1/24/05: New!
Wave your cursor in the photo above. What fun! (Hopefully, the effect will work on your computer!)
Aquatic Concepts is a hobbyist
run web site that caters to the information and technical needs of all
levels of aquatic gardeners. We have been in the aquarium hobby for most
of our adult lives and have specialized in planted display tanks for the
past 16 years (see the Photo
Album for pictures of our tanks). We have written articles for the Aquatic
Gardeners Association newsletter "The Aquatic Gardener" (TAG), Aquarium
Fish Magazine (AFM), and Planted Aquaria Magazine (PAM)
and have presented seminars at aquarium conferences and to
aquarium clubs. George has been very active on the Internet for almost
nine years and we have learned an enormous amount of Things Aquatic from
the news groups and mailing lists. This web site is an attempt to pay back
all those individuals who have contributed to our success in aquatic gardening
and to pass along our knowledge to people just starting out in this fascinating
aspect of the aquarium world.
Information contained herein
is to a large extent our interpretation of the principles put forth by
Kaspar Horst and Horst Kipper, the founders of Dupla
Aquaristik, GmbH, in their seminal work The Optimum Aquarium.
I consider this book required reading for anyone serious about growing
aquatic plants. It is out of print now but can sometimes be found on e-Bay
or hidden on aquarium store bookselves. Get one if you can.
Enjoy this site and let us know what else
we can do to help you. Feel free to write us at "gbooth at frii dot com". Of course, that
address is a secret code to foil the spam-bots, but you should know how to figure
out the real e-mail address. If you don't get a response right away, one of four things
may have happened:
- You actually didn't know how to figure out the secret code
- We're on vacation and are pretty much ignoring e-mail
- We're engrossed in another hobby at the moment and are pretty much ignoring e-mail
- You didn't read the ramblings below and we're ignoring your question altogether
George
and Karla Booth
To navigate the site,
use the Contents bar on the left. Content is organized into the following
sections:
Technical Information
How to select
an aquarium for a planted tank. Recommended substrate
materials. Using substrate
heating coils for long term stability. Choosing the proper filtration
for a planted tank. Everything you've always wanted to know about carbon
dioxide injection. Important data about lighting
your planted tank.
Getting It Right
Curious what kind of equipment we have used. Here are some tank
setups
that have proven successful for us. Also, step by step instructions for
starting up
and breaking in your new plant tank. The right technique seems counter-intuitive
at first, but following this advice makes the difference between a cool
Aquatic Garden and a bummer Algae Farm. Maintenance
is also very important -- these things don't run themselves!
Flora
Common and not-so-common plants and how to grow them. Do you know
the tricks for planting, pruning and propagating? Look
here. Confused about Aquascaping? Not
any more! Ever wonder where to find information on the interesting sounding
plant? How about a Master Cross Reference
of plant books?
Fauna
What do fish have to do with a planted tank? Quite a bit, if you
want your plants to be useful and decorative and not fish
food! Some plant-compatible species and helpful
algae eaters and groundskeepers.
The Results
Want proof
that we have acheived some modicum of success? Check out our photo album.
Good Stuff
We have written a booklet
that delves deep into the information contained in this site and have made
some videos
that show how to do all this stuff and what kind of results we have achieved.
Also included is an extensive bibliography
of other books we have found useful and enlightening. There are even some
organizations
for you to join. Hey, lighten up a little! Aquatic Humor
collected from the Net will put a smile on your face! And, of course, there
are the ubiquitous Links.
Ramblings
from the Fish Head |
We will be happy to answer
questions related to the information on this site. However, unlike many
Internet writers, we don't feel right answering questions about areas in
which we don't have direct experience. For example, our fish rarely ever
get diseases, so we have no experience with medicines and the like. For
another example, we've never setup planted tanks smaller than 55 gallons.
I'm sure our experience scales to smaller tanks but we don't know for sure
so we can't answer questions about them. Also, even though George has his
name on an Internet FAQ that has snail info, he doesn't know JACK about
snails, so don't ask. He especially doesn't know how to cook land snails
even though he gets many questions about exactly that.
Please feel free to send comments
and suggestions. Flames are cheerfully ignored.