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Re: art, crypts, space



> I am seriously now considering restarting my "The art
> of planted aquaria" non-technical email list.  If any
> folks find these sorts of conversations at least as
> interesting as algae and DIY, then maybe we'll restart
> it.
> 
> Arthur

I like the topics. 
Setting aside room for "space" to have a design that can open up seems to be
the most common issue at least in North America.
This is changing faster these days. Many are moving beyond this.

Folks generally have far less algae and plant health problems and guessing
what to do these days. I would hope folks would be more able to focus on the
art aspects that most originally had started out with before they ran into
algae/plant growth issues. It fairly well understood how to keep the plants
healthy and growing and what's require as far as routines.

So more folks will hopefully be focusing on the art aspects.

But one thing about art and Zen is a sense of old age and time. Crypts are
nice plants for this since it's difficult to plant many of the species
without waiting a few months, years in some cases for them to fill in just
right.

Many folks have been on the hunt for various fast growing stem plants over
the last couple of years. But many have forgotten the King of Aquarium
plants, the Crypts. There are 60+ species. There are a wide range of leaf
shapes, sizes, colors, rarity. They use to be more common inn the
1970's-1980's likely due to Bob Gasser.

Low to moderate light, slower growing, these are a very nice group of plants
to work with.

Redoing a basic design 100 different ways is fun also. Van Gogh and many
other artist painted a similar scene many times. Photographers take many
pictures of the same scene. I've played around with 50+ rock designs for one
small tank. 

Make the tank simple and easy to work on. The routine should be simple and
access easy. This will make it more likely for you to work on the tank.

Regards, 
Tom Barr