From Hobbyist To Aquatic YouTuber With More Than 10k Subs! Interview with @SimplyAquaticCT

[00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of The Aquarists Edge, a podcast for home aquarists just like you. Learn more about how to keep a thriving aquarium and discover ideas and tips to give your aquarium the edge. And now, over to our host, Arthur Preston. Welcome everybody to this episode of The Aquarists Edge. Today we're doing something a little bit different. This is the first of our, what hopefully will be a series of video podcasts.

[00:00:27] And today I'm very pleased to be hosting Tristan, who is the owner of Simply Aquatic Cape Town. Many of you would have seen him on his YouTube channels, maybe part of the WhatsApp groups. And it's a great privilege to be able to chat with Tristan today about his journey and the hobby. And to discuss all things fish keeping and shrimp and all the things that have brought you to this podcast in the first place. So Tristan, nice to have you with us. Thank you so much man, the honour is all mine. It's a privilege to be on the podcast.

[00:00:55] I've spent so many hours listening to the great things that you talk about. And it's an awesome killer for traffic, I'll tell you that much. So I'm really happy to be on the show. Great. Derek, glad it's useful. So maybe if you could introduce yourself a bit by telling us your story, how you got into fish keeping, what attracted you specifically to the shrimp, a lot of your time and energy at the moment.

[00:01:20] And perhaps a specific experience or a conversation or a meeting with somebody, we've got you hooked into this. That's a pretty loaded question. I think I can answer, but I'll try my best to sort of subjectize it if I can. That's fine. So my first sort of entry into the hobby was a very random one. My wife and I had just moved into our new place. We'd just gotten married. And I decided for some reason, I was like, we need a fish tank. I mean, that's a cool thing to have, right?

[00:01:48] Like that'll spruce up the house. And I thought that that was a conversation that we had had, but she apparently didn't. So I went and I bought a fish tank. I brought it back home and she was like, what is this thing? We didn't talk about this, you know. But thankfully, it fit exactly where I intended it for it to fit. And it worked out. The dimensions were great. However, when it came to stocking that tank, I had the worst experience you could ever imagine. So I only watched like one or two YouTube videos. I was like, yep, this is sick. I know what I'm doing. Rushed down to the fish store.

[00:02:17] I bought cichlids and plants the same day that I put water in the tank. It's kind of embarrassing to admit this, but I made every mistake that you can possibly make when it comes to setting up the tank. And within the same hour that the water went in, the fish and the plants did as well. And as you can imagine, it was an absolutely disastrous tank. I didn't lose any of the fish. Thankfully, we put really good water here in Cape Town. But obviously, cichlids, planted tanks, it just doesn't work out. And I was quite despondent.

[00:02:46] I was like, you know, why do I have to clean this thing every three days? And unbeknownst to me, reset the entire nitrogen cycle. So it was quite a tough one. And I kind of got to the point where I was like, you know what, I'm going to just check this thing. However, I did a bit of a Google. And I came to find Graham Pede from Gapetti Tanks. And I gave him a call. I said to him, listen, like, what am I doing wrong? And he said, no, it's fine.

[00:03:12] Join my WhatsApp group and I'll kind of, you know, I'll give you a bit of a rundown on how to set a tank up. And it kind of just spiraled from there. Then I actually started learning how to look after fish properly. I started watching YouTube videos. I got into shrimp. But six months later, I realized, oh, these things actually exist. I didn't even know that they existed. And it kind of just spiraled from there. I think once the bug bites, a lot of us will be able to empathize with that.

[00:03:39] You know, the first tank comes and once it starts looking good, you kind of want the second tank. And fast forward, about a year and a couple of months after that, I now have 44 tanks and an entire dedicated shrimp room. And I've got another 10 tanks on the way. That's amazing. Yeah, I think you're right. You know, when the bug bites, as you say, it definitely grabs you. And if we have three understanding partners and spouses, we are all systems go. So, yeah, that's awesome.

[00:04:08] They have to, unfortunately, become understanding quite quickly as well, I suppose. So, since those early days, how has your approach to aquarium keeping evolved? I mean, do you now have a particular philosophy or guiding principle that you follow? I wouldn't say it's as deep as that. Honestly, you know, the question of like, how did you get into this? I still can't answer. I'm not quite sure how that bug got a hold of me so quickly.

[00:04:37] I've always been someone that creates digital content. I've been a YouTuber before the fish thing, like long before that. And I don't know. I just kind of like really, I draw inspiration pretty quickly. And I started watching these YouTube channels or, you know, MD Fish Tanks, Keeping Fish Simple, Park Shrimp Tanks, all that kind of stuff. And I just, I don't know. When you find an interest in something, you kind of just, I'm also big into my hobbies. Like I go really hard when it comes to something that I enjoy. I fast and make all the mistakes and learn quickly and I'm in it.

