AquaScaping

Aquascaping is the craft of arranging aquatic plants, as well as rocks, stones, cavework, or driftwood, in an aesthetically pleasing manner within an aquarium in effect, gardening under water.

Aquascaping

The craft of aquascaping has become increasingly popular in recent years. A comprehensive definition of the term describes aquascaping as underwater gardening.. It involves techniques of setting up, decorating and arranging a set of natural elements such as: aquatic plants, stones, driftwood and substrates. These elements are combined in such a way that it becomes aesthetically pleasing to human perception. Yet, differentiating from basic gardening, aquascaping involves a much longer and possibly more difficult path of development. Let’s face it, passionate aquarists know that fishkeeping is more than just growing fish. Aquariums these days do not only display one’s interest in beautiful and fascinating species of aquatic organisms. It easily transitioned into an art form. Once aquariums have become part of our homes, they turn into our pride and they emerge in our daily conversations. They fulfil our hidden dreams by enabling us to parade our creativity, imagination and artistic endeavours. Besides the growing aspect of aquatic horticulture, involving the physiology, pruning, ecology and aquarium maintenance, aquascaping also implies aspects regarding design and layout. These extend beyond the boundaries of the aquarium itself. It’s not an easy task to obtain the perfect aquascape aquarium, but once you have decided to get into it, aquascaping can be fun, very challenging and most of all rewarding.

The Rule of Thirds

It is true that beauty stands in the eye of the beholder, but it is also true the eye of the beholder can be easily controlled. Any artist knows it and takes advantage of it. Aquascaping is all about creating enchanting visuals. You do that by suggesting the eye where to look at first and what to glide towards next. The rule of thirds refers exactly at how we can use imaginary guidelines so that we know how to place certain elements within our scape in such a way that we are able to control what the eye of the viewer sees. In order to understand how the rule of thirds works, try depicting an image as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines. The purpose of these imaginary lines is actually to locate the intersection points of the grid, where you can establish the focal point of the image. This is a specific mark which anchors the viewer’s gaze first. From there the viewer’s eye can glide towards other points of interest, making the visual experience more interesting, captivating, relaxing and pleasing. Placing the focal point in the middle of your tank would take away from what is happening around.

The Golden Ratio

Simply put, the golden ratio is a number obtained by dividing a line into two parts in such a way that if you divide the longer part by the smaller part the result is equal to the whole part divided by the longer part. In both art and mathematics as well as in nature, the golden ratio is strictly connected with the creation of a focal point. In aquascaping, this would be the point the eye is directed towards at a first glance.

Creating Focal Point

As mentioned before, the focal point functions as an anchor for the viewer’s mind. It basically tells him where to look at first and where to go from there. Every aquascape should have at least one focal point. In the case of smaller tanks, there should be only one focal point and several secondary points of interest. When it comes to larger aquariums, it is necessary that you create more than one focal point. One or two should still remain the main attraction(s). It’s very important to avoid stressing the eye, so having too many points of interest of the same importance wouldn’t be a good idea. The most renowned styles of aquascaping make use of the rules described above. Whether we are talking about the Nature Aquarium or Iwagumi style, they all start with the creation of focal points by implementing the golden ratio rule.

Basic Aquascaping Styles

Like any form of art, aquascaping offers a variety of approaches and styles. Each person has their own taste and their own expectations and desires from their scaped aquariums. There are four major types of aquascaping styles, each of them having particular characteristics and unique features: the Dutch Aquarium, Iwagumi style, the Nature Aqurium and the less difficult Jungle style. Below is a short description of these four main styles.

The Dutch style

Popularized in the 1930’s in the Nederlands, with the marketing of the first aquarium equipment, this aquascaping style is entirely focused on the culture and arrangement of aquatic plants. The Dutch style does not involve the use of driftwood or any hardscape materials (rocks and stones). The main focus is placed on the height, colour and texture of a wide variety of aquatic plants. The basic technique of construction is the terracing approach. It may look easy to accomplish, but the truth is aquascapers need to possess a great quantity of knowledge regarding different plants in order to create an aesthetically pleasing Dutch style aquascape.

The Iwagumi Style

Iwagumi is all about calmness and a zen feeling. Inspired from the Japanese gardening style, this type of aquascape looks easy to create at a first glance. As opposed to the Dutch style, which only makes use of plants, the implementation of the Iwagumi aquascaping style is based on the design of an arrangement of rocks (hardscape), their positioning being particularly careful. Only 1 to 3 species of aquatic plants are used. The use of low-growing plants is very common in order to enhance their natural beauty and their disposal. The typical setup for an Iwagumi aquascape involves the use of three main stones. The larger one is called the big Buddha. Two smaller stones (attending stones) are added afterwards, to complete the design. In order to create a sense of unity and harmony to the tank, it is important to use stones that have the same color and texture.

The Jungle Style

This aquascaping style was introduced by Japanese Takashi Amano in the 1990’s and it is characterized by a very natural look and feel. Opposed to the Iwagumi style, the Nature Aquarium is all about creating interesting visual contrasts, tension and complexity. The Nature Aquarium style aims to create a scape that resembles a landscape or image from the natural world. Most common Nature Aquarium aquascapes depict underwater versions of rainforests, mountains, hillsides, beaches or valleys. By far the best aquascapers employing the Nature Aquarium style are the ones from Asia and Brazil. Both hardscape material (driftwood, rocks) and plants play an important role in the quest for balance in the aquarium.

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