. Coming from someone…
Man, I thought I knew what I was doing when I decided to set up my first 50cm tank last semester. I mean, I’d been keeping planted tanks for a…
So I’m sitting in my apartment last month, staring at my 40-gallon tank – you know, the one I’ve been working on for like two years now – and I…
You know, when I told my spouse I wanted to set up another tank – this time a 5-gallon for the kitchen – they just rolled their eyes and said…
You know what nobody tells you about aquascaping? It’s basically like having another kid, except this one lives in a glass box and can die if you mess up the…
You know what? I used to think bigger was always better when it came to aquariums. My first classroom tank was that massive 55-gallon beast, and I figured more space…