Start Here
Free · the front doorAquarium AI
Answer a few questions about your tank and get back a personal AI assistant tuned to your exact setup — a prompt plus your own tank pre-analysis — ready to drop into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. The single most-requested thing on this site, and it costs nothing: no account with us, no payment. The easiest way to see how the SLESS way of thinking applies to your own water.
Build Your Free AI
Build Your Kit
Order online · ships nationwideStart with the SLESS substrate system — the engine of the whole tank — and add only what you want. No glass: you use your own, which keeps the box lighter and your price lower. Built and packed when you order; every kit ships with a step-by-step video guide to assembling and seeding it.
Sourcing is no secret — see the Partners page. Shipping is billed at actual cost to your zip; I don't mark up postage.
The Data
Available · digitalSUBEX-2025 — Full Report
The 32-page substrate comparison study behind the SLESS method: real measurements, full methodology, the actual data. The most honest answer to "does this work?" is to read the experiment yourself.
Local Builds & Service
Hands-on and in person, Central Florida only. I bring everything, build it in your space, and maintain it after. Full installs include the glass aquarium, the SLESS substrate system, hardscape, botanicals, size-matched equipment, on-site setup, and a free live Microbiome Kickstart Pack to seed the ecosystem from day one. This is a different, local-only service from the shipped kits above — a complete build, done by hand and ready to thrive the day it's set up.
Installed Builds
The Jarrarium
A complete micro-ecosystem in a jar — the smallest and most affordable way into the SLESS method. Built and seeded, ready for a desk or shelf. Local pickup or delivery.
The Nanocube
A full 5-gallon cube ecosystem, professionally installed — glass, substrate system, hardscape, equipment, and the free Microbiome Kickstart Pack to seed it from day one.
Custom & Larger Builds
Feature displays from 10 gallons up, fully installed on-site with everything included. Standard glass; rimless and bespoke builds quoted on request.
Live plants and the microfauna boom pack can be added to any build. Sizes shown are standard glass aquariums.
In-Person Maintenance & Setup
Downtown Orlando · Kissimmee · Oak Ridge · Windermere · Hunters Creek · Ocoee · Winter Park · Winter Haven
Need tanks, substrate, or hardscape? Grab a kit or the recommended gear first.
- Aquarium installation & aquascaping
- Ecological tune-ups
Includes microorganism & bacteria culture + moss bits. - Aquarium relocation
Additional charge by distance.
Merchandise & Hardware
Pre-order · printed in batchesThese aren't in production yet — and I'm honest about that. I print in batches once enough people commit, so reserving is free and simply tells me to make it. You're only ever charged if a run actually happens.
The Trophic Mug
Your morning coffee, served on a complete aquatic food-web diagram. The kind of object that starts conversations with people who've never thought about where their tank's energy actually goes.
Printed once we reach a full batch. Reserve free — pay only if it goes into production.
The Benthic Mug
The substrate, in cross-section, wrapped around a mug. A quiet reminder that the most important part of an aquarium is the part everyone ignores — the layers under the sand.
Printed once we reach a full batch. Reserve free — pay only if it goes into production.
Anatomical Posters
High-resolution shrimp and fish anatomy, drawn like a real field plate. For the wall of anyone who thinks of their tank as a living system worth studying, not just décor.
Printed once we reach a full batch. Reserve free — pay only if it goes into production.
Bio-Decorations
A living wall-farm panel that houses microfauna cultures instead of plastic plants — furniture that's also part of the ecosystem. Still a prototype; reserve to help push it to a real run.
Built once we reach a full batch. Reserve free — pay only if it goes into production.
Aquarium Plant Holders
A back-of-tank gutter for emergent plants — they filter your water with their roots while their leaves grow into the open air, all without shading the substrate below. A small idea that changes how a tank breathes.
Made once we reach a full batch. Reserve free — pay only if it goes into production.
Scientific Mousepads
The nitrogen cycle and a full food web, under your mouse all day. For the desk of anyone who'd rather stare at how an ecosystem works than another corporate gradient.
Printed once we reach a full batch. Reserve free — pay only if it goes into production.
The Ecosystem Journal
In development · 12-month tracking bookA Logbook for Living Systems
A guided 12-month journal for the part of the hobby nobody documents — the slow story of a tank finding its balance. Templates for planning, weekly check-ins, and diagnostic logic trees that turn "why did it crash?" into something you can actually trace.
01 · Plan your world
Compatibility templates. A tank without a plan is a glass box waiting for algae.
02 · Weekly check-ins
Track microfauna and behavior. Patterns hide in consistency, not in one-off tests.
03 · Connect the dots
Logic trees for spikes and crashes, so guessing stops being the diagnostic method.
04 · Your tank's story
Turn failures into data and successes into science. The tank is a living record.
Guides & Calculators
In development · digital tools
The "How NOT to Kill" Guides
Species guides built on real biology instead of store-counter folklore — natural habitat, behavioral warning signs, and the actual reasons animals die in home tanks. Written the way the articles are; just organized for rescue.
Notify Me at Launch
The Ecological Calculator
Bioload, stocking density, substrate ratios, and oxygen demand — worked out from real ecological principles instead of the old "one inch per gallon" myth. The math behind the SLESS method, made usable for your own tank.
Notify Me at LaunchSubmit Your Request
Pick what you need below. Nothing here charges you — it sends me your request so I can confirm price, shipping, or availability.