Diana Walstad method?
- Thread starter hani
- Start date
Mostly maintenance. Some people also like to do things in a more ecological way. For a while reef keeping was all about stripping, straining, filtering, irradiating, and generally stomping your water quality into submission. Now you generally throw in lots of live rock and let the naturally occuring critters do all that for you, with better results.
My biggest problem with the book is that it's not really a straightforward read. It's rather dry and doesn't always flow as well as it could.
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My biggest problem with the book is that it's not really a straightforward read. It's rather dry and doesn't always flow as well as it could.
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It is too easy to criticize the work of others when we are still learning so much about this hobby. It's unfortunate, because anyone who makes the time and effort to share their observations and write a book should be applauded. The Walstad Bible is one piece of the puzzle, not the be all and end all of planted aquariums some think it to be, but Diana Walstad has made significant contributions to this hobby and for that we should be grateful.
The book might be said to suffer from a form of Kalnienk vision. The result of a Black Mamba bite or high adrenaline production from an intense physical fight perhaps. The problem is, this loss of peripheral field is passed on to the reader. Not a book for the layman, IMO.
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The book might be said to suffer from a form of Kalnienk vision. The result of a Black Mamba bite or high adrenaline production from an intense physical fight perhaps. The problem is, this loss of peripheral field is passed on to the reader. Not a book for the layman, IMO.
+1
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Agreed. I was expecting a more straightforward step by step and it just doesn't "fit" my reading style so it's harder to absorb. Not necessarily a fault on her end so much as my expectations perhaps.
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Tug;59077 said:
She did far more support for her argument than anyone else ever has......Amano, Dupla, Dennerle, every other aquatic plant author.
Why are you giving them a free pass but not her?
You need pretty pictures and nice feel good words?
Maybe a poem or two about nature even if they are extremely contrived???
It's like Steve Colbert said about the public, they are like the Dog in "UP!", "Squirrel!"
Very easily distracted from real ideas and likey the pretty pictures and nice gossipy feel good gut talk.
Not facts.
I do not agree with all the arguments, but that was 1998 and she started writing it long before that, so she could do perhaps a 2nd edition and test some more of her own hypothesis.
Maybe go with a publisher for better pretty pics etc.
This is all up to her.
While I like me some serious facts, I am also pragmatic enough to know folks like them pretty pics of scapes and individual nice plant pics.
I think it's an excellent book.
And the argument for non CO2 is certainly as good if not better than CO2 enriched systems.
I came at it from sediment initially, then went to water column and now use a bit of both.
3 of my 5 tanks are non CO2.
Regards,
Tom Barr
Why are you giving them a free pass but not her?
You need pretty pictures and nice feel good words?
Maybe a poem or two about nature even if they are extremely contrived???
It's like Steve Colbert said about the public, they are like the Dog in "UP!", "Squirrel!"
Very easily distracted from real ideas and likey the pretty pictures and nice gossipy feel good gut talk.
Not facts.
I do not agree with all the arguments, but that was 1998 and she started writing it long before that, so she could do perhaps a 2nd edition and test some more of her own hypothesis.
Maybe go with a publisher for better pretty pics etc.
This is all up to her.
While I like me some serious facts, I am also pragmatic enough to know folks like them pretty pics of scapes and individual nice plant pics.
I think it's an excellent book.
And the argument for non CO2 is certainly as good if not better than CO2 enriched systems.
I came at it from sediment initially, then went to water column and now use a bit of both.
3 of my 5 tanks are non CO2.
Regards,
Tom Barr
Non CO2 and it does not look butt ugly.
It's not the METHOD, it's the AQUASCAPER that defines whether the aquarium looks nice or not, the method works, of that, there is simply no doubt.
I've seen dozens of old NBAT and older Dutch planted tanks in the 1940's to the 1960's that looked awesome, no CO2 either.
Regards,
Tom Barr
I did not mean to upset everyone,
you can have a good/right theory but the end results not so good, i tried in the past before the co2/dupla stuff came out with peat moss and soil things did not work so well,it was a hit and miss , and you are limited on your plant choice, if you keep trying you will hit right at one point.
i have older books (before dupla) talking about co2 injection, and achieving good results pressurize and DIY but not been recognized as a good authors/aquascaper and there books had very nice pictures. That made me wounder why the walstad method became so famous?
these days you look at the net and you will fined a newbie buying 2 bags of AS, Fert, co2 DIY, and in few weeks looks like the Amanos tank . You have to give Amano a free pass here, if he is secretive about it it doesn't mean his theory is wrong since the results are on front of us.
you can have a good/right theory but the end results not so good, i tried in the past before the co2/dupla stuff came out with peat moss and soil things did not work so well,it was a hit and miss , and you are limited on your plant choice, if you keep trying you will hit right at one point.
i have older books (before dupla) talking about co2 injection, and achieving good results pressurize and DIY but not been recognized as a good authors/aquascaper and there books had very nice pictures. That made me wounder why the walstad method became so famous?
these days you look at the net and you will fined a newbie buying 2 bags of AS, Fert, co2 DIY, and in few weeks looks like the Amanos tank . You have to give Amano a free pass here, if he is secretive about it it doesn't mean his theory is wrong since the results are on front of us.
I think many forgot about those books and there was a long lull between the groups of people who rediscovered this now new information.
We also can take the view that some of the methods where just forced and not really thought through with an underlying philosophy.
I think Diana did this.
I have and have gone back and changed things to reflect this.
I'm sure Diana and Amano would both and have done this many times.
Still, I think it is more defined by the personality rather than nthe method itself as to why you see aquascapes at a high level for non CO2.
In the past, we simply have less info and no CO2 was the only way for most people. Sure we have some rare references of CO2........but such talk and it's relative importance was poorly understood and rare.
Regards,
Tom Barr
We also can take the view that some of the methods where just forced and not really thought through with an underlying philosophy.
I think Diana did this.
I have and have gone back and changed things to reflect this.
I'm sure Diana and Amano would both and have done this many times.
Still, I think it is more defined by the personality rather than nthe method itself as to why you see aquascapes at a high level for non CO2.
In the past, we simply have less info and no CO2 was the only way for most people. Sure we have some rare references of CO2........but such talk and it's relative importance was poorly understood and rare.
Regards,
Tom Barr
hani;59121 said:
Woof woof?
Come on, you know I said the public is easily distracted(not you)....... like the dog in UP, which was kind of funny really, because it's true.
We all are somewhat guilty here. If you took this to wrong way, you must know that was not my intent, I do apologize if you thought so.
I've been a very bad puppy
Regards,
Tom Barr
Haha I just imagined you (Tom Barr) as Alpha... with the high pitched voice! If you ever make a book that is available on amazon with text to speech enabled please use the high pitched voice from the dog "alpha" in the movie "Up".
Tom Barr;59132 said:Woof woof?
Come on, you know I said the public is easily distracted(not you)....... like the dog in UP, which was kind of funny really, because it's true.
We all are somewhat guilty here. If you took this to wrong way, you must know that was not my intent, I do apologize if you thought so.
I've been a very bad puppy
Regards,
Tom Barr