This year at Reefstock Denver, we attempted to change things up on the show circuit by hosting the first-ever macroalgae aquascaping contest (as far as we are aware).
We decided to turn the traditional format on it’s head by highlighting a niche aquascaping movement in the saltwater hobby. Since Reefstock Denver had lots of freshwater only attendees due to the local clubs and stores we wanted to provide them with something of a gateway drug – the closest we could get to recreated a planted tank in a marine environment.
We brought in two renowned freshwater aquascpaers – Shelby Brown who has won several US scaping contest and Hiep Hong who has won several US contest and ranked #4 in the world in the 2018 IAPLC competition. Our third contestant was none other than Dennis (Tigahboy.h20).
Shelby Brown’s scape (image credit = Tigahboy.h2o)
While Dennis lacked formal competitive experience his macroalgae scapes on Instagram have captivated us for years and helped serve as a foundation of the macroalgae aquascaping movement. We thought it would spice things up to throw two competitive scapers without in-depth experience using macroalgea against one of the godfathers of it who himself lacked traditional competitive experience.
We had a panel of judges led by the world renowned Mike Senske (Aquarium Design Group). The panel was rounded out by Julian Sprung (Two Little Fishies) and Kevin Burda (Top Shelf Aquatics).
The contestants were given chisels, hammers and a choice of reef rock or seiryu stone for hardscape and a choice of and oolitic aragonite and course aragonite for substrate from Aqua Natural (Pisces USA). The tanks were Aqua El Ultra Scape 60’s illuminated with Ultra Slim 60W lights and filtered using an Aqua El Versa Pro HOB filter.
Hiep Hong’s scape (image credit = Tigahboy.h20)
Contestants were provided with a variety of macroalgae.
Top Shelf Aquatics provided:
- Caulerpa prolifera
- Caulerpa racemosa
- “Dragons breath”
- “Atomic broccoli”
- Red pom pom gracilieria
- Red ogo graciliera
Mosaic Macros provided:
- Red Hex
- Red ogo
- Halimeda opuntia
- Purple Laurencia
- Blue Hypnea
- Purple Whip
- Purple Hypnea
- Caulerpa ashmeadii
- Caulerpa paspaloides
- Caulerpa mexicana
- Caulerpa brachypus
Two Little Fishies provided:
- Seagrass sp.
- Halimedia sp.
Tigahboy.h20’s scape (image credit = Tigahboy.h20)
Some of these macros came in small quantities; thus, a guessing game was conducted, which created an order from the scaper closest to the farthest from the number. This then allowed for the scapers to take turns choosing the limited macro algae available they would like to escape with, introducing an element of chance/risk to the competition.
In the end Hiep Hong took 1st place, Dennis (tigahboy.h20) took 2nd place, and Shelby Brown took 3rd place. Thank you to everyone for taking part in this fun and historic event!
Next year we hope to expand this contest to include more competitors – who would you like to see scape?