[00:05:05] And the same kind of thing happened with the fish tanks, you know. And then shrimp like really, really intrigued me because, you know, the fish stuff was cool. And I still, I really love fish. I'm getting into bringing more fish now. And I think there's a steeper learning curve with fish than what there is with shrimp, specifically like neocaridino shrimp. And I just love the variety that you could get, the different colors and things like that. And I said to my wife, you know, like, come let, you know, at the point, at that time, I no longer had a drift car and we had the garage sitting empty.

[00:05:34] So I was like, well, you know what, let me get a couple of tanks. Let's try and breed some different colors. And just, you know, for the fun of it. And it very quickly spiraled from, oh, just get four tanks to eight to 16 to now it's completely built room with insulation and all that kind of stuff. And then I said to her, you know, like, well, I've got the space. I'm doing this thing already. I've got the camera. Let me make some videos. Who knows? Maybe someone's actually interested in what I'm doing. It could be cool to someone because there were other videos out there that inspired me.

[00:06:02] Maybe per chance I could do the same for someone else. And that's when I launched the whole Simply Aquatic thing. That's where that came about. And just like that, you know, Simply Aquatic. I didn't even come up with a name. I was like, Simply Aquatic. That's fine. But, you know, the tagline is shrimp and fish breeding. I mean, it's really, it doesn't get more original than that, I suppose. And for some reason, it just absolutely took off. The first video that I posted got like 2,000 views.

[00:06:31] I got insanely good feedback on it. People were like, this is exciting. Show us more. We want to know more. And, yeah, it kind of just carried on growing from there. I really enjoy it. I love making videos. I love breeding shrimp and fish. I think it's just wonderful to be able to behold nature in a small tank. There's so much vast learning that you can gain from that experience. It's just been, it's energized me to continue doing more. And it just keeps growing.

[00:06:58] I think it's very evident in the video that you have a deep passion for what you do. And earlier on, you mentioned, you know, in the beginning, you watched people like MD Fish Tanks, Keeping Fish Simple and others. Because how does it feel to you now to think that there are people out there, maybe youngsters, maybe people who have you for a while or folks just starting out who will find you on YouTube and go, I want to be like that guy. You're now becoming an inspiration for many people. How does that feel to you? I mean, I firstly really appreciate that.

[00:07:25] It's quite hard to actually accept that as a reality, if I can say that. Because, yeah, it's still very new to me. I mean, I started this thing a couple of months ago and it's really like grown much bigger than my expectation. I think my first goal for the first year of YouTube was like 5,000 subscribers. And we've blown past 10,000 before the first year of YouTube. So, it's been quite crazy.

[00:07:49] And I have had some people say, you know, it's your videos that have inspired me to do this or such and try this recipe or whatever the case may be. But I think, you know, at the very core of it, it's an indirect re-inspiration of myself because it just validates the effort that I've been putting into the hobby. Because that's a lot of work and it's at times a lot of money as well that, you know, has to go into specifically something as you would know, like building a fish. Even if you've just got five or ten tanks, that's a lot of effort, you know.

[00:08:17] And to see that making a positive difference in someone else's life, a younger person's life, bringing someone into the hobby, making something easier or more accessible for someone that might not have known that before. It's awesome. I mean, I feel just on a, I suppose, on a deeper level, there's nothing better to do with your time than to make an impact on other people, you know. And it's just, it's super awesome. Like, I really, there's no other way to say it. It energizes me.

[00:08:47] Like you said, I've developed such a passion for it. And yeah, that's, I just love what I do, man. Yeah, that's awesome. So, Tristan, you know, you spoke about getting into shrimp and realizing that actually this was an area you wanted to, let's say, specialize in. It doesn't mean you're not breeding fish, but shrimp is what you really have become known for your channel. Is there a particular favorite shrimp that you might have?

[00:09:13] If, you know, when somebody's starting out with shrimp, where would they begin? That's quite a difficult question. I don't particularly have a favorite because I think there's so many new lines coming out all the time. There's some amazing breeders all over the world that are doing some really incredible things. And I think that's why I like it so much is just because there is so much, there's vast genealogy that I'm only scratching the surface. I'm trying to like learn genetics now.

[00:09:41] And I've managed to, even in my own capacity in a very short amount of time, put some different shrimp together and get some cool colors. And I'm working on my own like lineage of Neo-Carodino right now. And I don't know, that was really exciting to me. Whereas I think like with fish keeping, a lot of it is pretty standard stuff. You know, there's like, there's ways of doing things and there isn't that much innovation possibility in that because people have really perfected. I mean, fish keeping has been, it's a century old thing, you know, like people have been doing it for many, many years.

[00:10:10] And I think it's a very developed hobby. Whereas the shrimp stuff, I don't know, at least for me, in my experience, it seems like it's a very new thing. Like, although it's been around for quite a few years, it's like one of those niche hobbies within the aquarium hobby. And you've got your aquascapers, they're big and bold and loud and beautiful. You know, fish breeders, same thing. Different types of fish tanks, it's commonplace. Shrimp are kind of amazing, but not really that big.

