Welcome, wabisabi

I am an enrichment teacher for children aged 2 thru 12. My aquatic and semi-aquatic experiences are a knowledge base for teaching . . . my classroom has a small planted tank and a dwarf puffer named Titan, he promptly ate the shrimp and wiped out any and all snails . . . he's a machine

At home, I have 5 nano planted aquariums right now. I have 4 additional tanks, that will be used to replace/upgrade 4 that are currently setup. One houses a Blue Veil Tail Betta named: 青ドラゴン 魚 (Blue Dragon Fish). Another houses a small school of wild green neons - a terra-cotta planter experimental tank. Still another houses a few blue velvet shrimp and ostracods. I am preparing to replace two of my tanks with larger tanks . . . just waiting on the stone to come in.

I like Bucephalandra, Crypt. Spiralis and Retrospiralis plants ... I cannot seem to get Wendtii or Parva to grow for me ... I have some Hudori, Petchii/Becketii, Leganandra, and Pontederiifolia for the new tanks ... I am vastly more interested in planting and the scapes than the fish. I lean more toward biotope tanks - with a bent toward blackwater and botanicals (leaf, stems, pods, and such). I've been converting a number of plants and moss over - to emersion growth - I really love the color differences between these and their submersed forms.

I've made kokedama and am preparing to turn my old Fluval Chi aquariums into glass box planters - a wabi-kusa/riparium approach. Using plants like Acorus and Zephyranthes along with Tripartita and Cardinalis. I like to think of these projects as experiments - tools for learning and teaching.

As for what draws me here, I think it might have been a post or two that I've read here -- and the prevailing thought that I had something useful to contribute to the conversation.