How to Balance Light and Nutrients to Stop Algae Before It Starts
# How to Balance Light and Nutrients to Stop Algae Before It Starts The worst part about algae outbreaks isn’t scrubbing green slime off your glass every week. It’s watching…
String Algae in a Planted Aquarium and Manual Removal vs Chemical Treatment
# String Algae in a Planted Aquarium: Manual Removal vs Chemical Treatment You’ve probably seen it growing on your plants like green dental floss, stretching between your hardscape, or forming…
Cichlid Tank Plants and the Species That Can Handle Being Dug Up Every Day
# Cichlid Tank Plants and the Species That Can Handle Being Dug Up Every Day If you’ve ever tried keeping plants with cichlids, you’ll know the frustration. You spend an…
How to Get Algae Off of Aquarium Plants When Scrubbing Doesn’t Work
# How to Get Algae Off of Aquarium Plants When Scrubbing Doesn’t Work I’ll admit it straight up: I lost a perfectly good Anubias nana to algae in my first…
Angelfish in a Planted Aquarium and Which Plants They Won’t Destroy
# Angelfish in a Planted Aquarium and Which Plants They Won’t Destroy Keeping angelfish with live plants isn’t just about creating a prettier tank. It’s about understanding why these tall,…
Terrestrial Plants as Aquarium Filters and Building a Plant Based Filtration System
# Terrestrial Plants as Aquarium Filters: Building a Plant-Based Filtration System I spent my first six months in this hobby throwing money at every bit of kit the aquatics shop…
How to Plant Potted Aquarium Plants and Getting Them Out of the Rockwool
# How to Plant Potted Aquarium Plants and Getting Them Out of the Rockwool I remember the first time I brought home a batch of potted aquarium plants from the…
Guppy Planted Aquarium and the Low Maintenance Setup That Runs Itself
# Guppy Planted Aquarium and the Low Maintenance Setup That Runs Itself Setting up a guppy tank shouldn’t require constant intervention, expensive equipment, or a degree in aquatic chemistry. After…
Paintball CO2 Systems and the Budget Pressurised Option Nobody Tells You About
# Paintball CO2 Systems and the Budget Pressurised Option Nobody Tells You About I spent my first eighteen months in this hobby getting lectures from aquatics shop staff about how…
How to Create a Planted Aquarium Using Only Low Tech Equipment
# How to Create a Planted Aquarium Using Only Low Tech Equipment The most expensive planted tank builds get all the attention online, but some of the most beautiful and…
Aquarium Plants Growing on Top of the Tank and the Emersed Setup Guide
# Aquarium Plants Growing on Top of the Tank and the Emersed Setup Guide There’s something deeply satisfying about watching an aquarium plant break the surface and start reaching for…
Cleaning Aquarium Plants With Bleach Dips and Getting the Concentration Right
# Cleaning Aquarium Plants With Bleach Dips and Getting the Concentration Right You can lose an entire tank of fish to a single contaminated plant. It’s happened to me, it’s…
Cycling a Planted Aquarium and What Changes When You Add Plants From Day One
# Cycling a Planted Aquarium and What Changes When You Add Plants From Day One Walking into an aquatics shop for the first time as a complete beginner, you’ll hear…
ADA Aquasky and the Japanese Light That Costs More Than Most People’s Tanks
# ADA Aquasky and the Japanese Light That Costs More Than Most People’s Tanks I spent three years running a £30 LED strip over my main planted tank before I…
Why Are My Aquarium Plants Dying and the Five Mistakes You’re Probably Making
# Why Are My Aquarium Plants Dying and the Five Mistakes You’re Probably Making I’ve seen this question asked more times than I can count on aquarium forums, and I’ve…
Aquarium Plant Fertiliser Dosing Schedules and Why Following the Bottle Gets It Wrong
# Aquarium Plant Fertiliser Dosing Schedules and Why Following the Bottle Gets It Wrong I spent my first year as a planted tank keeper religiously following bottle instructions. Half a…
Do You Actually Need CO2 in a Planted Aquarium and the Honest Answer
# Do You Actually Need CO2 in a Planted Aquarium and the Honest Answer I spent my first year in this hobby being told by everyone with an opinion that…
Flourish Excel and the Liquid Carbon Debate That Divides the Entire Hobby
# Flourish Excel and the Liquid Carbon Debate That Divides the Entire Hobby I’ve been keeping planted tanks for three years now, and there’s one bottle that sits on my…
Best CO2 System for Nano Tanks and What Works Under 10 Gallons
