To learn more or pledge your donation, visit The Aquarium Life’s Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign.

Thomas Brown tells Advanced Aquarist about himself and describes his vision for the documentary:

I started my YouTube Channel ThomasVisionReef on February 25, 2013.

I live in Atlanta but I currently travel all over the country to create visually stunning and entertaining aquarium videos.

I am passionate about aquariums but I like to keep things light with a little humor on my channel and I don’t proclaim to be an expert in the aquarium hobby. I love being a hobbyist that is why I try to create videos from a hobbyist perspective.

On my YouTube channel I have two main web series, Local Fish Store Travel and Tank Wars. For Local Fish Store Travel I tirelessly seek out and film some of the most unique aquarium stores in the world. I do not charge stores for this exposure, this is simply a means to give back to the hobby by helping small business owners get exposure). The other web series I host is an aquarium competition called Tank Wars. In this series two aquariums similar in size/gallons face off against each other and my viewers get to choose the winner for each episode.

I hold a Bachelor’s and Masters in Fine Arts with a Focus in Film, TV Production and Journalism from New York Institute of Technology in Manhattan, NY. If I was to be considered an aquarium nerd then I am equally a film nerd. I wear both titles with pride.

ABOUT “THE AQUARIUM LIFE“
In the documentary “The Aquarium Life” I don’t want the story of the aquarium community told from my perspective. I want the aquarium community to tell its own story and I will just have the privilege to give this amazing hobby a voice by recording its story.

Other directors of documentaries have told me that when filming a documentary the story is not told but found once the filming is all done. With that said I hope to help tell the untold story of people in the aquarium world going out of their way to do good. Businesses investing time and resources for progress with no promise of returns. There are entire communities of fishermen and coral farmers who depend on the sustainable harvest and cultivation of ornamental marine life to feed their families. You can find some of these stories in articles or books but I feel that these stories need to be preserved and shared on a grander scale.

I would also like to share the contributions and innovations being made by hobbyist. I am so excited to become an explorer of the aquarium world when we start filming this documentary. I am sure there is gold waiting to be discovered in exploring the vast world of keeping corals and marine fish. However, without the support of the aquarium community this film cannot be made.