Amazon.com: The Complete Aquarium (9780517095119): Peter Scott: Books

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 1993

This indispensable guide to building a freshwater or marine aquarium contains instructions for sixteen different aquariums and provides detailed directions for choosing the correct tank, lighting, plants, breeding, nutrition, and more.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } This indispensable guide to building a freshwater or marine aquarium contains instructions for sixteen different aquariums and provides detailed directions for choosing the correct tank, lighting, plants, breeding, nutrition, and more.

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Step by Step on how to set up different aquariums scenarios, July 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Aquarium (Paperback)

This is a fantastic book that starts with general knowledge and background of different water environments and fish, but doesn't waste half the book on this background information. The majority of the book is devoted to explaining how to set up different sorts of aquariums, with detailed examples of the plants, rocks, gravel, and suitable fish for each variety of tank. It is mostly freshwater, but 3 Brackish-Water, and 3 Marine Aquariums are also included. The end of the book has easy to understand GENERAL information about water chemistry, filtration, heating, plants, feeding, and breeding. The only fault is not enough description about individual fish. But if you buy a companion book that describes different fish in detail, along with this book you will be well on your way to setting up the exact sort of aquarium you would like. Great book for beginners and also intermediates who are looking for new ideas.

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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Start here! Good for the beginner or as a refresher., January 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Aquarium (Paperback)

I found this book after I had bought my aquarium and set it up. I wasn't too sure what direction to go in - I just knew that I wanted healthy and happy fish. I read this book from cover to cover, took apart my tank and started over with great zeal. The book gave me lots of information on what to do and also allowed me to figure out what I wanted.

The best part is the various set ups that are included, telling you what fish, plants and environments go together, from start to finish. If the book falls down in any area, it is lack of information about specific fish. However, in conjunction with a good book specifically about fish (which I think you should have anyway), The Complete Aquarium is a wonderful resource that has made my new hobby much more enjoyable because I now know what I want and how to get it!

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good info on themed tanks , maybe not so good for beginners, April 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Aquarium (Paperback)

This book does a great job of showing how to build different types of "themed" aquariums, be it a West African Floodplain Swamp or a Hawaiian Coral Reef. While these types of tanks are extremely beautiful in each of their own ways, I think that such projects are best left to more advanced aquarists and not beginners. I base this on a few reasons. For starters, many of the resources required to build these tanks are not common, and may require a lot of searching to scrounge up the necessary material (specific wood, substrate, plants, etc), basically a lot of things mentioned in this book I have never seen in any retail fish stores. Secondly, many of the themed tanks combine fish that are not suitable for a starting aquarist, who is not acclimated to the needs and wants of our fishy friends. I think
anyone who has maintained an aquarium and is reading this can recall mistakes that they made early on.
The "Complete Aquarium" does contain information on a community tank, which is fine for a beginner, but this occupies a small portion of the book comparatively.
Criticism aside, there are many good looking, full-color pictures and backgrounds on specific fish used in each tank project. There is also a chapter in the beginning of the book dedicated to the natural fish habitats and anatomy. If anything it is a nice book to have around if you ever want to undertake any of the "project" aquariums listed, or to read up on some of the natural habitats where aquarium fish come from.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great
Overall this is a good book. It goes over fish biology, their history and the different environments they inhabit. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Anji

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but not too complete
The first half of book talk about how to plan e design the tank, and about equipament. The rest of book show how to mount various biotypes of tanks, realy, the second part is like... Read more

Published on March 10, 2008 by Ricardo A. C. Costa

5.0 out of 5 stars Great starter book.
We have aquariums, but really knew next to nothing about the correct way to set them up and maintain them. This book was both informational and reinforced what we did know.

Published on January 18, 2008 by mom of five

4.0 out of 5 stars Complete Aquarium
This is an usual book compared to many of the others I have read recently but I like it. It contains many beautiful pictures of aquarium setups with step by step directions on... Read more

Published on February 6, 2007 by Microprof

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book
I first bought this book looking for a book about building aquariums and was very disappointed. It is titled "The Complete Aquarium, A practical guide to building... Read more

Published on December 14, 2003 by appyanna

3.0 out of 5 stars I Should have saved my money
This wasnt the type of book for a newbie if you just wanted to know about fish. This is more of a HOW TO book for setting up different types of tanks. Read more

Published on September 2, 2003 by Angela D. Richards

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much on set up
This book has good information on setting up a tank. It gives detailed information on fish and plants and how to set up different environments. However, for other things (i.e. Read more

Published on June 7, 2003 by plmcallister

3.0 out of 5 stars Some fish things wrong, but a good book
After reading Peter W. Scott's book "The Complete Aquarium", I found it very informative and loved where he told how to build the different types of aquariums. Read more

Published on February 18, 2003 by Jillian

4.0 out of 5 stars Clear, concise and inspirational!
This is a wonderful book that features excellent, concise information on the science of fish keeping, accompanied by wonderful photographs (this book is published by DK). Read more

Published on November 4, 2002 by rose jones

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have book
I found that this is a very helpfull book. It has lots of great info for people who are just starting to people who are more advanced in the aquarium world. Read more

Published on September 22, 2002

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Inside This Book (learn more)
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rock pool tank, curio wood, blackwater extract, most live foods, aquarium peat, uplift tube, undergravel filtration, finished tank, chopped earthworm, coral reef tank, nervous fish, undergravel filter, introducing the fish, community aquarium, power filter, aquarium inhabitants, archer fish, marine tanks, stocking levels, community tank, floodplain swamp, silver body

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Food Live, Breeding Egg-depositor, Food Accepts, Breeding Egg-scatterer, Breeding Unknown, Description Silver, Length Male, Food Flake, Southeast Asia, Breeding As Cichlasoma, Description Various, Description Black, Description Yellow, Breeding Livebearer, Description Red, Breeding Bubble-nester, Papua New Guinea, Food Pellet, Description Brown, Food Shrimp, Breeding Nest-builder, Description Grey, Breeding As Glossolepis, Description Distinctive, South America