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Let's start here.... ...and all I want to do is share the headline and just mention it if you've ever had a tank struggle like I have. *deep breath, exhale slow* I woke up this morning and it wasn't anything special that caught my eye. Those that know me know that I follow certain aquascaping channels and my goal is to get towards having a nice tank again. Seeing something like gjcarew's or Mmiller2001's or Seattle_Aquarist or the countless other amazing plant minds on the forums has been inspiring and it's been one of the motivations for me as I did enter back into the hobby, struggled, and wanted to really learn some things I didn't know or understand about my own failures. Without knowing it, this is one of the more profound and subtle notions and it was ringing clear because of the time and the place of everything around me in the moment. Imagine a world of chaos and outside of the walls you see volcano erupting or storms surrounding. You see the trees being tossed by the wind or the ocean waves crashing against the rocks and spraying high into the sky, but you're safe inside the walls and you are focused on this little pod of nature that you and entwined with. I can mention George Farmer and his meditative approach towards tank maintenance or I can mention this clip above and the subtle notion that.... "2023 was full of new and exciting adventures and as the challenges presented themselves, we faced them all together with a unique persistence of an aquascaper." [There is definitely more to the quote above and so I encourage everyone to watch at least the introduction on the Green Aqua video above.] It is one of those phrases that has a lot of gravity to it and it's something that you really don't understand unless you've truly experienced it. I think a lot of people have seen the movie Rudy and been inspired to persevere. Maybe you've seen Miracle and been inspired to face some overwhelming obstacles and scars from the past. There is a lot of ways that we can find energy, momentum, and inspiration in this world thanks to things like youtube videos, movies, forum posts, and conversations with friends. ....and with all that being said I wanted to share a bit about my own vulnerable persistence. I was watching an old video and then I looked up at the wall and I saw this extreme shift in my tank. It wasn't subtle, but it was a moment where I cherished everything that happened for me to get to the moment that I was in. It honestly started here, with this tank and the first time I've ever purchased a single piece of hardscape with the intent of aquascaping something. Even then, USPS lost the package of the piece of wood that I had hand selected. This piece was sent as a replacement and it didn't fit the tank I had. I had to cut the piece of wood and then I had to wait for the opportunity to really scape something with it. I had a piece of wood and I had some plants, but it wasn't an aquascape. It wasn't meant to be, but it was a holding place for a future self. This led me down this path, which was my first attempt at an aquascape. It was my first real attempt at a carpeting plant and my first real attempt at something using a "planted tank substrate" in lieu of sand. All it needed to do was to grow and to work. I failed with how I planted the plants. I failed in how I cared for the plants. I failed in my analysis of necessary water chemistry, lighting settings, and that substrate I used has turned out to be another failure point. That tank quickly regressed back towards chaos. I tried continuously to make things works by adding "more plants." Some things works and some things failed. It was not about giving up, but it was consistently a journey about learning why. Why something worked, why something failed. There is always things out of your control and there is always going to be something where you might just have to start over. Try again to create something beautiful. But again, chaos ensues at times... and all of your moss dies off. ....and sometimes you get a lifeboat from a friend (or two, or three). Brown tinge is from blackwater extract being added! Stepping out of your comfort zone can be enlightening and focusing on the things going wrong isn't as impactful as dwelling on the reasons why things went wrong. There is an eternal hope if you have the perspective and the patience for it... new things will happen and that changes the parameters of everything. The point is that every single tank can be a journey if you frame it as such. Enjoy the journey as much as the perspective that can give you. Sometimes you start in one place, find yourself in another, and just need to follow your feet towards the direction you wish to go. Starting point when the goal was to have a planted tank, discovering aquarium co-op and wanting to grow plants for the first time. This was my 55G and it was just planted with a second or third plant order. There were some failures and I changed to a 75G with an active substrate with a cap.... in a tank mostly filled with anubias. And this is where we are now. Time will tell how myself and the tank grows. Thank you to everyone who has helped me along this journey and know that there is sincere gratitude for your help along my own journey, big or small, it's all valuable for me and being put towards this goal I have for myself. I'd love to hear about your own tank journeys below.

Hey all, A genuine question. What is the last movie you watched that changed your life? I don't want to add too much subtext here or answer what that meaning to the question is for anyone. I will have to ponder it for myself and think on it as well. Please feel free to share. If you wish to share why as well, that is entirely welcome. Many thanks.

