The Beginners Guide To Aquascaping
So you have decided you want to try your green thumb at aquascaping but find yourself struggling with how to make it look right, don't worry we have all been there! In this beginners guide to aquascaping we will take you through the basics and give you the direction needed to make your home aquascape truly beautiful.
What Is Aquascaping?
Aquascaping is an artform within an aquarium to make it aesthetically pleasing to the eye. It is created by arranging aquarium plants, rocks or wood together to create an "Aquascape". Takashi Amano, a Japanese aquascaper, really brought this into the spotlight in the early 1990's creating some truly amazing aquascapes. Simplicity is key when aquascaping as overloading can cause it to look cluttered and busy, a focal point is ideally needed which is what we will be gettining into.
Aquascaping Tools
As with anything having the correct tools for the job makes life easier and aquascaping is no different, these are the basic aquascaping tools we recommend you have.
A Sand Flattener
I know it doesnt really seem like an important tool but it is brillant to create flat areas of substrate and raising levels around hardscapes, the wide end is used for large areas while the thin end is for precise work.
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Tweezers ( straight and curved )
Probably the most essential item in the aquascapers toolkit are the tweezers, both straight and curved are essential to place the aquarium plants with precision between hardscapes and into substrate.
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Scissors (straight and curved)
Once those aquarium plants start to grow in your aquascape you will want to keep them looking neat, trimmed and tidy which is where both these scissors come into play.
Creating a Focal Point
A focal point in an aquascape is an important piece of the aquascaping puzzle, it cannot be to distracting yet needs to be something that is a point of interest. Dividing you aquarium into thirds is a good way to achieve this, if we look at the Iwagumi style of aquascaping it shows exactly what we mean.
The above aquascape looks beautiful im sure you agree, using the principle of dividing your aquarium into thirds and keeping it simple the rocks to the right immediately draw your eye, this is placed more or less a thrid away from the right hand side of the aquarium then a smaller structure is place to the left of it, although not exactly a thrid from the left hand side it is still placed into the left hand third. This very simple design makes for an amazing aquascape and it only consists of two rock structures and them some beautifully placed carpeting plants, as explained before, simplicity is key to an amazing aquascape.
Research Your Aquarium Plants
Sounds simple doesnt it? But are you sure that small plant you are placing into the foreground of your aquascape is going to stay small? Be sure to research the plants you are putting into your aquarium, putting them into the correct areas of the aquascape, foreground, mid and background plants saving you alot of headaches and heartbreaks when you have to either keep cutting them back of completely rip your aquascape apart and start again. Take a look at out Aquarium Plant profiles and care page to research your chosen plants.
Contrast
Ever heard of the saying too many cooks spoil the broth? wel the same goes for aquascaping, to many colours and variations will spoil your aquascape, remeber to keep it simple, two colours of aquarium plants or some dark bogwood with nice green plants, maybe stone and substrate one colour and then red and green plants, dont try and overload your aquarium and dont fall into the "green box" trap where wour aquarium becomes one big glass box filled with plants and not alot else and all contrast gets lost. Remember less is more and if you are unsure, instead of adding more try taking something away, you may be surprised and see thats exactly what it needed.
Aquascaping Maintenance
You have worked hard and got it looking exactly as you wanted now comes the next time consuming part, looking after it. This is something you need to keep ontop of because your beautiful aquascape will not look very beautiful with over grown plants or unsightly algae everywhere, it is a labour of love and you need to keep it up but it is definatly worth it. Using good quality aquarium plant foods will help keep them looking beautiful and having good lighting will aid in good full growth, maybe Co2 injection would be a way you wanted to go, we have a DIY guide on how to make your own Co2 injection system. These are all things you need to think about and research when setting up and maintaining your aquascape.
Research Other Aquascapes
Aquascaping is an artform and as with everthing it takes practice and lots of patience, there are many types of aquascapes, some are purly planted aquascapes, some are purly hardscapes with just rocks or wood, some are a mixture of all which is why researching is important to discover hat type of aquascape you ae trying to achieve. Look at pictures online, get ideas and let your imagination run wild, who says you have to stop and plants, rocks and wood? How about making an natural looking river complete with leaf litter and twigs, we will cover this more in the article called Use What Nature Gives You. The possibilities are absolutly endless so get out the and see what you can do and once you have made your dream aquascape contact us and submit it to our Readers Aquascapes page so everyone can see and maybe craw inspiration from your aquascape.
By Simon Ellis.
17th, November 2018
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