While most people decorate their homes with posters and lights, junior Aidan Tung brings his space to life with an underwater world. Under his attentive care, vivid corals sway and tiny ecosystems flourish inside his aquarium.
Since childhood, Tung has been fascinated by the many aspects of nature. He was particularly drawn to growing plants and maintaining small ecosystems, leading him to dream of having his own fish tank.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I would really love to grow plants,’ and I wanted a little fish tank,” Tung said. “Eventually, I was like, ‘Okay, let me actually do the research.’”
It was not until eighth grade that Tung brought home his first fish — a small mosquito fish — from a school lab. As he became increasingly interested in aquatic life, he decided to set up a larger aquarium, filling it with other aquatic species such as otocinclus catfish and plants. Soon after, he experimented with fish breeding, raising guppies, mollies and freshwater shrimp, which he sold or traded to local stores.
By sophomore year, Tung was drawn to the beauty and complexity of coral reefs. To fund his new hobby and gain more hands-on experience, he took a job at a family-owned aquarium store, where he managed around 80 tanks alongside seasoned professionals.
“It felt really daunting to just jump into something like this,” Tung said. “So it was great having some people with years of experience guiding me until I could learn enough to really start progressing on my own.”
Now, Tung’s 20-gallon saltwater tank houses over 46 species of coral, including branch-like Acropora. Tung monitors the chemistry of the water weekly using commercial test kits and prepares his own specialized blend of salts to create an optimal environment for his corals.
Although Tung has successfully maintained his reef ecosystem, the journey has not been without its challenges. He once received bleached corals from Florida, which was experiencing major coral death at the time. The process of recovering and recolonizing the corals with symbiotic algae took months — a slow but valuable learning experience for Tung.
“One thing I’ve learned from reef-keeping is patience,” Tung said. “It’s not about trying this miracle and that panacea constantly — when you just let the ecosystem stabilize, that’s when the animals can really start to thrive.”
Despite the difficulties in his journey, Tung finds excitement in seeing his aquarium flourish.
“There was a point when I looked at my aquariums, and I realized things were really growing and thriving, and that it was from all I’d learned since starting,” Tung said. “I was really proud. It’s been amazing being able to experiment and push the envelope of what’s possible.”
Looking ahead, Tung hopes to grow non-photosynthetic corals as well as attempt to spawn corals, a practice that even large research institutions struggled with until recent years. Now there is more research publicly available.
Above all, Tung emphasizes the importance of research for those interested in starting their own fish tanks and reef ecosystems.
“Learn the heck out of your subject,” Tung said. “And you’ll realize that you can never know everything. There’s always more to learn or discover.”