[00:10:38] You know, the YouTubers that I'm talking about that are specifically shrimp guys are much smaller than the guys that do broader sort of fish breeding and tankscaping and stuff like that. And I think for me, the biggest sort of like flip of the switch was when I discovered caradina shrimp. Seeing like, okay, there's actually a level to this that's a lot more elite, if I can say that, just because it's a whole lot harder to look after certain types of shrimp. But the endless possibilities that then come with that.

[00:11:07] You know, with your neocardinas, there's a couple of colors and there's a couple of variants of those colors, but it's not as expansive as caradina. And I just got hooked. I was like, what? You can breed your own? So, from a scientific perspective, we are in the space where you can still breed your very own lineage of shrimp and you make your own sort of patterns and colors. And if you can breed that into a true line, you can name it because that's how new this is.

[00:11:33] It's not a developed hobby, if I can say that, because there's still new species being created by humans. I mean, how cool is that? And so, yeah, I think that's just kind of what like, it completely engulfed me. And I was like, look, I love the fish, but I need to make as many tanks as I can for shrimp so I can just have an awesome collection of them. And yeah, I'm completely hooked. And so, for those who are starting out, I mean, you mentioned Nia has got you in, but caradina is what's keeping you.

[00:12:04] Somebody wants to get into shrimp keeping, where do they start? You know, what do they need to do? What do they need to get hold of? I think like if I had to give you the advice now having made all the mistakes that I've made, and I say that with absolute pride, I've made every mistake in the book. I would start with some Nia caradinas, but before even getting something, I would do the research. You know, try to, and when I say do the research, I don't mean find out what you have to do.

[00:12:34] See if you are willing to do what is required. Because at the end of the day, you know, it's one thing to read an article that says, you know, you need this type of water parameter, you need this type of tank, this type of substrate, whatever the case may be, Nia or caradina. But for your personal situation, if you're only going to have one tank, but your tap water is extremely bad, you might need to buy filtered water or something like that. Your situation is going to be different to mine. Everybody's going to have their own set of circumstances when it comes to, and it's the same thing with fish.

[00:13:02] And when I give people advice, I say do the research, but not only to find out what you need to do, but try and find out if you're willing to do what is need to be done. Because at the end of the day, you know, it's easy to run neocaridina tanks, but there's still plenty of guys out there that are really struggling with them. Because they might have a specific set of circumstances that makes their care for those shrunk a little bit more difficult or complicated or intricate.

[00:13:26] And they're applying the same sort of textbook research principles to their tanks when they should actually be doing something a little bit different. So I think that would be the first step is like, in your specific scenario, what needs to be done to have the right parameters in your tank to look after whatever type of shrimp or fish that you're looking to keep. And to see if you are willing to take care of that, you know, can you do the upkeep? Can you afford the things that go around that?

[00:13:55] If it's like a really expensive shrunk and you have very high care levels, do you want to spend that money? Do you want to spend that time? And if those are all yeses, go grab whatever you want. I think if you approach it that way, there is actually no argument for getting Neos versus Karadina. If you're willing to do the work, you are probably ready to take on any kind of challenge. Because like I said, you know, you'd be willing to overcome that challenge and make sure that they have the correct environment. Right.

[00:14:23] And at what point, you know, in your opinion, having, as you said, made the mistakes you have, as we all do, at what point do you think somebody should say, look, it doesn't look like taking shrimp further than simply having cherry shrimp in my community tank is what I need to do? At what point do they say, I'm done? I want to have a community tank. I want to have a couple of red cherry shrimp in there, maybe some other basic Neos. But taking anything further maybe isn't for me.

[00:14:49] I, yeah, that's a tricky one because, I mean, you know, you're asking the guy that refused to say that he's done. You know, I've wasted so much money on figuring stuff out and doing things wrong and resetting tanks and time and effort and more money. And, you know, it's been a big, a big, steep learning curve for me because I did anything wrong. I think, yeah, like I said, from the start, you should be able to make that decision.

[00:15:12] You know, if you're doing the research with the right direction, before you make the mistakes, you'd be able to ascertain how much effort do I actually want to spend on this thing? You know, if I already had a fish tank and I just want to clean up crew, get yourself some basic Neos, chuck them in there and, you know, you're good to go. Yeah. I don't think it should actually get to that point where people are going, geez, am I done with this? Am I not going to try anymore?

[00:15:35] Am I not going to try anymore?

[00:16:12] Am I not going to try? realize maybe this isn't for me and then having to as you say pivot is critical yeah it doesn't matter if you're breeding shrimp or breeding fish or you know do you now have you've got one tank do you want to go to two or three or four or five or ten you've got to be willing to make the effort

[00:16:42] and put in the time to do that yeah the idea of a fish room is going to be more exciting than the work required to keep the fish room rather don't have the fish room yeah and i think also just don't underestimate how much work it actually is like absolutely once you go over 10 tanks it's pretty arguably like a full-time job um but this is but but you know back if i had to sum it up into a sentence pivoting is what saved my yeah my position in the hobby because i'm the guy that

