RE: [APD] two questions

["Adam N." <adam at xhaos_org>]

There are no good books on aquatic plants.  There's the normal fish shop
books with pictures of plants and useless information about lighting and pH,
which at most is a sort of guideline and at worst just wrong.  There's
Dupla's (long live Dupla!) Optimum Aquarium which is better but a sort of
relic and also little more than an advert for the "Dupla System" then
there's the appendix of either the Innes and the other book that's not the
Innes book that was written by Axelrod.  These are as good as and even
somewhat better than the pet shop books but they aren't to good either.  I
am partial to Innes especially old editions.

The there's Diane Waldstat's (spelling)  book "the Ecology of the Planted
Aquarium" which is great only if you want soil in your substrate but makes
great bedtime reading for geeks.

So, as far as actual printed books go there's nothing great.  The Barron's
book called something like "Aquarium Plants" is probably the best readily
available book.  You local public library will likely have several aquarium
books that you can take out and if you are lucky on just on plants. Not many
are worth owning but most are fun to look at.  The Barons book is worth
owning because it's OK and cheap.

The truth is that given enough light, stable water conditions and some time
to settle in and most plants will grow. This isn't rocket science.
Unfortunately there's no real solution as to what works for you besides
experience.  That's why people can talk for so long on this list.

The best references are www.thekrib.com and the archives of this very list.
I still consult www.thekrib.com even though I have been doing this
successfully for 10 years.

Staple or tie the Java fern to a piece of wood.

Adam
Dean in '04



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