# The Nano Tank CO2 System That Actually Works (And the Ones That Don’t) I started keeping planted tanks three years ago with a 20-litre cube on the kitchen windowsill.…
Marimo Moss Balls and Whether They Count as Real Plants or Just Look Nice
# Marimo Moss Balls and Whether They Count as Real Plants or Just Look Nice I’ll be honest with you, I bought my first marimo moss ball because I thought…
CO2 Diffusers Compared and Inline vs Ceramic vs Bazooka
# The CO2 Diffuser Puzzle: What Actually Works in Real Tanks I spent my first six months in this hobby completely baffled by CO2 systems. The terminology alone was enough…
Hygrophila Pinnatifida and the Brownish Red Plant That Grows on Hardscape
# Hygrophila Pinnatifida: The Brownish Red Plant That Grows on Hardscape I’ll admit, the first time someone told me about a plant that could grow both in substrate and attached…
Anubias and Why Every Shop Recommends It and Why They Are Right
# Anubias and Why Every Shop Recommends It and Why They Are Right I walked into my first aquatics shop to buy a goldfish bowl and somehow ended up in…
ONF Flat One and the Minimal Design Light That Punches Above Its Weight
# The ONF Flat One: The Minimal Design Light That Punches Above Its Weight I walked into the shop looking for something basic. My second tank was coming along nicely,…
Glossostigma and the Carpet That Made Amano Famous but Makes Beginners Cry
# Glossostigma and the Carpet That Made Amano Famous but Makes Beginners Cry I still remember the first time I saw a proper Glossostigma carpet. It was in a photo…
Dwarf Water Lettuce and the Nano Tank Version Nobody Tells You About
# Dwarf Water Lettuce and the Nano Tank Version Nobody Tells You About I’d been running my first nano tank for about three months when I spotted this tiny floating…
Eleocharis Mini vs Regular Hairgrass and Which One You Actually Want
# Eleocharis Mini vs Regular Hairgrass and Which One You Actually Want I planted my first hairgrass about eight months after I started keeping tanks properly. Regular Eleocharis acicularis from…
Dwarf Hairgrass and the Classic Carpet That Still Looks Better Than Everything Else
# Dwarf Hairgrass and the Classic Carpet That Still Looks Better Than Everything Else I planted my first dwarf hairgrass about six months after I started keeping fish, back when…
Anacharis and the Fast Growing Stem Plant That Doubles as a Water Purifier
# Anacharis: The Fast Growing Stem Plant That Doubles as a Water Purifier I walked into that aquatics shop eighteen months ago planning to buy a goldfish bowl and some…
Hornwort and the Floating Stem Plant That Grows Whether You Want It to or Not
# Hornwort and the Floating Stem Plant That Grows Whether You Want It to or Not I bought my first bit of hornwort for three pounds fifty from a local…
Ludwigia Repens and the Red Plant That Doesn’t Need Expert Level Lighting
# Ludwigia Repens and the Red Plant That Doesn’t Need Expert Level Lighting I spent my first eighteen months in this hobby convinced that red plants were for other people.…
Monte Carlo and the Carpet Plant That Changed What Beginners Think Is Possible
# Monte Carlo and the Carpet Plant That Changed What Beginners Think Is Possible I’ve been keeping planted tanks for over two years now, and I still remember the first…
Saltwater Aquarium Plants and Whether They Actually Exist or You’re Thinking of Macroalgae
One of the first questions I had when I started getting serious about marine aquariums was “what can I grow”? After years of successfully keeping “okay” freshwater plants, I wanted…
Iwagumi Aquascape and the Minimalist Rock Layout That Looks Simple but Isn’t
If you’ve never seen a good Iwagumi aquascape up close, they can seem deceivingly simple. Some strategically placed rocks, a perfect green carpet, maybe a pair of tiny fish darting…
Dutch Aquascape and the Plant Focused Style That Predates Everything
Go into any aquatics store today and you’ll find aquariums arranged as Japanese rock gardens or stacked mountain cliffs of stone. What you won’t find is tanks planted in the…
Planted Aquarium Ideas for Every Budget From Beginner to Competition Level
Don’t worry. I know that feeling too. Eighteen months ago I walked into that aquatics shop clueless about what was about to happen. Spending £340 on a tank you decide…