So the other day I was having a conversation with Jake Adams on the topic of aquascaping as a whole. Obviously we didn’t get too far off into the conversation without being derailed onto some sort of new LED gadgetry. Well over the passing days I came back to the conversation on my own. I find me asking myself what does it really take to lay down something out of the ordinary, something to leave people in awe.
With the upcoming ReefScape aquascaping contest at Reefstock I figured I might as well give Scott Fellman a bit of insight on what someone who does this sort of thing for a living would be doing to prepare. Honestly, I’m not doing much of anything out of the ordinary. Unless you consider out of the ordinary to be doing dozens of aquarium layouts a month, calling on my personal friend Takashi Amano for insight on the art of Iwagumi, working hand in hand with the Senske brothers from Aquarium Design Group in Houston or having a true Ikebana master teach me the ins and outs the trade. When it comes down to putting rock in that glass box I might use all these tools to bring home a win or I might just forget everything and go back to the roots of it all and be inspired by the situation. We all think that Reefstock is going to be the next aquarium LED super convention of 2010 but let’s not forget about the ReefScape contest. Fellman make sure your reef rock stack is up to par with your smack talk, otherwise my layout is going to lay you out.
Bring it!
John Ciotti – 2008 Iron Aquascaping Champion
