Out of the darkness, light. Our holiday message to you!

[Tannin Aquatics]

Have you ever felt like some of the stuff you're doing is starting to pay off a bit?

I'm feeling that, and it's kind of cool that it's happening around the holidays. That "feeling" that tells you that you're doing exactly what you should be doing. Everyone needs to feel that at some point in their lives, I think.

When we launched Tannin Aquatics last year, it wasn't just about selling "twigs and nuts" as some of my friends half-jokingly asserted. We considered it an integral part of our mission not only to inspire and educate hobbyists who had never worked with botanicals/blackwater aquariums before to give them a try, but to "gather up the nomadic outliers" who were playing with these types of aquariums, but perhaps had no sense of community or connection to other hobbyists who shared this passion. It was a pretty tight little niche, and quite frankly, perhaps a bit crazy to base an entire business on, in the eyes of some of my industry friends. Believe it or not, I had complete confidence in it, simply because I loved it so much and had no absurd expectations of "changing the world" with it. I just flat-out enjoy it. (click to read more)