Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Inspired Aquarium by Jeff and Mike Senske is outstanding IMO. It has a vertical focus - aesthetics blended with practical advice in creating a visually appealing aquarium, broadly applied to every major type of tank. This book is not an "in the frame" aquarium picture book like Amano's, where you get a view of a tank with equipment ripped out, fans across the top to create ripples, and everything but the interior of the tank blacked out. Instead this book is filled with photos showing how lovely an aquarium can be, not just within the confines of the tank, but beautifully incorporated into your home. And it provides lots of practical information on how to make your vision a reality.
It covers fresh and saltwater fish only tanks, along with planted FW and SW reef tanks. It is not a detail technical treatise on any of those types of tank. So a beginner would have to supplement their information to get started in any of these areas, though they would have more than enough information to decide what type of aquarium they want to tackle. While it is not strictly a "how-to" book, it is filled with useful advice that seems to be lacking in so many books other dealing with aquarium aesthetics. It is particularly useful for guidance in the areas of aquarium (and equipment!) placement, plumbing, selection of aquarium and fish, filtration and lighting.
If you want an aquarium, and have set yourself a $175 budget, this is not the book you need. But if you are someone that is interested in getting into the hobby, and are willing to invest a little money and time in creating a piece of living art in your home, then this is the book you've been waiting for! Or if you are trying to figure out what type of tank you want - freshwater with fish? Freshwater planted? Salt? Reef? This provides great detail around the differences and relative difficulty of owning those types of tanks. And for people like myself, already in the hobby, but can't quite afford some of the truly magnificent tanks showcased in this book, it is still extraordinarily helpful for both the practical advice and truly inspirational examples and case studies it provides.
Books like Takashi Amano's Nature Aquarium World only show you beautiful interior pictures of planted tanks, and Cristell Kasselmann's Aquarium Plants only provide scientific information on FW aquarium plants. That is more than enough to justify the purchase of either IMO. But the Senske's The Inspired Aquarium provides both tons of practical advice and inspiring examples of creating aquariums as living works of art in your home. For me, that was enough reason to run, not walk, to go get the book.
And once in my hand, I could not make myself put it down until I had read it cover-to-cover. Actually the first night I had it, I fell asleep with it in my hands...
As far as I can tell, this type of book is unique within the hobby, and long overdue.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Inspired Aquarium: Ideas and Instruction for Living with Aquariums
In light of the recent popularity of such movies as Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, and aquariums as elements of interior decor, home aquariums have become all the rage. Since there are so many ways you can design an aquarium today, a little guidance is definitely needed. The Inspired Aquarium is a key tool to use while searching for ideas to help inspire your own home-aquarium design. This complete handbook acts as both an inspirational and factual guide. It shows you the most compatible choices in aquatic creatures, plants, lighting, and more for your chosen setup.
