The studio · Singapore · Since 2022

It started when art met nature. Science is what makes it last.

Name: Chai Chee Safari
Address: 475 Geylang Road, 389434, SG
Telephone: +65 8318 4837

Chai Chee Safari is a founder-led studio in Geylang that designs, builds and keeps alive aquascapes, paludariums, vivariums and terrariums.

Our story

Two hobbies, one glass box

Our founder, Di Kai, started as a hobbyist with two loves: aquascaping (planted underwater landscapes) and terrariums. Then he found out the two could share one tank. Water below, land above. That is a paludarium, and that is where the obsession began.

Today Chai Chee Safari builds all three: aquariums, terrariums and paludariums. We specialise in paludariums because we're good at them. They are also the hardest of the three to get right.

The formula

Three things hold every build up.

A CCS hardscape composed before planting

01 · The eye

Art

Composed by hand, before a drop of water goes in.

Every build starts as a drawing: where the wood leans, where the waterline sits, what your eye lands on first from across the room. Then it is cut, carved and planted by our team, one piece at a time. The composition is the one part of a build that can't be ordered in.

So we don't design for free. The eye is the work.

Altum angelfish among plants in a CCS aquascape

02 · The point

Nature

A working ecosystem, not just a display.

Plants root, moss spreads, the water clears as its bacteria settle in, and the animals (frogs, crabs, shrimp, fish) behave the way they would outdoors, because the conditions are the ones they evolved for. A build from us looks better in month six than on delivery day. That is the point of it.

So no animal goes into a build that isn't suitable for it.

Lighting and misting over a CCS living wall

03 · The backbone

Science

Balance you can measure.

Behind every build is a set of numbers: how much light the plants need, how often the water is cleaned, how warm and humid the air stays. We work those out first, then put them on timers, so the system looks after itself while you get on with life. If something starts to go wrong, we see it in the numbers before you see it in the plants.

So we don't hide how it works. Every build hands over with its settings, and diagnosis is always free.

Why all three

Take one away and none of it works.

Art without science

A beautiful build that fades.

Science without art

A fish tank with a spreadsheet.

Either without nature

Décor.

We don't build below that line. It is also why we teach: free care guides, hands-on workshops, and a studio that is still on the other end of a message years after handover.

The people