[00:17:07] like didn't give up but i had to pivot you know what i was doing was not working so i had to figure out a way to make it work and the reality is and i'll tell you this very honestly i'm actually making a video on the mistakes that i've made and what how i rectified it i'm running my tanks in a different way to what you're going to read on the internet some guys will say these are the parameters you need to keep these shrimp in and they're going to be perfect and i was losing shrimp at those parameters i was i was chasing those parameters i had them spot on and i still had dead shrimp

[00:17:36] whereas now i've actually got some parameters that are like completely out of the recommended where they should be however for the water that i'm keeping at the temperatures i'm keeping at you know the set of variables that are unique to me have allowed me to find success within that that's completely different to what i read and the only way that i was able to do that was by pivoting and saying okay fine i'm gonna try something that is not this and then it worked so being willing

[00:18:01] to change the original like the idea that you had i think that's what's going to save a lot of people from giving up so to speak and and that requires wisdom and maturity and um you know it's a challenge of when when do i pivot what do i do then i plan those important conversations but let's just talk about your shrimp room for a moment um you know shrimp room was a new word for me when i i got into this hobby some years ago fish room was a standard a standard word but there are folks now such as

[00:18:31] yourself who you know now have a shrimp room so to speak and the one that you should have from your home you've seen pictures of it on your videos you've recently done a a rebuild which is very impressive and um you know lots of people would love to have that kind of setup in their homes so could you describe what you have for those who haven't seen it and how you went about setting it up so okay to describe it it's it's very basic it's a single garage um separate building to my house it's not

[00:18:58] part of the house it shares a wall uh because we live in a complex with duplexes so it's like a double garage so it's been split in the middle and within this garage we've built a three meter cubed room out of rhino board with insulation in between um you know dual dual layer so it's kind of like the stuff that you would see in a bank like the office blocks that they build out of that you know plaster board or whatever you want to call it um and and we've essentially insulated this three by three

[00:19:26] meter room inside and then within that i've got two industrial shelf uh or racking systems uh there are four racks on each of the shelves or on each of the uh sides uh which allows me to keep i'm currently i have space for 27 neo caradina tanks and then 21 caradina tanks with an additional four small tanks at the back you've seen my videos that's for the fish breeding currently i have a good today project

[00:19:53] going in there um and then i've got one last rack for an oro storage system so you're looking at about two tons of like a liquid uh water storage and tank space um and yeah i think i've got about 20 different kinds of shrunk at the moment so it's it's pretty intricate but once you've wrapped your head around it it's actually pretty simple um i think that i've managed to demystify the whole

[00:20:19] thing by creating automated processes so i've got wi-fi timers and switches for the lights i've got uh tap systems that allow me to make oro water fill up the tanks automatically i've got float valves and all of them so there's a lot of stuff that i've done that is a bit i would say overkill but it allows me to run the room in a way where it doesn't take over my entire life but i am able to run it at scale okay and then just looking back i mean i would encourage folks to go watch that video you recently

[00:20:47] put out around the rebuild it's it's fascinating and tells the story and it's back breaking yeah indeed um now if you look back now having not been through that you know sweated blud through the process um what what was your biggest learning curve in that whole in the whole thing in the time you spent you made the resources you put in what was the biggest learning curve um are we talking about like from the rebuild process or from when i first even started the entire thing like

[00:21:15] first stands up and then reflecting on what you had and going well actually i'm done i think um neglecting the obvious i think that was like my biggest learning curve because you know there's some things that are just logical you put room you you build an insulated room and you put a bunch of water inside that you're going to deal with issues and i knew that from the start so i invested in a dehumidifier and i was like sick this is this is going to be great i don't have to worry about it but i didn't realize that the new modifier generates a lot of heat thinking oh this

[00:21:45] is great it's going to keep the room warm but the caradinas need to be cold and then i was like oh you know this and that so it was a lot of developing problems due to the scale um so the the whole reason of building the room in the first place was once i got to 10 tanks i said to my wife i was like we're gonna have a problem in winter because i'm running multiple heaters and for those that are international that don't know about load shedding our power gets switched off quite regularly especially

[00:22:10] during winter and what that meant was that i was going to be risking all the livestock because if the power goes off we don't have heaters and even if the power doesn't go off we're going to be using a lot of electricity to power all of these tanks and keep them warm in an ice-cold garage so it was kind of a case of you know as soon as i scaled to more tanks i faced the problem then i created a solution for that problem which then allowed me to scale a bit more creating another problem so it was

[00:22:35] very much if i can say it a haphazard build it was i was very retroactive um in fixing issues that i was creating rather than sort of progressive and planning ahead and that was the reason for this whole rebuild you know originally i thought okay i'm gonna buy these industrial uh racking systems and i'm gonna be able to put a whole bunch of tanks in they could all be the same my ocd will be pleased that i can scale this the system however i bought one ton beams thinking oh this is going to be

[00:23:04] safe you know 700 kgs on a one ton beam it's fine it can carry the weight but those beams then started to bow which meant i couldn't put the tanks right next to each other they would break um so i had to put less tanks because i was spacing them out of using all the space now i've actually i technically downgraded my racking system to a 2.4 meter system rather than 2.6 and you'd think less space less tanks but because i upgraded the beams to two tons i could put more tanks in um and a lot of it was like

