Aquarium Style

Well, Matthew Christian what can i say... some of your critics (envy's a horrible thing) claim that you're nothing but a fish murdering so and so, i strongly disagree because as you rightly say in your superbly detailed magnum opus does a fish really want to die in a bland fish tank at least if it goes it goes in style baby. I was so engrossed by your work, i couldn't put it down. My only complaint was the lack of photos of the author, i feel it would have added more depth to the books feel. Maybe it's something you can add to your next spectacular fish book. I have told my only friend and we are in awe of your talent. PS, when we googled your name we found your personal website- we are your biggest fans. we love you, if you are in Miami, please give us a shout as we would love to accomodate you in any way possible. We await with baited (get it) breath for your no doubt fab project

This book is great for aquarium design ideas. It's got beautiful pictures too. I must say though that this book is probably best for people who have had some experience with aquariums. But, wow, you can get a lot of inspiration from this book. There are ideas in this book that I never would have thought of. And then there are some ideas that I would never do. But all in all, I think this is a great book.

I gave this book 4 stars to reflect the authors imaginative approach and his originality. There are some truly beautiful aquariums represented in this book.The dangerous ideas all fall under the category of placing unsafe (for the fish) items in the tank. The author glosses over the precautions which must be taken for many of the items, such as metal objects and sedimentary rocks. However, I was truly inspired by the fossil aquarium design, and have created an improved version myself. I DID have to coat the limestone fossil plates with aquarium-safe marine epoxy, but the results were spectacular.

As a worker in a tropical fish store, I really enjoyed this book. It had some beautiful ideas for natural-looking tanks that are specific to locality, but the most interesting are the modernistic styles that are featured. One involves using clear flat glass marbles, light bulbs, and large spherical light fixtures to create a surreal field of white-on-white underwater bubbles. I'd hate to spoil the surprise by describing each of the strange and interesting ideas here, but one of the most important things this book does is give folks a stepping stone for future creativity. It's easy to take these ideas and run with them to create stranger and more interesting fish tanks.The questionable part, however, is that I'm not certain how comfortable fish are in white-on-white settings, which is what three of the ideas involve. Many times their colors wash out, they get stressed, and typically start looking for a place to hide that isn't there. However, there is room for improvement on the examples, if a person is creative enough to give it a try. My other comment is that the eventual result of aquarium life is algae, brown and green usually. I would hate to see people bleaching off their substrates (the flat glass marbles) and removing beneficial bacteria just to remove something that makes the tank appear flawed. These sorts of substrates aren't really all that good for supporting a tank, either, due to a lack of surface area. I would go so far as to recommend a fluidized bed filter as a biological supplement to larger tanks set up this way, or use a 3-way filter (mechan, chem, bio) on smaller tanks. Many of these would be great as ten gallon displays, if given the correct set of fish. As one example, Scats are a recommended fish for one of the setups. These are delicate and should only be placed in an already conditioned tank--and they need brackish water (small amount of salt added) to survive. I believe that this book is better off in the hands of an experienced person, or at least anyone trying to set up one of these should talk to a knowledgeable person about the finer details.