Pothos in an Aquarium and the Filter Hack That Actually Cleans Your Water
# Pothos in an Aquarium and the Filter Hack That Actually Cleans Your Water If you’ve been fighting nitrates in your fish tank and getting nowhere with water changes, there’s…
Black Spots on Aquarium Plants and How to Identify Black Beard Algae
# Black Spots on Aquarium Plants and How to Identify Black Beard Algae You’re looking at your carefully curated planted tank and there it is—dark, fuzzy growths clinging to your…
How to Plant Amazon Sword in an Aquarium Without Burying the Crown
# How to Plant Amazon Sword in an Aquarium Without Burying the Crown I learned this one the hard way. Three dead Amazon swords later, each one slowly melting from…
Aquarium Plants for Shrimp Tanks and What Creates the Best Biofilm Surfaces
# Aquarium Plants for Shrimp Tanks and What Creates the Best Biofilm Surfaces Setting up a shrimp tank isn’t like throwing together a standard community tank. Your local fish shop…
String Algae in a Planted Aquarium and Manual Removal vs Chemical Treatment
# String Algae in a Planted Aquarium: Manual Removal vs Chemical Treatment String algae can turn a beautiful planted tank into something that looks like it’s been abandoned for months.…
Plant Aquarium Setup Equipment List and What You Actually Need vs What Gets Pushed on You
# Plant Aquarium Setup Equipment List and What You Actually Need vs What Gets Pushed on You The planted aquarium hobby has a marketing problem. Walk into any aquatics shop…
Aquarium Plant Growth Rates and What Affects How Fast Your Plants Fill In
# Aquarium Plant Growth Rates and What Affects How Fast Your Plants Fill In When I first started with planted tanks in my tiny San Jose flat, I made the…
How to Plant Aquarium Seeds and Why Most of Them Are a Complete Scam
# How to Plant Aquarium Seeds and Why Most of Them Are a Complete Scam I’ve been running small tanks in a space-challenged flat for years now, always looking for…
How to Hardscape a Tank and the Basic Principles That Make or Break Your Layout
# How to Hardscape a Tank and the Basic Principles That Make or Break Your Layout You can mess up the hardscaping stage and spend months trying to fix it…
How to Trim Aquarium Plants Without Ruining Your Layout
# How to Trim Aquarium Plants Without Ruining Your Layout Trimming aquarium plants is one of those things that sounds straightforward until you’re standing there with scissors, staring at a…
Aquarium Plant Problems Chart and How to Diagnose What’s Going Wrong
# Aquarium Plant Problems Chart and How to Diagnose What’s Going Wrong When your aquarium plants start looking rough—yellowing, holes in leaves, black edges, or just that generally unhappy look—it’s…
Driftwood Hardscape Tank and Choosing Between Spider Wood Manzanita and Mopani
# Driftwood Hardscape Tank and Choosing Between Spider Wood, Manzanita and Mopani When I started keeping aquariums in my cramped San Jose flat, I thought hardscaping was about buying expensive…
20 Gallon Long Planted Aquarium and the Aquascaping Shape Everybody Wants
# 20 Gallon Long Planted Aquarium and the Aquascaping Shape Everybody Wants I’ve built planted tanks in everything from two-litre sweet jars to a neighbour’s 200-gallon monster. But if I…
How to Plant Aquarium Plants in a Fish Tank Without Them Floating Away
# How to Plant Aquarium Plants in a Fish Tank Without Them Floating Away There’s nothing quite as frustrating as spending an afternoon carefully planting your tank only to wake…
CO2 System for Large Aquariums and Running Multiple Tanks Off One Cylinder
I nearly destroyed four tanks learning this the hard way. Thought I could save money running CO2 to multiple setups from one big cylinder instead of buying separate systems for…
Do Aquarium Plants Need Soil or Can You Grow Them in Plain Gravel
# Do Aquarium Plants Need Soil or Can You Grow Them in Plain Gravel? When I started keeping aquarium plants in my San Jose flat, I had exactly three constraints:…
FZONE Pro Series and the Pressurised System That Most Beginners Start With
I bought my first CO2 regulator because I was tired of dosing liquid carbon every other day and watching my red plants turn green anyway. I had maybe £80 to…
Anacharis and the Cheap Stem Plant That Pet Shops Always Have in Stock
# Anacharis and the Cheap Stem Plant That Pet Shops Always Have in Stock I bought my first bundle of anacharis for £2.50 from a grotty pet shop in a…
Pool Filter Sand and Why Some Fishkeepers Swear by the Cheap Option
# Pool Filter Sand and Why Some Fishkeepers Swear by the Cheap Option I’d been spending ridiculous money on aquarium sand. Twenty quid for a 5kg bag that barely covered…
UNS Controsoil and the Newcomer That’s Taking on ADA
# The Budget Aquasoil That Actually Works: Why UNS Controsoil Beat My Expectations I’ll admit it straight up: I bought UNS Controsoil because it was the cheapest aquasoil option that…
Japanese Planted Aquarium Styles and What Makes Them Different
I stumbled into Japanese aquascaping styles because I was broke and bored. I’d been running a basic planted tank for months, mostly java fern and whatever else wouldn’t die under…
