Aquarium Zen

About Aquarium Zen

Aquarium Zen is a sole-proprietor shop on NE 64th Street built entirely around the Nature Aquarium style pioneered by Takashi Amano: layouts of driftwood, stone, and live plants designed as miniature landscapes rather than simple fish tanks. Owner Steve Waldron has over thirty years of aquarium experience, holds Master Fish Breeder and Master Aquatic Horticulturist recognition from the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society, and has written for AMAZONAS magazine. The shop doubles as a display gallery, with show tanks meant to inspire customers' own aquascapes, and a 'hardscape dojo' where visitors can arrange wood and stone before committing to a purchase. Reviewers consistently describe it as feeling more like a public aquarium or art gallery than a retail pet store, and single out Waldron's patient, low-pressure guidance for beginners and experienced aquascapers alike. Its fish selection is curated specifically to complement planted tanks rather than to offer the broadest possible inventory, which sets it apart from general-purpose fish stores in the region.

Specialties

• Nature Aquarium aquascaping
• aquatic plants
• planted freshwater tanks
• hardscape (wood and stone)
• curated tropical fish