AGA aquascaping contest delivers stunning freshwater views
9 Comments
The 2009 Aquatic Gardener’s Association International Aquascaping Competition is up online and has some inspirational eye candy from our freshwater brethren. Aquscaping seems to be one of the things we are constantly striving to master and at times, is probably one of the most 
frustrating aspects of the hobby regardless of being a reef or freshwater enthusiast. Hopefully contests like this and CORAL Magazine’s $10,000 reef aquascaping contest will help inspire you on your quest for that stunning aquascape. A lot like a beautiful reef tank, a pleasantly arranged and manicured freshwater planted tank is always a showstopper and these contestants have provided some stunning habitats. Michael G.W. Wong of Hong Kong took “Best in Show†honors with the stunning underwater angelfish haven we opened with. Click on the gallery below to enjoy this year’s pics and make sure to check out our post from last year’s contest.
Words can not describe how beautiful the aquascaping are in the above aquariums…simply stunning.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Very cool! I think a lot of people don’t realize how beautiful a freshwater planted aquarium can be. Just pick up any of Takashi Amano’s books and you will be amazed…
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Brian-
Great post. I have yet to see a reef tank that achieves the beauty of the most stunning planted tank. Us reefers just haven’t mastered the concepts that make our captive environments beautiful. There are a few SW tanks that I can think of that really accomplish something in terms of design, but not many. I feel that as reefers we are satisfied just to see our organisms thrive and often forget the importance of the overall picture that we look at everyday.
I must say, it’s not easy for us when you have to plan your ‘canvas’ a year before it grows in. Planted aquarists have the luxury of weekly pruning in order to fine-tune their painting.
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I agree with Tim!
What is amazing is most of these tanks have 3-4 plants and 2-3 types of fish at most. I have years of fw tank experience and am growing out 10+ as large sps colonies but results are still much different while trying to do the same.
Many reef tanks look much a like.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I like to see how entries change from year to year. Previous have had a strong emphasis on roots, stones and pebbles of varying sizes. It seems that this year there was a trend towards branches and twigs, many of them covered by mosses and other epiphytes.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Tim, I totally agree and am guilty as charged! I think I need to get a frag tank set up that is more or less a utilitarian garden to grow out corals while allowing the display tank is just that, a display
My stepson caught the aquarium bug from me and we are in the process of setting up a 29g FW planted tank. I’m going to point to this site for him to get inspiration. Should be fun to do and I’m excited to get to try this side of the hobby out
December 4th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I had an idea recently to try and create a saltwater tank that had more of the aesthetic appeal of freshwater aquariums. Rather than sticking many different frags from different species and colors wherever I could fit them, I was planning on mapping out the tank based on a handful of different colors and growth types that I wanted, and then stick many frags of one particular colony all around a specific area. For example, there might be 10 purple monti’s scattered around an overhang, 10 pink seriatopora in the foreground, etc. There would be fewer total colors in the tank, but more consistent themes, something which I believe makes any aquatic creation truly beautiful.
What do you guys think?
December 4th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I would say it’s worth a try. I think that you would need something different in each individual “area” to break things up though, you know pick your main frags and have 2 or 3 other species intermingled.
December 5th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Absolutely beautiful! Stunning!
December 7th, 2009 at 7:14 am