eldaldo
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As per jennewt's request I am going to write a little about this book.
First and foremost, it is a book geared towards fish aquarists. And it is a heavy read with alot of chemistry and biology. To sum up the book: the author wrote the book to bring it to the reader's attention that an aquarium is a sort of (semi)closed ecosystem, and it needs to be thought of as this in order to be successful in raising the plants and animals inside the aquarium. she then describes the biological principles behind her methods of setting up and maintaining "low-tech" planted aquariums (as opposed to hi-tech, like those of takashi amano). She uses a plethora of scientific paper references to back up her methods and ideas. and then at the end of each chapter relates how these principles and ideas work within the spectrum of aquariums. The chapters cover topics like, "plants as water purifiers," "sources of plant nutrients," bacteria, carbon sources, substrate, lighting, and "algae control." She inserts periodic question and answer boxes within the book where a practical issue that someone has had with their planted aquarium is answered using her scientific principles. She also includes data from some personal experiments she conducted for the book.
Now, as for what I think of it and how it has changed my newt aquariums. overall I liked the book alot. The concept of the aquarium as its own ecosystem really excites me, and I had never really realised to what extent this is true until I read this book. and as a biology lab technician, the scientific aspect of it was really interesting. I learned some stuff about bacteria that I never knew before. Something I really like about it is that it has some things that I have heard elsewhere, but instead of just explaining, she goes into how and why it is true. We all know the general idea behind the nitrogen cycle, but she went into some serious depth, and I appreciate that.
as far as newts go, I tried adding hornwort and anachris to my tanks to remove nitrates and nitrites from the water, and I stopped using a filter (which she does not specifically suggest in the book, but I read elsewhere [http://naturalaquariums.com/] on the internet that people have done this with success if they are careful). after several months without a filter I was amazed to find no nitrites and the nitrates in my tank at a reasonable level. and my newts seem to be fine. as far as other things she suggests like using dirt as a substrate under the gravel layer, I have not tried this, but it does interest me. I might try it sometime in the future, though probably not with newts (if they even got close to the dirt . . . what a mess!). she suggests that the best way to control algae is to outcompete it with fast growing plants, and to keep nutrient levels low. and, i have noticed that with the fast growing hornwort, that there is less algae. So, if you like the idea of planted newt tanks and semi-controlled ecosystems in your tanks I think there is alot of information that is useful in this book. But, one word of warning is that newts are much bigger than fish and mine eat much more than my fish (thus larger bioload), so I am not sure whether plants could adequately filter tanks with a high newt density.
as far as cons, I feel she leans to much on the scientific side and there is not enough practical information. I feel like she should have given more setup ideas and pictures of her setups. and I sometimes question the validity of her use of scientific papers. I feel like she uses data from experiments done in systems that are not relative to the aquarium, and sometimes uses plants that aren't feasible to grow in aquariums as evidence for aquarium related topics. but this is just my opinion.
Overall: as a newt enthusiast, this book is probably not worth the money. as a planted tank enthusiast, this book has a lot of good ideas, and is sort of a alternate view on the hobby than you will find many places. And, most of the ideas can be used in planted newt tanks.
But this is just my personal opinion. As Lavar Burton always used to say, "don't take my word for it!"
First and foremost, it is a book geared towards fish aquarists. And it is a heavy read with alot of chemistry and biology. To sum up the book: the author wrote the book to bring it to the reader's attention that an aquarium is a sort of (semi)closed ecosystem, and it needs to be thought of as this in order to be successful in raising the plants and animals inside the aquarium. she then describes the biological principles behind her methods of setting up and maintaining "low-tech" planted aquariums (as opposed to hi-tech, like those of takashi amano). She uses a plethora of scientific paper references to back up her methods and ideas. and then at the end of each chapter relates how these principles and ideas work within the spectrum of aquariums. The chapters cover topics like, "plants as water purifiers," "sources of plant nutrients," bacteria, carbon sources, substrate, lighting, and "algae control." She inserts periodic question and answer boxes within the book where a practical issue that someone has had with their planted aquarium is answered using her scientific principles. She also includes data from some personal experiments she conducted for the book.
Now, as for what I think of it and how it has changed my newt aquariums. overall I liked the book alot. The concept of the aquarium as its own ecosystem really excites me, and I had never really realised to what extent this is true until I read this book. and as a biology lab technician, the scientific aspect of it was really interesting. I learned some stuff about bacteria that I never knew before. Something I really like about it is that it has some things that I have heard elsewhere, but instead of just explaining, she goes into how and why it is true. We all know the general idea behind the nitrogen cycle, but she went into some serious depth, and I appreciate that.
as far as newts go, I tried adding hornwort and anachris to my tanks to remove nitrates and nitrites from the water, and I stopped using a filter (which she does not specifically suggest in the book, but I read elsewhere [http://naturalaquariums.com/] on the internet that people have done this with success if they are careful). after several months without a filter I was amazed to find no nitrites and the nitrates in my tank at a reasonable level. and my newts seem to be fine. as far as other things she suggests like using dirt as a substrate under the gravel layer, I have not tried this, but it does interest me. I might try it sometime in the future, though probably not with newts (if they even got close to the dirt . . . what a mess!). she suggests that the best way to control algae is to outcompete it with fast growing plants, and to keep nutrient levels low. and, i have noticed that with the fast growing hornwort, that there is less algae. So, if you like the idea of planted newt tanks and semi-controlled ecosystems in your tanks I think there is alot of information that is useful in this book. But, one word of warning is that newts are much bigger than fish and mine eat much more than my fish (thus larger bioload), so I am not sure whether plants could adequately filter tanks with a high newt density.
as far as cons, I feel she leans to much on the scientific side and there is not enough practical information. I feel like she should have given more setup ideas and pictures of her setups. and I sometimes question the validity of her use of scientific papers. I feel like she uses data from experiments done in systems that are not relative to the aquarium, and sometimes uses plants that aren't feasible to grow in aquariums as evidence for aquarium related topics. but this is just my opinion.
Overall: as a newt enthusiast, this book is probably not worth the money. as a planted tank enthusiast, this book has a lot of good ideas, and is sort of a alternate view on the hobby than you will find many places. And, most of the ideas can be used in planted newt tanks.
But this is just my personal opinion. As Lavar Burton always used to say, "don't take my word for it!"
