Planted Aquarium Expert

Hi! I’m Don

I started as an aquarium hobbyist in 1988. Over a 20-year period, I set up and ran just about every freshwater aquarium I came across in magazines, books, and local aquariums.

For example:

*  I had several freshwater CO2 set ups.

*  I grew show-quality guppies and traded them with my local pet store for store credit.

*  My last aquarium before taking ten years off was a 90 gallon high which I kept at my office (one benefit of being self-employed. This was my “burn out” aquarium. It required a huge amount of maintenance and it was so tall I couldn’t reach the bottom with my hands. After a couple of years of caring for this tank, I decided I was done with the hobby. I was too busy, and it was too much work.

After taking 10 years off, I came across the book, “Ecology of The Freshwater Aquarium” by Diana Walstad. The book described a “new” type of planted aquarium, which was extremely low maintenance. After a few months of thinking about it, I tried out the Walstad method. I had some success and some failures. I’m now back in the hobby.

You can email me here: [email protected]