Living water, properly kept.

An aquarium specialist on Gounari Street, Thessaloniki — livestock, plants, hardscape, and the maintenance service that keeps it all alive.

Why we won’t sell you a Common Pleco.

It arrives at three centimetres and reaches forty-five. It outgrows every tank we could honestly sell you alongside it, and it ends up in a bucket, a pond, or a river where it does not belong.

We stock about a third of what a general pet shop stocks, and we turn down sales every week. If your tank is sixty litres, we will point you at a species that finishes its life there — and tell you which of your existing fish is already the problem.

Freshwater display tank

What’s in the shop.

In the tanks this week.

Fresh stock and restocks, updated every Tuesday morning. Reserve by phone and we hold for forty-eight hours.

Tanks built. Tanks fed. Tanks fixed.

Four services, one team. Petros designs and installs, Marianna runs maintenance and diagnostics.

Seven aquascapes. One changes every six weeks.

The gallery is the shop floor. Everything you see is running, planted and stocked — and everything in it is for sale.

The 120cm Iwagumi
IwagumiThe 120cm IwagumiThree Seiryu stones, Eleocharis acicularis, Glossostigma. Eighty Rummy-nose Tetras and nothing else.
The 90cm Dutch
DutchThe 90cm DutchTwelve plant species in stepped beds, trimmed on a fortnightly rota. Cardinal Tetras and a cleanup crew of Otocinclus.
The 60cm Nature Aquarium
Nature AquariumThe 60cm Nature AquariumManzanita driftwood, Bucephalandra and Anubias, six Apistogramma cacatuoides holding territory under the wood.
The 250L Amazon Biotope
BiotopeThe 250L Amazon BiotopeBlack water, leaf litter and branch wood. Wild-caught Cardinal Tetras and two Geophagus pellegrini.

How a new tank gets up and running.

Eight weeks from the first visit to the first fish. No shortcuts, and you see the log.

Site visit

Site visit

Week 0We measure, check the floor loading, find the nearest socket and ask what you want to keep.
Build & delivery

Build & delivery

Week 1-2Custom or off-the-shelf, glass thickness specified, cabinet levelled and plumbed on site.
Hardscape & substrate

Hardscape & substrate

Week 3Wood, rock, aquasoil and capping sand. You see the layout before a drop of water goes in.
Cycling

Cycling

Week 3-6Ammonia source, daily testing, written log. Nothing alive enters the tank during this stage.
Plants in

Plants in

Week 6Planted heavily from day one, trimmed twice before the first fish arrives.
Livestock

Livestock

Week 7-8Stocked progressively, never to capacity in week one. Quarantined stock only.
“AquaLife’s bespoke 120cm Iwagumi placed 47th in the IAPLC last year. They are the most consistent aquascaping retailer in the Balkans and they do it without a single Instagram trick.”
AquaForum GreeceAquascaping competition judge
Where you may have read about us
  • AquaForum Greece
  • IAPLC
  • Practical Fishkeeping
  • Aquascaping Magazine
  • Lifo
  • Athens Voice
  • ERT3

From the journal.

Come and look at the water.

Dimitriou Gounari 18, Thessaloniki. Monday to Friday 09:30–20:00, Saturday 10:00–18:00. Sunday the fish rest and so do we.

Tuesday list, Friday journal.

One email when the livestock list goes up, one when we publish. Nothing else, and no offers you did not ask for.