Hi I am a newbie to ukaps. I have just returned to the hobby after some 25 years absence and I am flabbergasted at how much has changed.
I am also more than a bit surprised to find that methods I took for granted way back then are only just beginning to come in to their own. For instance, and at great risk of sounding conceited, I was doing things the "Walstad" way at least a decade before the book was published, when I was a mere teenager.
And then to add in to the mix we have Takashi Amano, he seems to have an almost supernatural status in the planted tank world. However, as a conservation biologist with a specialism in wetlands, and as someone with more than a little business acumen, I respect him more for his marketing skills and turning the hobby in to an art form than for his supposed concern for the natural world, upon which he has built a very successful business; in short his science just doesn't add up beyond giving his products very convincing and cohesive stories which most of us swallow hook line and sinker.
Anyway, I am certainly no Takashi Amano when it comes to aquascaping but I thought I might introduce myself and post an image of my recently set up 55 litre 30cm x 30cm x 60cm aquarium in the members gallery. The tank is fairly low-tech, minimal filtration (Juwel Bioflow 250, carbon replaced by peat), two 24 watt T5 lights, and a cm or so of soil based substrate (of my own formula) capped by a few cm of 3mm sand. Both plants and fish are doing nicely and if left to their own devises the plants would quickly take over, the root development is phenomenal. The science behind it is pretty basic but it probably works just as well as a high-tech tank (contentious issue) but without the expense and hassle.
I am also more than a bit surprised to find that methods I took for granted way back then are only just beginning to come in to their own. For instance, and at great risk of sounding conceited, I was doing things the "Walstad" way at least a decade before the book was published, when I was a mere teenager.
And then to add in to the mix we have Takashi Amano, he seems to have an almost supernatural status in the planted tank world. However, as a conservation biologist with a specialism in wetlands, and as someone with more than a little business acumen, I respect him more for his marketing skills and turning the hobby in to an art form than for his supposed concern for the natural world, upon which he has built a very successful business; in short his science just doesn't add up beyond giving his products very convincing and cohesive stories which most of us swallow hook line and sinker.
Anyway, I am certainly no Takashi Amano when it comes to aquascaping but I thought I might introduce myself and post an image of my recently set up 55 litre 30cm x 30cm x 60cm aquarium in the members gallery. The tank is fairly low-tech, minimal filtration (Juwel Bioflow 250, carbon replaced by peat), two 24 watt T5 lights, and a cm or so of soil based substrate (of my own formula) capped by a few cm of 3mm sand. Both plants and fish are doing nicely and if left to their own devises the plants would quickly take over, the root development is phenomenal. The science behind it is pretty basic but it probably works just as well as a high-tech tank (contentious issue) but without the expense and hassle.
nice tank. 
