Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise

Diana Walstad has provided an essential guide with scientific evidence on how to set up and manage a planted aquarium with a soil substrate. Diana kick started a movement in maintaining a healthy planted aquarium - I have followed her advice in setting my own planted aquarium. In an interview Diana explained that she gained the initial idea from a farm stock pond that had luxuriant plant growth with a soil substrate - and clear healthy water. The book has many practical information guides backed up by tests and numerous chart - for example the efficacy of surface versus submerged plants (see photo). The book is written in a clear easy to read style - and rewards on checking facts to help solve aquarium problems with simple to apply solutions.

Have successfully applied this method to 3 planted tanks now. I had tried to grow aquarium plants before but had all kinds of trouble. The plants soon died and I had a lot of trouble with algae / green water. This is an easy and cheap method. It's a bit labour intensive to prepare the substrate (you use organic compost or top soil and you have to sieve it to get it very fine) My first attempt was a success, the aquarium was set up with a couple of dozen plants in early May. It is now over 6 months later and the plants are doing fine. Cuttings from the plants have been used to start another two aquariums (these two don't even get CO2 or ferts at the moment) and they are doing fine too.

An utterly fabulous book, that challenges the more modern way of fish keeping and harks back to the foundation years of ornamental fishkeeping, minus many of today's trappings. Based on science and a good dose of common sense. Science heavy, so you will need to drag up your school chemistry knowledge. Understanding this book will give any fishkeeper a much deeper understanding of the aquarium eco system. Combined with modern technology, this knowledge will further anyone's success in the keeping of fish and aquatic plants. Thoroughly recommended.

Now I'd waited a long time to get this book, which looked very attractive from the overwhelming positive reviews. Certainly the author is very challenging in some of her conclusions (don't clean out the filters too often (she dispenses with filtration material altogether and just uses a circulation pump) as this reduces the positive benefits of dissolved organic carbon in reducing heavy metal toxicity, don't bother with Carbon Dioxide injection, as you can kill off your fish, just feed your plants with excess fish food. Yes the digest of scientific research on plants and algae in natural environments is good- but it seems to be inevitably derived from North American temperate biomes (hello- do you put much sphagnum moss in your tropical fish tank- so is htere much point in relaying optimal growth conditions for this species?). I truly wonder at her conclusion that it is necessary to be careful about heavy metal toxicity of your tapwater, but it is ok to blithely add garden soil as a substrate to your fish tank (sorry I studied land reclamation at one point- even in Britain there can be very high toxicity of some post industrial soils- for instance the now "natural" looking Peak District has a landscape that can poison off ponies!). Her advice for establishing plants is to choose nice small well behaved fish. Well we have Richard the heavy duty rescue Plectostomus, so blanket substrate proved to be out (he loves to dig), two nest-building female moonlight gouramis who love to prune- even the Corydoras have occasionally smugly ganged up and uprooted plants as a team. As the author herself admits to killing off fish by scraping algae off the tank surface (which released toxins?)....it comes down to our well worn chant YOU JUST CAN'T WIN. I think this book would just confuse beginners, as it is not a complete step by step guide by any means. You have to have played with the ecosytem and got past your first few aquatic disasters, before you decide whether or not to adopt some of her suggestions. It's interesting, but I want to take apart her points bit by bit to see if I can improve our tanks. I can't take all her conclusions at face value.

Well written and easy to read. Good info and ideas

I have been growing plants in aquariums for many years. This is a ground breaking book on the theoretical side of the hobby. I must stress that it is not a picture book, nor does it go through the individual plant species and their requirements. All the same, despite the high price, if you are serious about the cultivation of water plants the information it contains is very valuable.

Fabulous book that I have wanted for a lonnnng time. Never been able to afford the hardback. So pleased to find this available in soft cover now. Thank you, Thank you.

Very informative and easy to follow backed with scientific evidence and hobbyists Q&As. Can't wait to start a natural low tech tank properly.

Un libro “diverso” rispetto ai soliti che trattano piante d’acquario, praticamente privo di foto, ma pieno di nozioni tecniche riportate in maniera molto rigorosa e scientifica con tanto di bibliografia di riferimento. Secondo me un utile approfondimento.

If you have or want a planted aquarium and don't want to spend too much money or time on maintaining it, this book outlines how to have a beautiful aquarium using natural principles to keep the tank healthy. I have had aquariums for 5 years, have spent alot of money on high tech gadgets and chemical additives, and spent alot of time cleaning and rebuilding aquariums, only to have these same tanks fail. Some tanks, however, were splendid, and I couldn't figure out why they worked and the others didn't. (In fact, all the trouble put me off having aquariums, and I went from having 6 tanks to only having 2. Now I know what I was doing wrong . Walstad's careful explanation of natural systems is brilliant. Don't be put off by the science, once you see how the systems (substrate, bacteria, plants and chemicals, light, etc.) interact, you will know how to keep your tank, plants and fish healthy with minimum cost and effort. Before you spend a ton of money (or if you want to reduce how much you spend), buy this book. I can't recommend it enough. I've already seen wonderful results and my electric bills have dropped! This book is worth every single cent. Honestly, I wish I had found it years ago.

Enfin un livre qui a de la matière sur Amazon ! Technique complet bien expliqué ! On regrettera juste qu'il ne soit Pas traduit en français.

I'm not new to plants but I'm pretty new to aquariums, and you don't know what you don't know, so I was really interested in getting this book to find out what I SHOULD know, and what I should be paying attention to. The "Carbon" chapter got too technical for me, 9EDIT: I went back and read it at the end, and after everything else, it made more sense) but most of the rest of the book had a ton of really good info that I really found useful. The actual instructions for setting up a tank come at the very end of the book, so it's reasonable to read that first, then read through the whole book to get an understanding of why. But the whole book does have a ton of relevant information, and it gets through it efficiently and explains it in a practical manner, so I found it very interesting to read even though I don't really know chemistry.

Muy instructivo para el acuario plantado. Aunque prefieras la tecnología de un high, es de obligada lectura