Aquascaping: Aquarium Landscaping Like a Pro, Second Edition: Aquarist's Guide to Planted Tank Aesthetics and Design Paperback – July 22, 2013

If you're like me whose idea of designing and maintaining a fish tank can be summed up as: "buy a tank, fill it with water, toss in some oxygen pump, shovel in some pebble and sand, one or two corals, add the fish", then Moe Martin's `Aquascaping' will also be a delightful eye-opener for you.Exceptionally comprehensive, `Aquascaping' is probably the most complete discussion of everything you need to know about designing an aquarium and making it livable and a breeze to maintain.Aquascaping, stripped down to its basic meaning, is about the `art' of arranging the elements of an aquarium--the rocks, corals, stones, wood, and other decors--and forming a pleasing-to-the-eye whole. The exciting thing about it is the design--you can be full-on creative, especially if you have a huge tank with lots of space to play around. But the size itself can also work against you--the empty space might cause you to panic and basically shove everything until the tank starts resembling Manila bay after a storm.But then again, the matter of design ultimately comes secondary only to the issue of balance--no matter how pretty your aquarium is, if it's not livable for the species fish species you intend to keep in it, the whole thing would be an exercise in futility. After all, you're trying to simulate a natural ecosystem inside your aquarium, and it's a more delicate issue than you could imagine. That's why `Aquascaping' is such a handy life-saver (for you and for the hapless fish you got)--it teaches about the many design patterns you can emulate (and veer away from), but it also painstakingly and meticulously discusses every single factor in keeping your aquarium truly `alive'.Overall, for the enthusiast, `Aquascaping' is utterly indispensable--you should not even buy your first fish tank and all the related accessories without buying this book first. Order it before heading out to the pet store and begin choosing a tank--it will save you from wasting a lot of money and ending up with a tank full of dead fish. Highly recommended!

It's not a very long book and so, even though it has some useful information, it's all pretty basic and you won't really learn a lot of new stuff. Plus, I felt like more than half the info in this book was about corals. For some reason the author decided to treat everything else very superficially and dwell deep into the different corals and how to take care of them. If I really wanted to learn more about aquascaping I would definitely be looking elsewhere.

The guy's name is Moe Martin. This is important. Because when it's listed as authors names are in bibliographies, it looks like, "Martin, Moe". I saw this in the author description, and thought, 'whoa, wow, Martin Moe, the actual, good, bright, together marine author wrote a book on planted tanks? That's got to be gold. I wonder what kind of insight he could bring to the subject matter.".None, would be the answer. Because it's not the same guy. I am a moron for missing that critical comma.My bad, naturally.. but now that I'm stuck with this stinkburger of a book I can say: Some useful ideas, some pretty pictures, but dreadfully incoherent and not really good reading. My bookshelf teems with less sucky books about Aquarium Landscaping. Some of those books are about other subjects, but have more and better information. You could do better by reading some random aquascaping-related pages on the internet. It's not worth the money or your time.This guy's book could've really been something if it had had a real editor, and some real attention to content to make it coherent and not scattershot.. but if you get it, you'll be getting what you pay for: It's either self-published or vanity-press style drivel. Moe: Please! You have a good book in you, but for you to channel it outward... you're going to need an editor! Also maybe an outline, and sticking to subject categories. Just word to the wise.

Quick easy read by one of the most well respected authors in the Aquarium industry. The book will help you avoid a few simple mistakes such as centering your aquascape. For this tidbit of where to locate the focal point of your aquascape is worth the price of the book. The book is a very good resource of different examples and aquascaping designs. Thank you Martin for the great book. Just to let you know I still have a couple copies of your books from the late 80's and early 90's.

I bought this book to gain some ideas on aquascapes. It had some great information but when it comes to maintenance of your tank and what you want and don't want as far as phone. And ammonia levels and types of sands I felt it had very minimal info on planted tanks with only a couple pages on actual aquascapes. Really wish I didn't pay for this book

Not as comprehensive as his marine aquar manuals

I was getting a bit bored with my basic aquarium setup when I stumbled on to this book. The book gave me some ideas and definitely made my current tank setup seem really dull! The book also provides some technical details which will hopefully make my tank redesign go smoothly. I liked the brightly colored photos and hope my aquarium looks as nice as the examples.

Libro para principiantes. Carece de imágenes ilustrativas y las que contiene son en blanco y negro. No es lo mejor para un libro que trata de algo donde lo visual debe atraer la atención del lector. La info es buena, sin embargo, no es nada que no puedas encontrar en la red.