[00:23:32] you know replacing inefficiency that was actually a brilliant idea at the time i'll just create an air loop system and run the air down from the roof to the tanks no problems but i ended up using hundreds of meters of airline versus just creating a rack loop system in the first place so if you go and watch that video i encourage you to because it's been a lot of a lot of hours breaking my back to redo that and get all that timeline footage together um you'll see what i mean a lot of

[00:24:00] perfectly good ideas that were actually incredibly inefficient due to the scale um of the room but only it was only visible after i had done it so i think it as i don't know if this is like the right answer to the question but if you are considering to do something like this try your best to plan for every eventuality if you're gonna build a room or you're gonna build a rack or how whatever it is even if you're looking at a singular tank solution for whatever shrimp you want to try and figure out what the

[00:24:28] problems are going to be ahead of time and build a system that doesn't need to be fixed because i think the the biggest learning curve was like how expensive it would be to do it the way that i did it um it was actually a very budget build the first time i did it plus the renovation but because i had to do it in that like you know fixing problems as i go it ended up being a really expensive endeavor that it and it didn't need to be um so yeah my my advice would be try and plan ahead

[00:24:58] fair enough right so we've mentioned your youtube channel a couple of times um you run a very successful channel you know you've as you say you've opened subscribers and views very quickly um i'll put the link to the youtube video in your youtube channel into the description so folks can go and have a look and see for themselves but i do encourage you to do so just since videos are fantastic to watch and be inspirational um so very educational so go and have a look i try i try thank

[00:25:24] you thank you you're doing a great job to me great job um what what was your reason and you've mentioned slightly earlier on but what was your reason for starting that channel you know you are a videographer you have skills in that area and and and published expertise but you didn't have to start a youtube channel what was it that got you or what was it that kind of motivated you to say i'm going to spend several hours now filming editing uh perfecting a video that's going up on youtube for thousands of

[00:25:51] people to see um that's giving you extra work yeah why would you do that i think you know this kind of goes back like almost 12 years sort of the start of my entire career you know i i once was when i first got my license i started driving a car and i started watching youtube videos on how to make your car faster because i had a very slow part of time and i was like hey i want to make this plastic plastic no and one of the guys that i watched just said you know he's a full-time

[00:26:16] youtuber and he was like i just want to thank you guys for making this possible and i want to say to you that if you are someone that wants to do this go out buy a camera and start youtubing like it's such a cool thing to do what you love for work it's not work you know and that like really stuck with me and that's actually what got me into youtubing in the first place i used to youtube drifting cars and building cars and like i was very much a automotive youtuber long before i even knew that fish would ever be a

[00:26:45] thing um and that then spilled over into my passion for videography and cameras and becoming a bit of a nerd when it comes to like editing and stuff like that and which then spilled over into you know eventually building a business uh specifically a digital business um and i think for me you know it's it's very much a it's a deep-seated belief that i owe pretty much everything that i have to those that have made the sacrifice of making videos and inspiring others you know i i got my inspiration

[00:27:13] from someone on youtube i got my inspiration when it comes to fish from someone that helped me you know sacrificially they didn't expect anything in return graham shared all of these ideas and and you know he really he was very welcoming of me into the hobby same thing with stefana same thing with yourself there's plenty of guys in the hobby that have sacrificially given time and energy to helping others you know expand their hobby and interest and and you know sort of just welcome people

[00:27:42] into the space and i think for me like you know you mentioned that it's a very successful channel and it's very successful fishery like i i've yet to still even scratch the surface of what i believe is going to be successful but i look at it and i'm like i thoroughly enjoy what i'm doing i have an awesome short room i've got a whole bunch of different i really get to enjoy this for many hours of the day you know even though some people will look at it as maintenance of work and stuff like that thoroughly passionate about this

[00:28:09] and it's very much an asset to who i am as a person and my life and i owe that to those that sacrificially put out videos or shared information or took the time to help me to get to the point that i am and that's kind of where the whole idea of youtube came from it for me is not very much a case of building a business or a following or anything like that it's actually my way of saying i'd like to

[00:28:33] give back to the hobby i'd like to be yeah what someone else was for me at one point um and yeah i know i know it's a very sort of um it might come across as like a very deep or sort of uh you know altruistic but the idea is that someone helped me if i can help one other person in the hobby then it's a fair trade that way if you scale it and if i help one person they help one person there will

[00:29:02] always be enough help for those that need to come in and for those that are here we're giving back and that's pretty much what it is you know yeah it's it's a lot of extra work and time and effort i really enjoy doing it i really enjoy youtube i really enjoy meeting people building a community around that i've met so many awesome people i've actually made friends through youtube not only in the car space but also in the fish space so for me it's very much a case of like the the idea behind it

[00:29:28] or the the purpose is to give back but even within trying to do that it's just been so beneficial to me it's just a it's like a loop of a system that it just works you and i have often spoken about the idea of the fish keeping community and that's what it is it's about community it's about people who share a passion and a love for what they do yeah in this space coming together sharing ideas learning

