Book review: Aquascaping, aquascape like a pro by Moe Martin copyright 2013

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Fish_Bone

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Jun 14, 2012
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I ordered another book from Amazon. This time it was Aquascaping:aquascape like a pro by Moe Martin.

I would like to start this review by saying that I expected more from this book. Not to say that it was bad though. It has a very nice cover and the table of contents lays out the information provided nicely. It covers the different styles of aquascaping like Iwagumi, dutch, biotope, jungle, black water, paludariums. Though the coverage of the different style are pretty brief. It also goes over a few aspects of designing an aquascape. He goes on to describe the "golden rule" and the rule of 3rd's. He also covers the importance of proper use of background plants, he gives examples of what not to do and what you should do. Things like using one large species across the back can make your aquascape seem smaller. He also covers the importance of knowing plant requirements and pairing them with the correct fauna. Lighting is covered to some extent. He still reference the "watt per gallon"...But his description of the different types of lighting available and what colors plants need is decent. He explains how to choose the right substrate based on your plants needs. Which hardscapes are acceptable and which ones are not, have their own chapter as well. This book is a good addition to the beginner to intermediate hobbyist collection. He takes a nice chunk of information that can be found on the internet scattered about and presents it in a nice easy to read format. This book by NO means will have you doing Takashi Amano level aquascapes by any means. But what it will do is fill in some gaps maybe you have/ had. I have to say that I really wish the pictures where color inside the book though. You cant get a sense of how beautiful the example tanks are with black and white. The cover is misleading, being that it is color and has a great scape on it. There are several glaring typo's in this book as well. As far as I can tell the information contained within is all solid minus the watts reference. I do have to say that I feel like some (read: most for me) of the chapters where just filler. But as a 4th year hobbyist This was to be somewhat expected. A complete Noob or beginner will find this book decently useful. It is not a step by step manual just so you know. But it will help bolster your knowledge of some basics of fish keeping, aquascape, lighting, etc. From a more experienced fish keeper stand point I can't say that this purchase was a complete bust. It did have some meat on the bone if you will.

out of 5 stars I will give it a 2.5-3.0 overall.

Also a side note the copy I purchased was paperback and was pretty cheap around $14 shipped. I do have one gripe though...Amazon is on crack, I purchased this book from them, not just their website, it came from a amazon warehouse. I purchased it on the 10 of this month and just received it today with a estimated delivery of 3-17-2014 to 4-1-2014!!! WTF, right? Almost everything I buy online, especially from amazon, I get within a week of ordering and certainly from within the U.S. .

If you have any questions let me know and I will try to answer them.

Sam
 
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