That "stuff on the bottom"- and it's impact...

[Tannin Aquatics]

If you recall my little rant on Saturday, I was sort of singing the praises of the idea of an aquarium with a fairly large amount of organic material in it. Now, when you think about it, the botanical-style aquarium sort of falls into that category, huh? Leaves and botanicals certainly add to the "something" to an aquarium, don't they?

Sure, but is this a negative? 

If you look at a lot of the underwater photos and videos taken in the natural habitats of our fishes that, thankfully, are becoming more and more popular and abundant than ever, you see a lot of "stuff" in the water column, on the bottom, etc. Natural streams are not always the pristine-looking "nature aquarium" subjects of our dreams, are they?

Not really. Rather, many of the environments from which the fishes we love hail are anything but "pristine" assemblages of rock, wood, and plants. They have a lot of "stuff" in them, ranging from clumps of algae to seed pods, palm fronds, etc, up to submerged logs.

Now, in many of the photos and videos that I've poured over in recent years, the most common items you see on the bottom are...shocker- leaves! Yeah, they're everywhere...in almost every aquatic environment you see, ranging from ponds to slow moving jungle streams, to larger rivers. Sure, in swift-current scenarios, you're less likely to see large beds of leaves, but you still see them. (click to read more)