Re: Ecology of the Planted Aquarium

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Brian Rippon said, in part:

> . . .I 
> suggest you invest in a copy of Diane Walstad's 'Ecology
> of the Planted Aquarium'.  
> She outlines what nutrients plants actually need, how
> each nutrient is 
> absorbed, plant physiology as related to nutrient uptake,
> and what substrates (soil) 
> and fertilizers to use. . . if you're not content to 
> have only growing,
> algae-free plants and need 
> them to grow at the fastest possible rate, don't buy this
> book and don't use 
> soil as a substrate.  That method of aquatic gardening is
> better outlined by 
> posts from websites that deal with subtrate additives and
> trace element 
> fertilizers.

I couldn't disagree more.  Diane's book is more than an
outline of one method of aquatic gardening.  It is one of
the very few available books that is based on science
rather than selling postcard pictures, yet is easily
accessible to most readers.  The basic information about
growing plants is widely applicable, even though one of
Diane's prime aims is to describe an extremely low
maintenance method of aquatic gardening.  I believe one of
her motivations for producing the book was to defend her
low maintenance method, which many at one time doubted
would work.  Along the way, one can't help but have a
better understanding of how plants grow using her "slow
grow" or fast grow methods such the one describe by, for
example, George and Karla Booth (
http://www.frii.com/~gbooth/AquaticConcepts/  )  .  The
method described by Booth is only one of at least a half
dozen more or less distinct methods for growing plants.

I think _Ecology of the Plnated Aquarium_, and all the work
behind it, set a new standard for books in the hobby.  The
book is one that every serious aquatic gardener ought to
consider owning or, at the very least, reading.

Picture books are nice, but they don't tell you much about
how plants grow plants nicely.

You can find Diane's web pages here:

http://www.atlasbooks.com/marktplc/00388.htm#Aquarium


and you can also buy the book here, along with some other
books that I would call high priority for any serious
gardener of wet plants:

http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/bookstore.html

Either of the two other books listed at the AGA ( _The
Aquarium Plant Handbook_ from Oriental Aquarium and
_Tropica Aquarium Plants_ from the famous aquatic nursery
of the same name) are good reference works for basic info
on a large number of plants -- they're especially nice if
you can't afford Christel Kasselmann's _Aquarium Plants_

Good luck, good fun,
Scott H.

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