Dustin's Blog — blog

Read Time: 5 mins Looking for info on easy aquarium plants with a ton of variety for any part of your tank? You've come to the right place. Here, we'll break down the Echinodorous genus of plants, highlight some epic sword species, and give you tips and tricks for keeping your swords looking sharp. (Scroll to the bottom for a quick reference guide for how to care for Amazon swords!) About Amazon Swords They're called "Amazon" swords because of how prevalent they are in the Amazonian regions of South America, but these plants are native throughout the Western hemisphere. How they...

Read Time: 5 minutes Dustin's called this the most overlooked part of your aquarium, and it's the truth. Substrates are often the heart of healthy (or unhealthy) fish tank biology. So, in every sense of the phrase, let's dig in. First Off: Do You Even Need Substrate in Your Aquarium? Depends on the rest of your setup and what your goals are. The benefits of aquarium substrate are looks, increased surface area for beneficial bacteria and fungi, more options for plants and animals, and an easier time growing live plants. That said, you can also grow bacteria on other surfaces...

Read Time: 5 minutes Advice for Keeping Small/Nano Aquariums Nano tank in the cover photo scaped by Christian E. Velez.  What is a nano tank/How big is a nano tank?  Nano aquariums are exactly what they sound like: a growing field of near-atomic-sized fish robots that could be used to advance human evolution via shape-shifting and reinforced suits of flying armor. ...nah. It's just a small aquarium. That's basically it. As for how many gallons they have to have to qualify as a nano tank, depends who you're talking to. Some hobbyists say anything less than 20 gallons counts, though I've...

Read Time: 5 minutes Driftwood is a staple in the fish tank hobby for a reason. It's gorgeous, it's natural, you never see the same branch twice...you can't go wrong with it. Here are answers to the top questions about adding driftwood to your setup. You know you want to. Here's a cool use of driftwood in a Dustin's Fishtanks customer tank!  Number 1 Series of Questions: Will Aquarium Driftwood Float? How Do I Get Driftwood to Sink in My Fish Tank? How Long Does Driftwood Take to Sink? How Do I Get It to Sink Faster?  We get it....

Read Time: 6.5 minutes It's funny Anubias (an amazingly easy aquarium plant genus) is named for the Egyptian god of funerals, graves, and the afterlife, Anubis - because these things are borderline unkillable. I like to think, somewhere, there's a jackal-headed death god trying to preserve dead plants named after him and getting annoyed he has to wait because they just won't die.  However, if our friend Anubis wanted to hurry them along to the underworld, there are a few ways he could do it. Here's your guide on how to grow (and how to kill) Anubias aquarium plants.  Anubias Species and Varieites...