The Aquascaping Design Checklist

[crypto]

Excellent aquascaping tips! I'm quite sure I'll be going over your posts again and again. Should be a sticky!

[pejerrey]

Originally Posted by speedie408

Bro... you should be submitting this stuff to magazines to get PAID! Seriously.

Let the man Free to do RAOKs!
You are such a salesman!
LOL!

He wants to see more American entries to the IAPLC. We should not let him down and prepare for next year!

I'm submitting my tank next year too!
(and you should too)lol!

[speedie408]

Originally Posted by pejerrey

Let the man Free to do RAOKs!
You are such a salesman!
LOL!

He wants to see more American entries to the IAPLC. We should not let him down and prepare for next year!

I'm submitting my tank next year too!
(and you should too)lol!

haha I meant it as a complement man. Nothing else.

I've submitted my previous scape to IAPLC last year and I've bow'd down to those Asian and European contestants. Sorry to say but USA can't compare to them yet. Maybe a few more years. At least not from what I've seen in the past few years. I'm still learning.

Raymond's got a good chance at placing high this year. Good luck to you bro!

[youjettisonme]

Originally Posted by speedie408

haha I meant it as a complement man. Nothing else.

I've submitted my previous scape to IAPLC last year and I've bow'd down to those Asian and European contestants. Sorry to say but USA can't compare to them yet. Maybe a few more years. At least not from what I've seen in the past few years. I'm still learning.

Raymond's got a good chance at placing high this year. Good luck to you bro!

Thanks Nick! I didn't expect to win anything, but I might have stood a better chance to place top 200 if I had two more months for the scape to grow out, and I bothered to focus on the lighting just a little more. The image I submitted ended up looking pretty flat.

I want to finish next year's entry several months early for 2013 and make sure I nail the photography. It will be fascinating to see the new scapes this year, as it is every year, and also to see what the judges deem spectacular. I have seen some of the entries, and a few will blow us away.

[pejerrey]

Originally Posted by speedie408

haha I meant it as a complement man. Nothing else.

I've submitted my previous scape to IAPLC last year and I've bow'd down to those Asian and European contestants. Sorry to say but USA can't compare to them yet. Maybe a few more years. At least not from what I've seen in the past few years. I'm still learning.

Raymond's got a good chance at placing high this year. Good luck to you bro!

Well, we have to start somewhere right?

[Robert H]

Bro... you should be submitting this stuff to magazines to get PAID! Seriously.

Magazines would want you to use your own photos, not someone elses if you are reffering to the original post.

Those photos are awesome examples of the principals of aquascaping. The actual underwater Australian pic is very cool. I have seen several others like that which look like an Amano tank. To me that is truly fascinating. It would be nice to have more American aquascapers, even in our own AGA contest. Jason Baliban has been the most notable. There has to be more out there, somewhere.

How about discussing the basic design models:

Concave, Convex, Mound, and Triangle. Which do you prefer, which is easier, and how do you add your own uniqueness to any of them since they have all been done a million times?

[youjettisonme]

Originally Posted by Robert H

Magazines would want you to use your own photos, not someone elses if you are reffering to the original post.

Those photos are awesome examples of the principals of aquascaping. The actual underwater Australian pic is very cool. I have seen several others like that which look like an Amano tank. To me that is truly fascinating. It would be nice to have more American aquascapers, even in our own AGA contest. Jason Baliban has been the most notable. There has to be more out there, somewhere.

How about discussing the basic design models:

Concave, Convex, Mound, and Triangle. Which do you prefer, which is easier, and how do you add your own uniqueness to any of them since they have all been done a million times?

You are absolutely correct. I would not be able to use those pics of course should a magazine decide they wanted to run the article. It was definitely only my intention to create a sticky with this however.

I made a shrimp guide as well, and same thing... many of the pics would have to be replaced with my own.

As for the "basic design models", I contemplated discussing these before I created the thread but decided that I would rather leave them out entirely because I feel like, often, they end up hindering creativity rather than ushering it along. Whenever I see someone pulling out the ruler just to measure their success at implementing "the rule of thirds", I feel like the point of aquascaping is missed somewhat.

I think they are fine guidelines for someone who has never done an aquascape before or else has no other design sense or background, but for almost anyone else, you can end up boxing yourself in a bit if you're not careful. I go by my own scapes several years ago just to confirm the bias.

It is interesting to read about, for example, the "rules" of iwagumi as if in nature such rules exist and that there is some Mother Earth out there ready to judge the validity of a sea shore. Even Amano himself has taken to dropping and not placing some of his hardscape elements lately, and doing his best to escape conventions.

All that said, if someone else wants to post their ideas about these conventions on this thread because they think it may help some people, I don't mind a bit.

[youjettisonme]

Here is a great item to add to the checklist.... If you have a particularly fragile ego, don't enter aquascaping contests! Ha!

It's almost a compelling add considering some of the stuff I've read from scapers post-IAPLC top 200.

[pejerrey]

Originally Posted by youjettisonme

Here is a great item to add to the checklist.... If you have a particularly fragile ego, don't enter aquascaping contests! Ha!

It's almost a compelling add considering some of the stuff I've read from scapers post-IAPLC top 200.

Lol! But it's fun to read a write critiques! I like to check the posters journals to see if they got something to back up their posts. It's better than a reality show! Lol!

[Chrisinator]

Very awesome guide!

[youjettisonme]

Originally Posted by pejerrey

Lol! But it's fun to read a write critiques! I like to check the posters journals to see if they got something to back up their posts. It's better than a reality show! Lol!

I have to agree. There has been some pretty sweet drama going on that is often quite amusing.

[Michiba54]

Nice article Youjettisonme.

I am guilty of not spacing my plants well or having anything to tie it all in. In my defense my first planted tank, which is my only planted tank, was more of a test tank.

I am still working on the 'keep plants alive' part, but in future I hope to make it more aesthetically pleaseing and not the equivalent of a plant lost and found.

p.s. the stone hedge comment made my drink come out my nose

[youjettisonme]

Originally Posted by Chrisinator

Very awesome guide!

Glad you liked it!

Originally Posted by Michiba54

Nice article Youjettisonme.

I am guilty of not spacing my plants well or having anything to tie it all in. In my defense my first planted tank, which is my only planted tank, was more of a test tank.

I am still working on the 'keep plants alive' part, but in future I hope to make it more aesthetically pleaseing and not the equivalent of a plant lost and found.

p.s. the stone hedge comment made my drink come out my nose

The spacing elements are one of the very easiest to neglect or else miss all together. It is often the most crucial element that can turn a "nice scape there fella" into an "oh my word... that is awesome!" tank.

[Complexity]

I can never enter a contest like this. I'm such a plant junkie that it literally pains me to give up space where a plant could go just because it might make a more pleasing scape. I will never have all the plants I want, but I try my best to cram in as many as I can. I love each plant. I love watching each plant grow. As it is, when I redid my 75g this time, I intentionally left out the rocks because they took up too much planting space!

I love the scapes done by others so I'll have to live vicariously through you guys for that enjoyment. Too bad there isn't a plant junkie contest for people like me!

[pejerrey]

That is a good reason to get another tank set up just for IAPLC.