[00:29:52] from one another um sharing their mistakes and yeah you know venting a bit when we need to but i think that's where the power of learning together comes into play and and for you it's a lot of that is through your youtube channel and the personal interactions others that might be um you know in my case obviously with the podcast i'm enjoying doing that and um certainly from the feedback i've had some folks already enjoying that and finding benefit from it others will be more kind of in person folks come around to their fish room to their home and they chat and they get ideas i think

[00:30:22] the the community of fish keepers um is is vital in growing the hobby so you know thank you to you for what you do and and uh you know for keeping the energy and the passion alive through folks being able to watch the youtube videos and learning so much from your own experiences so thank you for that right back at you man like you you asking me a question that you could answer yourself you know you're doing the podcast it's a very sacrificial thing it takes hours and hours to to assimilate all the information

[00:30:48] that you've been dissecting and and um you know relaying to us in a very like concise way it's super beneficial to the hobby you've been helping tons of people and i'm pretty sure you know exactly what it feels like you know exactly what i'm talking about um it is it is a circle of inspiration where you can help others gives you energy to carry on with doing what do you do yeah and um 100 and let's let's let's be honest man it's fun it's fun to meet someone that had a tank that did something and they were like oh yeah this happened and it's like damn i've never experienced

[00:31:17] that that's so cool for you and thanks for sharing it with me i mean the whole point of this hobby is exploratory i don't think anyone has figured out whether it's aquascaping or shrimp breeding or anything i don't think there is a way of doing things everyone's got their little hacks and tips and tricks or this is how i make my water or this is how i clean my substrat whatever it might be it's just so cool it's so cool to share that with other people um and yeah that's like you said it's

[00:31:43] community that's the purpose i agree all right so justin you know you're speaking about time and definitely there is a lot of time involved in this whether it be producing youtube videos or doing maintenance setup that kind of thing but you're also a husband and you're a business outside of the period yes so how do you balance all of this successfully oh man i it's very much an opinionated thing to be saying that i balance it successfully i uh that's the perception yeah that's the perception

[00:32:09] man i think i think editing plays a big role in that but to be honest with you man i need to give my wife like a lot of credit she has been pretty much the biggest like support and rock as far as everything that i do from running a business to running the shrimp room to doing the youtube channel like she is actually the behind the scenes actor that makes it all possible um and it's just been it's been amazing like from day one we kind of like got into this thing and i sat her down i was like are you

[00:32:37] sure like can i do this thing because she knows me very well she knows if i come up with a new hobby or something i'm interested in she does okay here we go now we're starting now and in a couple of months from now it's probably going to be like the next big thing and that's exactly what it was like i said you know we started with one tank we went to three we went back down to one and then suddenly now we've got 40 years um so so i definitely give her all the credit when it comes to balancing it all i'd say

[00:33:02] you know there's a lot of sacrifice that comes into that i think for people in my age group i don't know i don't know what age group i am anymore but like i'm kind of at that point where you know a lot of my peers are doing things that i used to do that i no longer so going out on weekends i'm doing water changes you know um having having some friends over for a bri or something like that i'm editing a video you know so it's it's very much a case of like sacrificing and and shuffling around priorities

[00:33:29] and things like that however i don't want it to make it sound you know bleak like as you say sacrifice and think oh shame you know you've got to give up so much for this hobby not really because it's just it's a priority to me like i thoroughly enjoy what i get out of this hobby so you know other things i might enjoy less so i don't do them anymore now i've got time for the hobby um and it's the same thing with my business you know as far as the business is concerned i still don't consider it a business at all like it's my passion i love creating content for people i love doing marketing like i'm just

[00:33:59] it's just one of those things that i really really enjoy doing i love the tech behind it i just i like playing with cameras to be quite honest with you and um yeah i've just been extremely blessed and privileged to be able to monetize that in a way that i can be active in the hobbies and the things that interest me and they don't have to cost me money all the time so that they end up stopping when i run out of money it's a case of these these things are self-sustaining and it's it's been a super

[00:34:24] a privileged position to be in and then going back to your previous question that's again why i do what i do you know i've been privileged to get to a point where i've got so many tanks that i get to enjoy all i want to do is share it with other people is that i feel it's kind of like my responsibility you know um there's a lot of guys out there that probably will never be able to hold 50 tanks just because they don't have the time you know they they have so much family responsibility they've got kids they run schools you know like yourself um there's there's people like that that might not be

[00:34:52] able to get to that scale but would love to just see what it looks like or be somewhat involved in that and if i'm able to do that by letting people come and look at my room watch my videos right you know get them some shrimp that they can you know try and breed with or whatever because they've only got one tank yeah it's so cool that's that's purpose to the hobby that i'm you know involved in um and i think that's where the where the balance comes it's prioritization and then

