FW planted tank books?

I don't know any books about methodology, techiques and such.  But if you wanna look at incredible planted tanks for inspiration, Amano's series is the best.  I have one at home if you'd like to take a look.  There is such a sense of serenity and togetherness exuding from all his tanks.

As far as techniques go, here are some important elements for a healthy planted tank IMO:

-A good substrate with good iron content.  Plenty of comercialized products available
-Lights: T5 is the way to go I think.  You will need at least 2w per gallon for green plants.  At least 3-5 wpg for red plants and ground cover
-CO2 is a must. 
-Water change: more frequently and greater amount comparing to SW practice
-Small bioload is very important in controlling nuisance algae
-Regular soluble or root fertilizing is also very important
-Choose fish wisely since a lot of them will eat plants.  The nost common fish used in planted tanks are tetras, rainbowfish, loaches and rasboras.


Wanna buy the red plant or that great ground cover featuring in the books?  Check out Aquariumplant.com.  They offer the best variety with the best prices.  Being used to the cost of all thing SW-related, these are SOOO cheap to me.


Cool links:

http://www.characin.com/carey/species/characin/

check out the incredible Hyphessobrycon pyrrhonotos and Nannostomus sp. "coral red"



http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Pseudomugil.htm

check out those beautiful pseudomugil.  My dream is to set up a planted tank for these guys.  You HAVE to witness the rainbowfish courting to know how beautiful they can get despite how drab they look in the LFS


http://www.vectrapoint.com/main/manual/manual.html

A website from the incredible Mr Amano


Livefood culture

I thought that you might be interested in this, being the avid algae grower that you are


http://www.plantedtank.net/

Very cool message board



Wow, just talking about this makes me want to start a FW planted tank again.  No time to do it though

Oh well.  Maybe somebody on this board will find inspiration browsing thru the links .

I think it's hard to design the tank with macroalgae though.  Mainly because it grows too fast and too out of control.  It probably will need a lot of maintenance.

dkle wrote: I think it's hard to design the tank with macroalgae though.Â

Hey, I forgot about this one:

I'm not a naysayer.  I was just simply stating my opinion, which is allowed the last time I checked free speech.

Very cool pic.  I'm glad that it could be done.  I had planted FW tank before with beautiful result, but it sure did require a lot of maintenant work.  The tank above is great; but just imagine to have to trim that back everyweek to prevent it from looking like an overgrown jungle.

I have some great books on planted tanks, but nothing really about design.  Maybe a chapter or two here and there, but mostly they are about the basics of FW planted tanks and info on individual plants.  Let me know if you'd like to look at them though.  I could bring them to next meeting for you to borrow.

 

Or you could come visit your old tank and pick them up.

Suzy wrote: Dkle, I'm just teasing you and all the other guys who say this can't be done!!! It was really a jab at Jake!!

Phew!  I was thinking somehow my carelessly worded response p#ssed you off.  When you have time, think about setting up a FW planted tank.  They are really cool. 

Edited by dkle