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sera - The CD
for your desired aquarium
An excellent work by Sera. A very cheap
CD (10 $), with a wealth of information and innovations. A must for the
beginner and a good resource for the advanced hobbyist, it covers several
biotopes in an excellent way. You first select the biotope you want to
learn more about and then you can see a relative video while the speaker
gives you the basics you need to know in order to be successful. This will
allow the beginners to see a well decorated tank from each biotope and
then decide which is the tank he would like to build. The information is
accurate and the videos of very good quality. Once you make your choice
(e.g. discus, Malawi or Tanganyika tank) you can also set it up
virtually with the species supported on the disk, add or remove decoration
elements (rocks, many plants, bogwood) and then see the results in an
animated tank which looks quite realistic. There are many
combinations (sera claims more than 1000 !!) all of which make sense.
There are some points that could be taken care for in a better way (e.g.
the liters / fish ratios could be more relevant to particular species) but
the overall result is more than satisfactory. You can view your tank
either in a head on animated view or as an overhead drawing. You are
limited to one tank size (380 liters) which is a pity if you take into
account the tremendous amount of work that has gone into this CD. I feel
that a bigger selection of tanks (small, medium, large and very large)
would make this CD invaluable. Another point which is absent lighting
options. However, there is a mini library for more than 140 fish and many
plants which will give you the basic information. Perhaps the best value
for money CD you will find for fish keeping.
Minimum Harware Requirements: Pentium processor (or similar), 16
MB RAM, Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 (SP3 installed), 800x600 screen resolution,
16 bit color, 16 bit sound card, 4X CD-ROM drive. Furthermore installation
will occupy 60-250 MB depending on the options you choose. The full
installation option is highly recommended.
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