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Re: Amano tanks and red Hygro



>Subject: Amano book
>
>Hello all!  I've been reading all of these interesting postings for about
>a month now (I had no idea that I was in for so much e-mail)--but I
>love it.  I have a lot of questions and a lot to say, but for now, I
>would merely like to get a concensus of opinion on a book that I was told
>about.  The book is called, -Nature Aquarium World- by Takashi Amano.  I
>will look forward to any reviews.  Thanks a million!  David Curtright in
>San Diego, where paradise is a bit damp these days but still looks good
>to most of us!
>
If most of our planted tanks are like a planted garden, then Amano's tanks
are more like a float in the Rose Bowl parade.  Looking at his pictures,
the plants appear to be meticulously trimmed and placed.  Some of his
creations have expanses of bottom carpeted with Riccia, which normally
floats and has no tendency to attach by itself.  it must be held down with
a fine plastic net, and, as it grows, the older parts die and decay, so
that the plants will sooner or later break free of the net and float up to
the surface.  Therefore, they must be reattached periodically.  Amano's
tanks take a very large number of man-hours to set up and to maintain.  I
believe that he has a crew of people working for him.  Actually the Dutch
"Leiden" aquarium is similar in that the plants are bunched and arranged in
an artistic design, and that they must be trimmed frequently and sometimes
replanted to keep the desired appearance.  Ammano is doing the same kind of
thing, but he is creating landscapes (or should I say, aquascapes) using
Japanese artistic traditions and points of view.  Many of his creations are
very dramatic.


>Subject: Re: Red Hygro
>
>I have some red hygro growing under two Vitalite and one Ultra Tri-lux bulbs.
> A single stem has branched in four directions about 5 inches below the
>surface of the water.  The two branches that are directly under the Tri-lux
>bulb are compact and quite red.  The branch that is in between a Vitalite and
>the Tri-lux is somewhat red and longer.  The fourth branch is under a
>Vita-lite bulb and is considerably longer and mostly olive-green with just a
>bit of red at the edges.
>
>Bill Cwirla
>Hacienda Heights
>
Can you help those of us in the shoplite set by telling a bit more about
your bulbs?  Does the Ultra Tri-lux give mostly blue light?  Does the
Vita-lite give white or pinkish-white light?  I suspect that a bulb that is
heavy on the blue end causes more compact growth and more production of red
pigments (anthocyanins).

Paul Krombholz                  Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS  39174
In pleasant Jackson, Mississippi.