Aquascaped Walstads

Thanks for showing us these beautiful tanks!

The issue of handedness is really interesting. I am right handed, but unconsciously I tend to put dominant features of a design on the left, and negative space on the right. Being a landscape architect, I must be aware of this bias so that it does not influence my work too much. I also grow bonsai and study Japanese garden design. The principals of asymmetry and "occult balance" have become a habit. But if I'm not careful all of my bonsai wind up on the left side of the pot, with movement suggested to the negative space on the right side.

One of the great things about a hobby like planted aquaria or bonsai is you really don't need to please anyone but yourself unless you plan to enter contests and juried exhibits. I don't do either.

No, I have always preferred to use my right hand. But my father and sister were left handed, and my father suffered abuse in school because of it. For that reason he was protective of my sister and made certain no one tried to "cure" her left handedness.

And I am a product of American schools, so always read left to right. But the Japanese, who aethetics have strongly influenced my own, traditionally write from top to bottom.