Aquatic Rhythm
Aligned with living systems.
aquaticrhythm.com · [email protected]
What This Is
Aquatic Rhythm is a small, independent project built around one observation: most aquarium problems are not mistakes — they are misalignment.
At its core is ARA — Aquatic Rhythm Alignment — a conceptual framework for reading closed aquatic ecosystems through rhythm, phase, and the reality of human care. ARA treats the aquarium not as a machine to be tuned, but as a living system that responds to patterns, consistency, and time.
This repository hosts the website and all associated project files.
The Framework
ARA is built on four principles:
- Timing before technique — the right moment matters more than the right action
- Capacity before ambition — honest assessment of what your real life can sustain
- Rhythm before intensity — small consistent care outperforms dramatic intervention
- Observation before correction — watch and understand before you disturb
Behind these principles is a complete ecological system of thinking — five interlocking rhythms, three phases of system maturity, and a recognition that human behaviour is not external to the ecosystem. It is part of it.
Rhyssa
Rhyssa is the conversational companion of Aquatic Rhythm, shaped by ARA.
She does not answer before she understands. She does not manufacture urgency where there is none. She moves at the pace living systems actually need.
Rhyssa is available as a floating companion on every page of the site, and also lives as a custom GPT on ChatGPT:
Meet Rhyssa
Labs & Tools
Three interactive tools for planning, learning, and reading your tank:
Tank Builder
Equipment and livestock planning lab. Choose fish first and discover what equipment they need — or build your setup first and see what species it can support. Tracks all five ARA rhythms (Water, Biological, Environmental, Livestock, Human) in real time as you build.
Tank Cycle Simulator
Interactive nitrogen cycle simulator. Choose your tank size, cycling method, and plants — then watch the cycle unfold one simulated day at a time. Make real decisions (feeding, water changes, equipment) and see how the biology responds.
Community Stress Lab
Ecological pressure map for hypothetical freshwater communities. Add up to 6 species and see overlapping pressures across six dimensions: thermal, chemistry, space, predation, social tension, and dwarf shrimp safety. For planning and learning — not a compatibility guarantee.
Reading
Aquatic Rhythm publishes short guided articles — not long-form guides. Each piece is built as a modular reading experience: one idea at a time, with interactive visuals where relevant.
Current articles (32 total):
- Adding new fish · Algae in aquarium · Aquarium filter maintenance
- Aquarium maintenance routine · Aquarium not a project · Aquarium plants not growing
- Aquarium travel & vacation · Betta fish behaviour · Caring without guilt
- Community fish tank · Cycled tank problems · Fish gasping at surface
- Fish hiding · Fish keep dying in new tank · Four principles of ARA
- How often water changes · Ich keeps coming back · Know your rhythm
- Low tech planted tank · New tank syndrome · Nitrate keeps rising
- Overfeeding aquarium · Perfect parameters but fish dying · Reading the five rhythms
- Shrimp dying · Tank builder · Tank crash recovery · Tank simulator
- When hobby stops feeling good · When is tank ready for fish · Why is water cloudy
Repository Structure
/
├── index.html — main website (single-page application)
├── 404.html — SPA redirect for GitHub Pages routing
├── offline.html — PWA offline fallback page
├── share-photos.html — photo submission form (Formspree AJAX, links only)
├── sw.js — service worker (network-first shell + article cache)
├── manifest.json — PWA manifest
├── favicon.png — site favicon (48×48)
├── apple-touch-icon.png — home screen icon (192×192)
├── og-image.png — social sharing image (1200×630)
├── CNAME — custom domain (aquaticrhythm.com)
├── robots.txt — crawler directives, points to sitemap-index.xml
├── sitemap.xml, sitemap-en.xml,
│ sitemap-ms.xml, sitemap-id.xml,
│ sitemap-ja.xml,
│ sitemap-index.xml — per-language sitemaps + index
├── _headers — security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, etc.)
├── package.json — dev tooling (lint, test, syntax check, i18n/sitemap scripts)
├── .gitignore — ignores .claude/, node_modules/, .env*, etc.
├── README.md — this file
│
├── operations/
│ └── security/
│ └── post-deploy-header-validation.md — post-deploy security header checklist
│
├── docs/
│ ├── waf-github-pages.md — WAF in front of GitHub Pages origin
│ ├── community-stress-lab-mvp.md — MVP spec: Community Stress Lab
│ ├── ARA-framework-v2.md — ARA framework reference (v2)
│ └── ARA-psychology-foundations.md — psychology foundations for ARA
│
├── data/
│ ├── community-stress-lab-species-v1.json — species pack (90+ freshwater species)
│ └── community-stress-lab-species.schema.json — JSON Schema for species pack rows
│
├── articles/ — English standalone HTML pages (32 total)
│ ├── tank-simulator.html — interactive nitrogen cycle simulator
│ ├── tank-builder.html — equipment / livestock planning lab
│ ├── community-stress-lab.html — tank mates ecological pressure map
│ └── [29 reading articles]
│
├── reading/ — English reading index page
├── about/, privacy/, terms/, ara/,
│ rhyssa/ — standalone supporting pages
│
├── ms/, id/, ja/ — localized site trees (articles/ + reading/)
│
├── translations/
│ ├── ms/ — Malay translation JSON (status: ready / draft per file)
│ ├── id/ — Indonesian translation JSON
│ └── ja/ — Japanese translation JSON
│ Each <slug>.json is the source of truth; localized HTML under
│ /<lang>/articles/ is generated by scripts/build-i18n.mjs.
