Freshwater Aquariums by The Pragmatic Aquarist

Welcome to the home of The Pragmatic Aquarist. First off, let me tell you what I mean by pragmatic. I believe that the freshwater aquarium hobby has room for all sorts of hobbyists. You can be the sort that wants to DIY everything or you can be the sort that is fine with a cost-doesn't-matter approach. In between those 2 approaches is an approach that I call pragmatic. That is, every task/project has an end goal and how you get there doesn't really matter and will differ based on what resources are available to you.

In practice, that could mean modifying something you bought to behave differently. Or, it could mean using an off-the-shelf product as a short-cut when everyone else is advising a multi-week approach. Or, it could mean heading over to the dollar-store and picking up something that wasn't at all created for the aquarium hobby.

Finally, a little about me. I had a freshwater aquarium in my teens. No need to get into particulars, but let me just say that back then there was no world wide web or social media beyond basic forums that you dialed into with a modem. Even so, I had a planted aquarium with DIY CO2. I took a long hiatus and then returned to the hobby in 2016. I was never much of a DIY-person so my restart was largely based on buying whatever seemed promising. In the years since, I've simplified my approach although I do still enjoy trying new products including the ones that seem to good to be true.

In the years since returning to the freshwater aquarium hobby in 2016, The Pragmatic Aquarist has immersed himself in the planted aquariums niche. He's tried growing 100+ aquarium plants, housing dozens of fish species, and has even had the occasional successful breeding project with angelfish, furcatus rainbows, clown killifish, and red lizard whiptails. On this site he publishes some of the pragmatic approaches to problems that hopefully others will find useful.