ScienceGal Aquatics
69 episodes listed below
Fishkeeping lessons from the messy middle.
Aquarium Dilemmas follows Keri and Jesse through the everyday decisions that come with keeping fish, from substrate choices and feeding habits to equipment repairs. The mood is friendly and lived-in, with advice shaped by mistakes, store finds, fish room emergencies, and years of hands-on tinkering.
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Aquarium Dilemmas is fishkeeping talk from inside the hobby rather than above it. Keri and Jesse speak like two people surrounded by tanks, tubs, filters, hoses, plants, and unfinished lessons. The show is casual, but the details are specific. Substrate is not just gravel or sand; it becomes paver sand, calcium carbonate, brown diatom algae, fry research, hardware-store labels, rinsing work, and the long chain of discoveries that follows one wrong bag. Outdoor keeping gets the same treatment. Summer tubs and a small pond lead into breeding plans, pest control, overwintering decisions, heavy tubs, drain valves, rainwater, and the difficulty of catching tiny babies at the end of the season. The show also spends time on the social side of aquariums. Aquashella, conventions, clubs, aquascaping contests, creator lists, plant-placement regrets, and show-floor shopping all show up as part of the same lived hobby. It is not all smooth advice. The strongest moments often come from things going wrong. A leaking airline hose, water on the floor, a pipe problem, or a broken filter becomes a story about listening for water, knowing the main shutoff, and learning what can be fixed before it gets thrown away. Jesse often brings the repair-minded angle, especially around equipment maintenance, old canister filters, O-rings, air stones, and the value of taking something apart to understand it. Keri brings long memory, enthusiasm, self-correction, and the habit of turning fish room mistakes into usable warnings. Feeding episodes keep the same grounded pace, moving from livebearers and a silver arowana to the old reliance on cheap grocery-store flakes and the need to match food and schedules to the fish being kept. Aquarium Dilemmas works because it does not pretend the hobby is tidy. It treats panic, curiosity, bargain hunting, soreness from lifting tubs, and excitement about shows as normal parts of keeping fish. The result is warm, wandering, practical company for aquarists who like lessons with the story still attached.
Made for: For aquarium hobbyists who enjoy practical talk about tanks, ponds, equipment, feeding, shows, and mistakes. It fits beginners and longtime keepers who prefer conversational experience over polished instruction.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its couple-at-the-fish-room perspective: Keri and Jesse compare memory, maintenance habits, and mishaps in real time. Advice comes through stories about what actually broke, leaked, grew algae, or worked better than expected.
Fishkeeping is fantastic and extremely rewarding. Caring for Aquariums, like any other hobby, can have its struggles. Aquarium Dilemmas is a Podcast for the Aquarium hobbyist, no matter the experience level, fish kept, or if you have a low or high-tech fish tank. We are discussing the array of aquarium-related topics from a couple's point of view, driving deeper into various fish tank concerns and goals. Let's have a conversation where we can come together, be friends, and not shy away from the fishkeeping hobby's positive and negative Aquarium Dilemmas.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Keri and Jesse make fishkeeping setbacks useful by turning leaks, equipment failures and setup mistakes into practical lessons.
Aquarium Dilemmas turns fish-room problems into easygoing conversations between host Keri, who appears as ScienceGal Aquatics, and co-host Jesse.
Water on the ceiling is a fish-room nightmare; Keri and Jesse make yours feel less lonely.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A substrate-focused episode that turns a school project and a few sand mistakes into useful hobby advice.
Aquarium Dilemmas spends this hour on substrates, following ScienceGal Aquatics and Jesse from a childhood 30-gallon tank to hardware-store sand, paver sand, calcium carbonate, and the brown algae that appeared when one material behaved differently in water.
A practical look at summer ponds, livestock tubs, and the cleanup they demand.
Aquarium Dilemmas keeps its attention on summer tubbing, a small in-ground pond, and the pests and upkeep that follow warm weather. The discussion moves from the pond's shape and size to what can live outside, what can be drained, and how much harder the work gets once the…
A practical, lived-in look at aquarium conventions, grounded in hobby experience.
Aquarium Dilemmas makes a solid case for aquarium conventions by keeping the focus on the questions that actually matter: whether the trip is worth it, what can still be found on day one, how far it makes sense to travel, and what aquascaping contests bring to the table.
A practical listen for aquarium keepers who want a nudge toward maintenance and repair.
Keri and Jesse keep the discussion on aquarium equipment maintenance, and that focus gives the episode its pull. Broken or questionable gear is treated as something to clean, coax back into shape, and try to save.
A fish-room panic reel with enough detail to make every drip feel personal.
Aquarium Dilemmas leans into the kind of fish-room panic that can make a keeper stop in the doorway and take stock: leaks, illness, jumping fish, and equipment mishaps all show up in Keri and Jesse's practical recollections.
Real-world wisdom for adventure riders.
Shop talk with the doubts left in.
Beer talk for the first drink of the weekend.
Seasonal gardening from the muddy middle of the work.
Board game talk from inside the group.
Garage talk for motorcycle lifers.
Carrie and Jesse of Science Gale Aquatics mark their 11-year anniversary by questioning the claim that fish keeping is male-dominated, saying women are simply less visible on YouTube.
Keri and Jesse spend the episode on substrate, tracing how fish keeping has changed for Keri over the years.
Summer tubbing takes the lead.
Keri and Jesse chew over whether aquarium shows are really worth it.
Keri and Jesse spend the conversation on aquarium equipment maintenance and why so much of it can be fixed instead of tossed.
Keri and Jesse spend the hour on fish-room panic.
The hosts discuss their feeding routines and diets for various fish in their aquariums, sharing personal experiences and tips.