The Inspired Aquarium: Ideas and Instruction for Living with Aquariums [Paperback]

Jeff Senske (Author), Mike Senske (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brothers Jeff and Mike Senske have shared a lifelong passion for all types of aquariums. Having worked in all realms of the aquarium industry, they founded Aquarium Design Group in 2000 and have been progressively setting the trends in aquarium layout and design ever since.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Quarry Books (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592531954
• ISBN-13: 978-1592531950
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,068,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for practical information applied to aquarium aesthetics, July 2, 2006

By 

S. Colley (Westport, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Inspired Aquarium: Ideas and Instruction for Living with Aquariums (Paperback)

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.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction and inspiration, June 24, 2006

By 

Wynne (Norridgewock, ME USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Inspired Aquarium: Ideas and Instruction for Living with Aquariums (Paperback)

If you think you want an aquarium, this is a great introduction to how to do it right, as well as an inspiration with great photos and ideas. As an aquarist with some years of experience, I didn't expect to learn much new here, and didn't, but still picked up some useful information. I bought the book because I'm redesigning my reef aquarium and couldn't seem to decide on what I wanted to do with cabinetry and sizing.

One thing the book makes very clear, and which is helpful for beginners or those who have done some reading but are having trouble sorting it all out, is that there are various categories of tanks. What works for a planted freshwater aquarium is not the best approach for an unplanted one. What works for a fish-only marine is not the same as for a reef. The book breaks it all down by type of aquarium, makes clear which ones are the most work, and explains the equipment basics. There is an excellent resources section at the end for learning more.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for beginners, March 7, 2007

By 

P. Jorstad - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Inspired Aquarium: Ideas and Instruction for Living with Aquariums (Paperback)

This is not a book for beginners who want to know how to set up a tank. Rather, this is a book for creating a tank that will fit in a magazine such a Home Beautiful. Amano's books give examples of stunning layouts. This book will give ideas of how to plan a stunning layout that blends with the color of the room's woodwork, drapery and lighting. And, it thoughtfully discusses planning where to put the filtration, drains and water source for ease of maintaining the tank. (Gotta keep that carpet clean - these rooms are show pieces, remember.)

Examples are given of neutral color fish that provide background for more colorful fish to avoid a tank that is too 'busy'. Coordination of substrate color is discussed. Reference is made several times to 'the tank maintenance service'. This is, basically, a book on interior decorating that specializes in tanks.

All in all, this is a book that rounds out a library and I have to recommend it to a library that has already covered the basics. However, you will probably not being applying the knowledge unless you either are dreaming or have bucks.