Re: [APD] Spoon Feeding vs. Look it up for yourself!

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

Heads bitten off are rare occurences on APD. Now and then
someone might reply abrubtly, but more often the abruptness
is concision rather than derision. In this case, James was
definitely speaking in anger; he said so.

I think the members mainly try to be tolerant. That goes
for James too who has helped many a person that reads APD.
And he lent tremendous effort to developing the first
international aquascaping contest.

APD is a place where experts and novices, career gardeners
and casual hobbyist all help each other. Your comment about
others doing the research for you so you won't have to do
it certainly could have seemed to some as, well, a bit
provocative. When I read it, I assumed you were making a
joke. I thought so because I believe that no sensible
person would think that not reading was a good or promising
idea. Anyway, answers from the list can be invaluable but
they won't take the place of experience nor even what a
little independent research can do. From your later
response, I think you think so, too. But you're not
confident that Diana's book is right for you.

Compared to, say, _The Feynman Lectures on Physics_, or
more closely related, Schulthorpe's _The Biology of Aquatic
Vascular Plants_, Diana's book is a walk in the park, but
there is science in there nonetheless. Compared to one of
those more-pictures-than-text aquatic hobby books that you
might find in a lfs, Diana's book is deserved called a
treatise. The book was designed to be accessibile to the
average hobbyist, but it's a learning tool, not designed
primarily for entertainment. If chemnistry is hard for you
-- it certainly is for me -- then _Ecology of the Planted
Aquarium_ might be just the ticket. It helps those of us
that don't know a mole in chemistry from one in the yard
learn about what plants need. And it describes ways to
provide those things, doing so with less arithmetic than my
10-year-old daughter uses on any given day. So I suggest
giving it another try. Maybe you can borrow it and read a
couple chapters. I still think you'll find it worthwhile,
and I'll bet you even 'dog-ear' a few pages as do mmany of
us.

Good luck, good fun,
Scott H.
--- Daniel Larsson <defdac at hotmail_com> wrote:
> 
> Whoops. I'm sorry, but now I'm confused.
> 
> I spend a lot of time explaining at Swedish forums what I
> learn from this
> list, over and over again without chopping the noobs
> heads off - alot
> like spoon-feeding actually. The aquatic gardening hobby
> in Sweden
> is in it's infancy, so a great deal of spoon feeding is
> necessary - and
> it's worth it. I get new cool aquascape pictures from
> really young "noobs"
> in my mailbox more and more often.
> 
> I thought a mailing list was about asking questions, but
> I guess my
> question was a really noob-question or something.
> 
> I'm mostly into gardening/design and have a hard time
> with the chemistry -
> especially when it comes to hardness/calcium/carbonates
> etc, and
> now that my high-tech is running fairly smoothly I wanted
> to dive
> into the low-tech-slow-growth tanks.
> 
> So a very specific answer means very much to me, as it's
> hard
> puzzeling everything together.
> 
> Ok, I have the Kasselman-book but havn't got around
> buying
> Dianas book yet. I've browsed it and it looked very
> academic
> and complicated, but I guess I will need it from now on.


=====
-  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
It's the Contest that started international competition in aquascaping  planted aquaria? AGA's 2004 Aquascaping Contest is open for entrees:

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi

Novices and experts alike show their skills. Past winners have been novices and experts, too. You can view all the entrees at The 5th AGA Annual Convention. Details/Registration at www.aquatic-gardeners.org & www.gwapa.org
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