...and it's led me into a few questions floating around. I think we all can relate to having a day, doing research on something, or just watching all the fish community videos on the hobby. Bouncing from one topic to the next or letting the youtube robots point you towards something interesting from the creator you're currently enjoying. It's all good stuff! (I'll just leave this here for your future enjoyment) This is the video I'm on currently. I loved the beginning where he shoved a hose into the tank, swirled the substrate all around to release all the gunk, and then cleaned it as best he could. I bet it was a lot of fun. Anyways, it's been a day of watching people stand in front of a tank and pluck plants in. It's been a day of watching rocks and wood get set into a tank, paintbrushes at the ready to smooth substrate around the surface or into a crevice. It's been an enjoyable day, a calming day, but it's also been a day that has led me to a few questions and a few thoughts I wanted to share. Some of these are definitely my own, while others were statements made by those aquascapers. One of the more interesting things is the perspective of purpose.... Why do you want to have an aquascape? Is it a centerpiece tank? Is it a community tank that is aesthetically enjoyable for you? Is it a tank intended for plants that happens to have some fish or livestock? Are you trying to have a certain style of tank or simply putting together something that "looks good"? In the video above, about halfway through Filipe mentions that he doesn't like to have a plan. He puts the hardscape in and just goes with his intuition and what feels to make sense in the moment as he is doing the work. I think that is the same way I tend to work on my tank as well. There are so many rules and calculations for something that may have been intended for a much different mindset. I woke up listening to a technical talk about the 3:2 rule and talking about golden ratios. The next conversation was about how you must plant a certain way or the tank will have no depth and isn't visually pleasing. When I spent the day watching all of these technical works I saw the same thing over and over. There is so much effort put into form, which I understand, but there is also a certain.... tightness that comes from that mindset. It reminded me of the philosophy of absolutes and speaking in certainty vs. uncertainty. Granted, there are certain techniques that we can trace back to conversations with Takashi Amano. There are styles that define "rules" that are a guideline for a scape. Does an iwagumi really need to be a single plant species for the sake of simplicity and beauty? Does it really need to be 5 stones of specific sizes or is the intent really just to feature rock based hardscape? There is a term for a rocky hardscape and there is a term for a wood based aquascape. There is a term for certain formations and designs. Personally, when the focus is on defining something and trying to fit everything into a box, figuratively, you sort of miss out on the enjoyment of the thing staring right back at you. There is a popular discord and it has a "critique my aquascape" channel where you can post a photo and get some feedback. One of the notions during a particular video of the day was people trolling others via feedback. But, one of the main requestst to the viewer from the aquascaper was for critical feedback about the tank as a whole. It was mentioned that without the critical feedback that the artist couldn't learn or grow in their craft. I'm a writer at heart. When I write, of course it would be nice to hear that it's good and enjoyable, but I don't write something with the sole intent to go and ask for someone to rip it to pieces. My hope is that the reader can appreciate the meaning behind the words, that they make sense, and that it tells the story. When it comes to tanks, maybe the purpose is for that gratitude an admiration of someone's work. One of the important questions to ask yourself, I think, is why are you trying to create an aquascape? What is the purpose of this specific tank as you create it? The answer to that question says a lot and I think sometimes you can tell by the end product. During a few of the videos there was this constant pressure of time. The process was done to a schedule, at a specific pace, and the same steps were followed every time. I can understand why that make sense in some ways. I can appreciate the correct procedure for building something. I can also appreciate the sentiment that sometimes it's going to take days or much longer to finish a project. Sometimes there is a beauty in using what is available to complete a task as opposed to waiting for everything to be perfect. It might take a week or a month for the tank to be at the right starting point with certain methods. The comment at the end of a lot of scapes was, "it will fill in and then..." It was sort of this automatic notion that the tank isn't ready to be viewed. At the end of so many aquascaping videos on youtube the last few minutes is often a video of the tank, weeks after completion, showing the tank acting and looking like a normal aquarium. The plants are pearling, co2 is bubbling, the light is on, the fish are swimming around, and it's this quick hit of dramatics. I've watched someone scape a tank and the video was 10-20 minutes long. I've also seen someone scape a tank and it's a 7 part series of 35 minute videos. I've seen builds of IAPLC tanks that took months to construct. I just go back to that comment above about criticism from the creator and it floats around my head and makes me wonder. It makes me think about this notion of asking what people think and in that same moment expecting refrain because it's not there yet. Because it's a glass boss of limitless potential and that ultimately the trim on the plants, the conditions for the plants will determine so many things about it's value? One of the creators mentioned pushing towards this perfect moment where you have a fan blowing on the surface of the water and you're waving your hands to get the fish to react a certain way for a perfect photograph to post to the social media platforms. One of the last things I'll mention was one of the most striking comments made by the aquascaper. It wasn't meant in a negative tone at all, but it was an honest and direct response to a question posed. When asked about balancing the need for the aquascape vs. the aquarium needs the creator responded, "this isn't an aquarium, this is an aquascape. It's not meant to be that sort of a thing." The explanation went a bit further and elaborated that you can build a tank many ways, but in this aspect there are two considerations. Do you want to choose plants that make sense for the fish (like a discus tank) or do you want to choose a fish that makes sense for the environment you're building? One of the common things shown is having one or a few small schools of nano fish to go with your aquascape. Essentially that you don't want to have too much traffic to obscure the view of the artistry. I'm not sure how to think about that, but it's something that stuck with me. I see a few dozen plants opened to put together a tank. I see bags of soil being dumped in. I see that ever constant, "sponsored by" disclaimer during the scape and the list of equipment. "This isn't a cheap hobby, but it is a rewarding one." I think we can all agree that cost is relative sometimes. I just sort of was taken aback by some of the differences in how tanks are enjoyed in different locations. There's something to be said for a rack of plain, bare bottom tanks that brings you a lot of joy. There is also something to be said for that perfect cut of nature that makes you feel calm and at ease. The therapeutic benefit of the hobby can be this powerful thing. There is that mindset of a tank being finished when it's done being aquascaped and it's time to go start the next project. Ultimately, it's not a post about trying to say that there is one way to enjoy a tank or the method of putting together that tank, but I was left with a few lingering thoughts after my day watching that style of content.