Tannin Aquatics
CCA Members
The other day, I was amusingly distracted watching my office aquarium, observing a little piece of leaf floating about in the current. I don't really know why, but it somehow made me ponder how different I have approached virtually everything in my botanical aquarium than I do in any other one I keep.
One of the things you get used to in a botanical-themed aquarium is, of course, decomposing leaves, softening botanicals, and the occasional strand of biofilm. And with these things, occasionally, a piece will break off and float around in the current...I remember in years past, in my reef tanks, or "clearwater" FW tanks, I'd be incredibly aggravated by little bits of "stuff" floating in the water column, and would pretty much drop whatever I was doing and reach for the net to remove the offensive material, whatever it was.
However, when I started playing with the blackwater, botanical-themed tanks, I realized that seeing the occasional bit of debris (typically leaves or "shells" of botanicals) didn't aggravate me in the least. In fact, I found that I kind of like it. I've watched enough of Ivan Mikolji's videos and seen enough of Mike Tuccinardi's pics of natural blackwater habitats to accept that the dynamic in nature is that, well- occasionally, there is "stuff" floating in the water. (click to read more)
One of the things you get used to in a botanical-themed aquarium is, of course, decomposing leaves, softening botanicals, and the occasional strand of biofilm. And with these things, occasionally, a piece will break off and float around in the current...I remember in years past, in my reef tanks, or "clearwater" FW tanks, I'd be incredibly aggravated by little bits of "stuff" floating in the water column, and would pretty much drop whatever I was doing and reach for the net to remove the offensive material, whatever it was.
However, when I started playing with the blackwater, botanical-themed tanks, I realized that seeing the occasional bit of debris (typically leaves or "shells" of botanicals) didn't aggravate me in the least. In fact, I found that I kind of like it. I've watched enough of Ivan Mikolji's videos and seen enough of Mike Tuccinardi's pics of natural blackwater habitats to accept that the dynamic in nature is that, well- occasionally, there is "stuff" floating in the water. (click to read more)
