MACI is not a method.
It is not a list of steps.
It is not a weekly routine.
It is not a sequence of actions repeated to obtain a guaranteed result.
MACI does not tell you what to do on Monday or what to fix on Friday.
It does not prescribe calendars, schedules, or corrective rituals.
MACI is a system.
And by definition, it is an antidogmatic system.
MACI exists in direct opposition to the classical dogma of aquarium keeping:
the idea that there is a single correct, universal, and replicable way to maintain an aquarium, valid for all systems, at all times.
MACI does not go against people.
It does not go against names.
It does not go against specific schools or authors.
It goes against the framework that turns useful methods into unquestionable truths.
A Walstad aquarium can be MACI.
A high-tech aquarium can be MACI.
An aquarium with CO₂, without CO₂, with more or less technology, can also be MACI.
Technique does not define MACI.
Equipment does not define MACI.
Style does not define MACI.
What defines MACI is the relationship with the system.
MACI shifts the focus away from intervention
and places it on observation, time, biological memory, and restraint.
MACI assumes something uncomfortable:
that many aquariums fail not because something is missing,
but because the system is constantly interrupted.
MACI is not about doing less for ideological reasons.
It is about understanding when not to act,
and recognizing when intervention destroys more information than it creates.
MACI treats the aquarium as a living system,
not as a project to be continuously corrected.
A system that learns.
A system that adapts.
A system that compensates.
MACI does not promise speed.
It does not promise control.
It does not promise perfection.
It offers something else:
stability built over time, without constant correction.
MACI is not anti-technology.
It is not low-tech or high-tech.
MACI 1 is post-dogma.
MACI begins when the aquarist steps out of the center of the system
and allows biology to do what it has always done best:
organize itself.
MACI is not a method.
It is a way of looking.
SPANISH VERSION: MACI — Manifiesto
Author
MACI is a system developed and written by César Riveiro de la Peña,
based on years of observation, long-term aquarium systems, and documented experiments.
MACI is not a brand created by a company.
It is the result of a single author’s work and lived practice.