[00:35:18] obviously you know the things that you love if you love it you'll find time for it absolutely i think one of the other things that you and i have spoken about is knowing when to stop you know if i if i look at if i look at what i've built up i mean i now have 30 odd tanks in my fish room i really won't go more than that because then it becomes something that i can't do becomes a chore and then it is a hobby in which i can invest passion and time and um you know i don't want to get to a point where

[00:35:46] i'm saying this is coming a chore of oh no i've got to go do water changes oh no i've got to go do this or that with this with the fish room i i don't know if you feel the same way but i i think one's going to be able to invest time and energy to grow and at some point turn around and go i'm now at a point where i can invest in other aspects of the hobby such as youtube or you know educating others whatever it might be um helping others out and and i'm not going to grow any further at this

[00:36:11] point maybe that'll come base it but right now i'm i now know where i need to do that would you agree with i 100 agree i think well it's rich coming from me because i kind of don't know where to stop but i mean i think i think for me like i a big reason behind doing the renovation that i did i was just like i want more tanks man i need more space and you know i i was actually looking at like various different properties and going and saying maybe you know maybe this needs to leave my house

[00:36:38] and i need to get dedicated space um where i can do this and after like seriously like for the first time in my life actually pre-empting and seriously considering stuff before i just jump into it i realized that you know maybe this is gonna this is gonna make it something that i don't enjoy if i have to commute to get to my tanks versus just walking outside the garage um you know that i don't know what that looks like and it's kind of a big risk because like you said you know we've got a large

[00:37:05] youtube channel now i feel sort of responsible for that community people expect videos they expect things um you know different tips and tricks like i'm gonna i'm in a nice whatsapp community a very wholesome community and there's lots of ideas flowing all the time and i'm very actively involved in that and i kind of just assumed that you know what if i'm gonna risk potentially making this a pain i'm gonna be letting a lot of people down if i decide you know what actually this is too much i'm

[00:37:30] out um and then i decided okay well i can still expand if i could just fix the beams you know so it's a lot more work and it's a lot more figuring it out but i think yeah knowing when to stop or again like i said knowing when to pivot to best suit your needs your set of circumstances some people need to rather spend the money on an auto water change system because they just absolutely cannot afford the time to do water changes versus other people they've got the time but they don't necessarily

[00:37:58] have the money for auto top-ups cool then they do the water changes that you know every person's got their own set of circumstances and i think yeah do it in slow measurable steps because i mean like for me now i knew that i wanted to do this renovation and i calculated beforehand that i'm going to put an extra 10 tanks in there and the time spent on running the current tanks versus an extra 10 is negligible because of the systems that i have do it in smaller smaller that don't don't go get by 10 tanks i don't

[00:38:26] think i would never recommend that um but yeah like you said you know pivoting stopping find the balance that works for you yeah i think that's great great advice thanks so let's talk about the future what's next on the horizon for you in this hobby you know is it is it more tanks is it expanding the fish room is it you know pivoting towards breeding specific lines um what's what's next i think right

[00:38:52] now i'm taking a community-led approach to the things that i do both physically and digitally so when it comes to the channel it's got its own strategy and trajectory i am focusing now more on fish i want to get into some more fish stuff i want to get into some more um things that people don't generally have access to i'm trying to leverage my network and my youtube channel and the the skills

[00:39:17] that i have to get access to certain things so i can share it with people that we wouldn't normally see i want to try and do some more fish room tours of places that have actually not been discovered before you know the guys that are private breeders and things like that i'd like to get in there and i'd like to see that not only for myself but so that i can share it with others um i think in a physical aspect you know i am busy with an expansion i am getting another 10 tanks for the room but i think that's where it's going to end because also for me that's kind of the point where it's like cool

[00:39:44] this room is built to maximum it's at capacity and it's still working like a well-oiled machine um and then you like i said you know community-led approach there's a couple of fish projects that i'm working on now uh there's a couple of tips and trick projects that i'm working on and i've also just launched a 3d printing business pretty much as of this morning um you'll see this fat thing standing behind me is is the first addition to my print farm um but essentially trying to create capability

[00:40:11] for those that don't have access to 3d printing or you know the high costs that an actual 3d printing business might run um i'm going to be catering specific to the aquatic hobby so filter upgrades tank stands things like you know all the little bits and pieces that you can use in the fish room um i'm now offering as a service to those that you know don't have access to it you can send me a design or whatever i can print it for you and i'm just charging people to cover the filament electricity

[00:40:39] costs um so yeah so as far as like there there are a couple of things that i can't actually talk about there's there's some pretty big plans that i'm working on you know with a large uh number of sort of other people in the hobby that you know there's there's a sort of underlying community that wants to really grow some pretty cool stuff specifically in south africa um however there's obviously no concrete plans right now so i can't really share anything create anticipation but yeah i think

[00:41:06] overarching a community-led approach so what the community asks for that's what i'm going to be focusing on um okay like i said my purpose is to give back so that's that's the whole point behind it so so let's pick up on the community thing as we come towards the end of this episode how is that aquarium community helped you know in in playing around your journey you've mentioned that a couple of times but are there particular forums maybe you know you've mentioned a couple of people um

