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RE: Amano in Baltimore



>     My wife works in Baltimore and was reading  my mail over my shoulder.
> She tells me that the Borders book store (visible from the National
Aquarium)
> has a huge planted tank at the top of the escalator on the second floor.
She
> says that has to be it.  Have fun while you're here.
> Pierre Gagne
> Kensington, MD

It's at the Borders in the Inner Harbor, and it was sponsored by the
National Aquarium in Baltimore.  I don't think Takashi Amano had a role in
it, though.  A volunteer at the Aquarium explained to me that it was a "dry
run" for their expansion of the Amazon rainforest exhibit.  I never saw the
tank when it was first set up, but I was told that it was initially
underlit -- within a few weeks, they had to shut it down because of the
algae and put in new lighting.  It's still got some problems with
cyanobacteria (well, at least it did about a month ago).  Some of the lights
aren't even aimed at the plants, but at the bare rock.

The 3,000 gallon tank is claimed as "the largest display of aquatic plants
in a single tank in the United States".  It's a neat feat of engineering,
but the plants don't look especially healthy.

Here's the National Aquarium's press release about the tank:
http://www.aqua.org/information/media/prbr&nbl.html

Alysoun McLaughlin
Wheaton, MD (Just a bit up Connecticut Avenue, toward Aspen Hill)