How to Grow Aquarium Plants and the Four Things That Actually Matter
# How to Grow Aquarium Plants and the Four Things That Actually Matter Look, I’ve watched enough people spend hundreds on fancy aquascaping setups only to watch their plants slowly…
Pothos and the House Plant You Can Stick in Your Filter and Watch It Explode
# Pothos and the House Plant You Can Stick in Your Filter and Watch It Explode I stumbled onto pothos purely by accident. My flatmate had this straggly houseplant on…
Water Sprite and the Floater That Works Just as Well Planted in Substrate
# Water Sprite: The Floater That Works Just as Well Planted in Substrate I picked up my first water sprite cutting from a bloke on Craigslist who was practically begging…
Seachem Flourite and the Gravel Based Substrate That Lasts Forever
# Seachem Flourite and the Gravel Based Substrate That Lasts Forever I’ve been using the same bag of Seachem Flourite for three years now. Not three bags over three years…
Chihiros WRGB II and the Light That Serious Aquascapers Actually Use
# Chihiros WRGB II and the Light That Serious Aquascapers Actually Use I wasn’t looking to spend three hundred quid on a light. I was perfectly happy with my clip-on…
Dwarf Sagittaria and the Grasslike Carpet That Spreads by Runners
# Dwarf Sagittaria and the Grasslike Carpet That Spreads by Runners I started with six small plugs of dwarf sagittaria in a 40-litre cube, thinking I’d have a nice patch…
Java Fern and the Epiphyte That Dies If You Plant It in Substrate
I’ve bought this plant six times over the years. Killed it four of those times by doing exactly what you’d expect anyone would do with an aquatic plant: planting it…
Cuba Pearl and the Tiniest Carpet Plant That Demands Perfect Conditions
# Cuba Pearl and the Tiniest Carpet Plant That Demands Perfect Conditions I spent £40 on what looked like a handful of grass clippings and promptly watched them dissolve over…
Rotala Rotundifolia and the Stem Plant That Goes From Green to Red Based on What You Feed It
# Rotala Rotundifolia: The Stem Plant That Goes From Green to Red Based on What You Feed It I’ve killed plenty of plants trying to get them red. Spent months…
Banana Plant and the Weird Looking Lily That Beginners Fall in Love With
# Banana Plant and the Weird Looking Lily That Beginners Autumn in Love With I bought my first banana plant because it looked like nothing else in the shop and…
Water Lettuce and the Floater That Looks Brilliant Until It Takes Over
# Water Lettuce and the Floater That Looks Brilliant Until It Takes Over I’ve been keeping water lettuce in various tanks for about three years now, and I still haven’t…
Bucephalandra and the Slow Grower That Became the Most Collected Plant in the Hobby
# Bucephalandra and the Slow Grower That Became the Most Collected Plant in the Hobby I’ve got a confession: I started collecting Bucephalandra because I thought it would be cheap.…
Why My Fish Hated My “Perfect” Aquascape (And What I Learned About Actually Designing for Them)
So I thought I was super cool and clever with my first real shot at aquascaping. I’d seen (probably) 50 YouTube videos; I’d spent a fortune at the pet store;…
Simple Planted Aquarium Ideas for People Who Don’t Want a Full Aquascape
Simple Planted Aquarium Ideas for Those That Don’t Want a Full Aquascape I know what you’re thinking. “aquascaping” dominated by impossibly balanced stacks of driftwood, carpet plants trimmed to perfection…
Chaetomorpha in a Saltwater Aquarium and the Macroalgae That Doubles as Filtration
Living in San Jose means your flats aren’t always big. After setting up my reef in just four square feet of living space, I learned to appreciate every piece of…
Mangrove Plants in an Aquarium and Setting Up a Brackish or Marine Refugium
Keep mangroves! That’s right you vegetarians who inhale Marineland® vegetable slickcover™. I know mangroves seem intimidating, reserved for people with saltwater fishrooms and money to burn. I thought so too…
Planted Aquarium Aquascaping and the Difference Between a Fish Tank and an Aquascape
If you walk into your typical fish shop you’re likely to find two completely different types of fish keeping happening. Rows of pragmatic tanks full of fish that are healthy…
How to Keep Live Plants in an Aquarium Looking Good Long Term
You spend ages getting your planted tank looking exactly how you want it too. Your carpet plants are spreading into the open areas, your stem plants are growing vibrant red…
Hardscape Planted Tank and Balancing Stone and Wood With Greenery
Few things make or break a planted aquarium like your hardscape design. Nothing screams “this isn’t a natural habitat” quite like poor planning and haphazard placement of rocks and driftwood.…
Reef Tank Hardscape and Building a Foundation for Coral and Macroalgae
Building your reef tank hardscape correctly is what decides if your corals will flourish or suffer for the coming years. Do it wrong and you’ll be battling algae outbreaks for…