[00:41:34] maybe i should change the question more around how would you suggest someone who's watching this connect into that community so they too can benefit from the the wealth of experience and knowledge and passion that people such as yourselves bring to this hobby i think if i if you know blanket advice and it's and i promise you this is an unbiased opinion youtube is the place to be because not

[00:41:58] only will you have very tangible video graphic easy to digest information and content and very tangible evidence of people doing the things that they're talking about doing you can very easily see if a guy's recommending a certain way to keep shrimp if his tank is empty he's only got a couple of shrimp that's probably not a good way you know um and other than that that's that's just like the one aspect to it at face value it's very interconnected it's a massive interconnected web of uh of different

[00:42:27] aquarists and fish keepers and shrimp breeders and all that kind of stuff and it's it's non-parasitic which is what i love about youtube we all benefit from each other you know if i'm marketing someone like mark shrimp tanks he's marketing someone like shrimp mania who's marketing someone like me there's a whole circle of information and people working together to grow the hobby and i really like that it's not a it's not a competitive place at all as much as what people would think it is

[00:42:53] for the aquarium niche i don't find it to be like like that um and again you know that's that being the face value aspect there is a deeper underlying level where if you look at any of my videos in the description i've got a link to my whatsapp group there you can jump on that and very quickly ask how do i find the discus forum and we'll help you there's there's a huge community that you can very quickly tap into once you're in that first whatsapp group that first discord channel that first telegram unit

[00:43:20] whatever it is on any social media that you might join um it's very quick to get to your local groups and to your local breeders and find the people around you and and get in touch with your local community that's going to help you um and that would be my suggestion because at the end of the day you know it's one thing to be watching the guys in the uk breeding shrimp but your city circumstances are different and it's better um watch them get in for inspiration from them you

[00:43:46] know enjoy that content and and learn from them however your local breeders are going to have answers to questions that you are going to have once you get into certain things um and i do actually want to give a shout out to shawl from aquarium advice south africa he's done an absolutely phenomenal job at building a massive knowledge bank uh on wordpress and he's actually got a community forum there where he lists all the local whatsapp groups so there's discus groups there's breeding groups

[00:44:12] your group my group there's a ton of groups on there for the specific topic that you might be interested in for chat rooms if you just want to make friends in the hobby um so yeah i i would say you know find whatever channel it is that you might want to begin with but it's a very very welcoming community it's very easy to go from your first youtube video to being in a whatsapp group to knowing a hundred people that live in your area that are interested in the same thing that you are absolutely that that is great advice and i think the other piece i would just

[00:44:41] add on to the end of that is don't be afraid to ask yes it's hundred percent you know don't don't be afraid to put your hand up and go guys i really don't know i'm stuck well here's a picture of my fish it's not looking good i had one of the art fish room group this past week where somebody posted a picture with a fish who really wasn't well yeah and folks are able to come along and say we'll try this try that here's an idea what you could do and there was a positive outcome so i think you know don't be afraid to say i don't know something it doesn't matter how many years you've been in the

[00:45:07] hobby or you know ask the question and folks will happily add to to that knowledge base yeah that's honestly one of the things that i love about this this this hobby you know the community really is it's non-parasitic um people want to share information they especially people that have had those problems i went through the pain of understanding how to raise caradina in our specific temperatures and climates and water yes i would love to share that information with that means my

[00:45:35] pain was not in vain you know so so that's kind of like what i love about this hobby and the other thing is you cannot cheat the hobby no amount of money no amount of uh equipment or whatever you know if you're trying to breed a specific thing you have to get it right through experience you are not going to buy a tank that's going to work there's just there is no set and forget kit there is no methodology that's just going to work for everyone from the bat everyone's going to have issues they're going to be unique to them ask the questions because i guarantee your neighbors had the same

[00:46:05] problem and he's the guy that is best fit to answer it for you that's great and maybe that's the right way to end this off you know just by recommending connections with you and uh that's what you know the two of us connected in terms of being able to share a passion in this hobby and i would encourage as you have done others that do exactly that so tristan from my side just a huge thank you for your time today i know you've got lots of things that will keep you busy for the rest of the day i'm

[00:46:30] quite sure um but just from my side and from the arts fish room community and from the aqua's edge podcast side of things just a huge thank you for your time and the passion you bring to this hobby thank you for the time that you put into your youtube videos they certainly are inspirational and as i mentioned earlier there will be a link to tristan's uh youtube channel and the whatsapp group in the description of this video so folks thanks for for tuning in thank you for giving up your time to to watch this conversation there will be more of these interviews coming up in the months

[00:46:59] in the months ahead if there's anybody you would like me to interview please send me their name and i'll reach out to see if we can get them onto this video series so folks stay curious keep learning and keep enjoying this fantastic hobby thanks so much see you next time cheers that's it for this episode of the aqua's edge please consider subscribing to this podcast so that you don't miss further episodes we would love it if you would also rate and review the podcast as this helps make it visible to others

[00:47:24] until next time keep learning and discovering and keep finding your aqua's edge in this captivating and fascinating hobby