│
├── css/
│ ├── style.css — main stylesheet (SPA, ecosystem BG, animations)
│ ├── ar-page.css — shared styles for all article/tool pages
│ └── kofi-sheet.css — Ko-fi support widget styles
│
├── js/
│ ├── ui.js — SPA routing core: cursor, mobile nav,
│ │ page routing, scroll reveal, reading
│ │ progress. Loads first; exposes window.go.
│ ├── ui-eco-toggle.js — header fauna/flora eco-toggle (extracted)
│ ├── ui-reading-pathways.js — "continue reading" card + analytics
│ ├── ui-journal.js — Keeper's Log (tanks, entries, streaks,
│ │ sparklines, inhabitants, gear)
│ ├── ui-rhyssa-sheet.js — Rhyssa floating chat (bottom sheet)
│ ├── ui-rhyssa-page.js — Rhyssa standalone companion page
│ ├── ui-settings.js — settings panel (motion, units, PWA install)
│ ├── ar-page.js — shared nav logic for article/tool pages
│ ├── community-stress-lab.js — Community Stress Lab rules engine + UI
│ ├── rhyssa-fab-ext.js — Rhyssa AI companion chat interface
│ ├── content-trust.js — content trust / attribution helper
│ ├── ecosystem.js — background ecosystem canvas animation
│ ├── fauna.js — fauna layer for ecosystem visual
│ ├── tank-data.js — Tank Simulator constants and data
│ └── kofi-sheet.js — Ko-fi support widget logic
│
├── img/ — image assets
│
├── worker/ — Cloudflare Worker: Rhyssa AI chat proxy
│ ├── index.js — Anthropic API proxy with origin + rate guards
│ └── wrangler.toml — Wrangler config (route, vars, deploy notes)
│
├── scripts/ — Node build scripts (ES modules, no runtime deps)
│ ├── extract-i18n.mjs — scaffold translation JSON from English articles
│ ├── build-i18n.mjs — generate localized article HTML from translations
│ ├── build-reading-index.mjs — generate per-language /reading index pages
│ ├── update-sitemap.mjs — regenerate per-language sitemaps + index
│ └── enrich-tank-builder-plants.mjs — enrich Tank Builder plant data
│
└── tests/ — lightweight Node test suite (node --test)
└── community-stress-lab.test.mjs — syntax + smoke tests for the rules engine
Design System
All pages share a unified dark aquatic identity:
- Background: Deep blue-black gradient (
#050a08) with animated water caustics and light rays
- Accent: Cyan (
#3DD6E8) for interactive elements, status indicators, and highlights
- Typography: Fraunces (serif, headings and italic accents) + Work Sans (sans-serif, UI and body)
- Header pattern:
[Logo · AQUATIC Rhythm] ————— [⚙] — consistent across all pages and tools
- Intro pattern: All tools (Tank Builder, Tank Simulator, Community Stress Lab) open with a branded briefing screen — same visual identity, tool-specific content
Tool-specific header extensions
Tank Simulator — sub-toolbar below the header:
[☀️ Day N · status] ————————————— [+1d] [⏸ Pause]
Settings button on articles is auto-injected by ar-page.js — no per-file HTML changes needed.
Security Operations
Baseline deployment and WAF tuning in front of origin GitHub Pages is documented at:
Security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy,
Permissions-Policy) are served via _headers at the edge.
AI Companion Worker
The Rhyssa floating companion talks to Anthropic via a Cloudflare Worker so the API
key never reaches the browser. See worker/index.js and
worker/wrangler.toml. The Worker enforces an origin allowlist,
bounds message size and history depth, and exposes a /health endpoint.
Deploy:
cd worker
wrangler deploy
wrangler secret put ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
Developer Setup
The site is plain HTML/CSS/vanilla JS — no build step is required to view it.
Node tooling is only needed when running the i18n / sitemap scripts, lint, or tests.
Requirements: Node 18+ (tested on Node 20).
# Install dev dependencies (ESLint only)
npm install
# Static checks
npm run lint # ESLint over js/, scripts/, worker/, tests/
npm run check:syntax # `node --check` on every .js / .mjs file
npm test # node --test (lightweight smoke tests)
npm run check # lint + syntax + tests
# i18n / sitemap helpers (no install required — pure Node ESM)
node scripts/build-i18n.mjs --all
node scripts/build-reading-index.mjs
node scripts/update-sitemap.mjs
Serve locally with any static file server (e.g. npx http-server . or
python3 -m http.server). The SPA expects to be served from the repo root.
Project Status
Aquatic Rhythm evolves slowly and deliberately.
Changes are made when understanding matures — not according to release cycles. The framework, the companion, and the website are all works in progress, shaped by use and observation over time.
This is not a finished product. It is a living exploration.
Contact
[email protected]
