Do you flit around in your interests? This year, I’ve discovered that I am hopelessly suggestible. Show me a biotope, and I want it. Show me a reef, tank and I want it. I’m just a pure impulse aquarist — and you know what? I think I like it.

This month, it has been aquascapes. Hardcore, high-energy aquascapes. We went on our roadtrip and visited Aquarium Gardens, where I fell in love with the first tank I saw and refused to move away.

With difficulties getting affordable EI kits, many shops have adopted the low-energy layout, but they all look so ‘samey’. Crypts, Java ferns, a few Anubias — they’re just predictable. So to see a real early-millennium-style selection of high-energy, fert-saturated tanks sagging with mosses, glassware and expensive, esoteric ‘scaping devices just won me over in an instant.

Expect a ‘scape-heavy issue real soon, then...

Nathan Hill, Associate Editor