Dustin's Blog — Foreground Plants

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 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: 5.5 minutes Plant Placement 101 Figured out you want to grow some live aquarium plants, taken the plunge and ordered some, and staring at a fistful of plants you don't know what to do with? Been there. Fortunately, most aquatic plants can be broken down into four categories of where to place them: foreground, midground, background, and floating plants. Some plants overlap into more than one category depending on how you want to grow and trim them, but generally, you can gauge where to put something based on how a species falls into these. If you ever hear...

Read Time: 4 minutes If there's one thing everyone in the aquarium hobby might actually agree on, it's that aquascaped carpets look epic and we all secretly (or not so secretly) want one in our tanks. "How do I get my tank to look like that?" is one of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to carpeting plants. Unfortunately, a lot of people jump in head first, can't get a carpet established, and get discouraged without realizing where they went wrong. Carpets can definitely feel daunting, but they don't have to.  If you've ever asked the questions "How...